Jade's Party...... the setting up......

Saturday - 2nd October....

I'll get the explanation over and done with in relation to Jade's party, then go through everything else.....

Jade has AS many male friends as she does female friends..... at school she either plays with the boys - or plays with the girls..... her girl friends are super girly - and the boys are super boy...ly...

Anyway, when we asked Jade what she wanted to do for her party... she said she wanted a princess party... because that's what girls do.... then we explained that the boys probably wouldn't want to come if it were a princess party... so we swayed her to the idea of a colour theme.....

When we'd gone to Amy's "Art" party - I decided I had to do something "different" for Jade's party.... and came up with the idea of making a giant cardboard maze.... I wasn't sure how we'd do this or even if it would be possible.... but as I started thinking of where you'd get giant boxes, I had considered going around to Retravision and Betta to see if I could grab all of their fridge boxes.... but then thought of the motorbike shop... those boxes are HUGE.....

Again, I wasn't sure if this was even going to work.... but arranged to get boxes - and got them home before the party.... THEN with all the rain we'd had - we didn't want to risk the rain ruining the main plan for the day... so Mom and Dad asked if we wanted to have the party at their place and we could set up the cardboard maze in the shed.....

Brilliant plan!! :) It meant that we could set up the maze on the Saturday at any time and not have to worry.... (again, we weren't entirely sure how long this was all going to take - so trying to do it before 10am on Sunday morning could have been a bit of a problem....)

All the boxes positioned so that Dad and Rob could work out how they wanted to proceed with the Maze construction....

Blake thought the boxes were FANTASTIC... and that was before they'd even done anything to them!

Blake was then banned from playing in the boxes as Dad and Rob were working with power tools... way too dangerous....

So, how do you amuse a 23month old? Give him an iPhone.... he happily watched Fimbles in the back of the Merc...

here the guys are cable tying the boxes together....

While all this was happening, Jade decided she wanted to try out her new blades....

(Mom and I were busy putting torches together and labelling them, and labelling cups - so Frank helped Jade for probably 30mins which wasn't a bad effort for her first time on blades.....)

After they'd finished making the maze - I took the camera through to get some pics... it was reasonably easy to get through - even as an adult - which was good because I had been worried about what would happen if one of the little kids got in there and freaked....

(You'll also notice the tarps on the floor - so that the kids didn't come out with greasy feet from all the motorbike work that's been done in that shed over the years....)

Jodi came over to bring a book for me to look through - and had the girls with her - so we sent them (along with Jade and Blake) for a trial run through the maze... we gave them each torches and left them to it....

It was pitch black in the maze... but the flash lit it up well enough to see what was in there, but you lose the effect how dark it was....

Blake with his glow bracelet... he was very careful to not let his hand drop so that he didn't lose it.... which did look a bit special... like he was carrying around a handbag at times! :)

This isn't the best photo, unfortunately in the dark - you don't know how the photo is going to turn out until you've already taken it.... but it does highlight the cheekiness of the little guy :)

Again, this is lost on the fact that the flash lights the place up... but the kids were walking around with their torches in their mouths to give themselves red cheeks....

(There are also hints of keeping this pic until Amy's 21st... eheh)

The four test subjects did definitely love the maze....

the exit....

Being a Green-Theme party - we had to make "Frog in the Pond" for the kids.....

They were all gone within about 20 seconds of taking them outside on the day of the party - but most kids just ate the frogs and dumped the jelly.... so not sure I'd do that again...

The kid's goody bags and the cups they were all given on arrival....

each child got a glow bracelet, their own torch with their name on it (so that they didn't lose it!) and a cup with their name on it....

Goody bags were also named, that way I could make sure that the little kids didn't get anything they shouldn't have...

(All of Jade's friends have 1-2 siblings... so the party went from 12 invited kids to 25 kids at the party - but it's the only party Jade has ever had - so it was worth it)

((We were all definitely much happier once everything was done and sorted the day before the party, so we could just get up in the morning and handle the last minute things....))