OT- Communion party ideas for the kids

[Aliceacc]

Up until last weekend, my daughter's First Communion Party was going to be at home. The kids could climb the tree in front, or just hang out in the yard, ride bikes, play PS2 or pool, whatever.

My father in law is now able to attend, but he's confined to a wheelchair, and my house is NOT handicapped accessible. So it looks as though my house party iis now out. I'm almost certain I can get the banquet room at school; I just have to get the final OK.

Anyway, here's my question: We'll probably have about a dozen kids, mostly girls, between 4 and 12 years old. Can you think of anything I can provide for them to do? I just hit Oriental Trading, and had one or two ideas, but I'm sure you guys can come up with something better. (The ideas I found were things like canvas covered notebooks for them to decorate as journals, etc.)

We most certainly cannot afford a DJ-- this has to be a low budget party if we're going to be able to pay for that Disney trip. I'm sure we can bring some music though.

Any ideas? Any crafts or goody-bag type of stuff you can suggest?

 

[Mkrop]

Can you hire a young teen or other adult to do face painting?

Have music playing so they can dance, get stuff like the chicken dance, hokey pokey etc.

Our Communion wound up being smaller than I originally thought but I had bought foam visors and stuff to put on it.

 

[kldmom2000]

subscribing... we have to rent a hall for my DD's communion the first weekend of May. It's a very big deal on both sides of our family and the guest count is just over 50 people. We can't fit that many people in our house esp. since May is so unpredictable in New England with respect to the weather

I'm trying to come up w/ some games and activities as well to keep the kids entertained....

Hope you don't mind me asking along with you

 

[Aliceacc]

Nope, the more the merrier!!!

Our guest count starts at 32 even if the only people I invite are my mom and my siblings with their kids!!

Something that just occurred to me (because we did it for her birthday party and I just found one of the shirts ) : Ordering T shirts from http://www.cheapestees.com/shorslee...JfbqjVGUGxiiVnVaNAKxJAUbIBSQkNfF_5a3OdN-RlzLp and supplying some permanent markers, and letting the kids decorate their own T shirts. The T shirts there are cheap, Hanes (so the quality is decent) and you can buy any amount.

 

[katiesmom2]

I would try to keep the activities as tidy as possible, unless you want a big mess to clean up. It might be stressful if you are using glue, markers, glitter, etc. on tables that aren't your own!

The younger girls would probably enjoy those foamy pieces that have the backing to peel off. You can find all kinds of things at Michaels/Walmart for them to decorate with foam bits - door knob hangers, picture frames, visors, etc. Just provide a bag or bucket on the table to catch all the garbage and it is easy and mess-free.

Activities with beads are always fun and other than the beads to pick up, it is pretty tidy. The girls can make bracelets, necklaces, anklets, etc. This tends to take awhile, especially for young girls, so it will help fill your time. The beads and cording are pretty inexpensive.

The older girls might enjoy a magazine scavenger hunt. Provide them with a list of beauty products, etc. and a stack of magazines. See who can find all the products first.

Depending upon the layout of the room, a treasure hunt might be fun. With it being so close to Easter, you could do an egg hunt. Maybe you don't want this much physical activity (running, etc.?)

The younger girls would probably be happy doing some coloring. Color Wonder is great and mess-free. A couple of coloring books and a couple of sets of markers is probably all you need.

Oriental Trading has some great sticker scenes. I bought some at Christmas that were Santa's village with all the stickers to make the scene. They were huge, placemat-sized pages. Really kept them busy! We did the same for DS's pirate birthday party - the kids loved them. They keep them busy for quite awhile and are not messy.

Do you own any board games? They could play board games in groups.

Good luck with your party!

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

When thinking of crafts & markers - keep in mind they will probably be dressed up from Church for the 1st Communion. And if you child making the 1st Communion is a girl - its a white dress........

My daughter is making hers at the end of April so I was looking to see if you had any suggestions - that was my 1st thougth - the dress!

We are having one too, but just a brunch out & gifts & cake - thats it.

 

[Aliceacc]

I know what you mean. My original plan was a house party like my son had-- a few stero racks full of food, no big hoopla.

But my father in law being in a wheelchair complicates things a bit.

The good thing is that using the banquet room in my school doesn't cost anything. The party will cost the same as it would at home, but it's handicapped accessible.

I hadn't thought of the combination of white dress and markers... thanks for the foresight!!

 

[r4blessings]

How about playing bingo? Enlist the help of another adult, teen or "babysitter" and have her call out the numbers while the kids play. We have done this for several family birthday parties (with around 15 kids.....big families! ) and had a big bowl of full size chocolate bars, airheads, bags of skittles, m&m's, etc that the kids could choose when they got bingo. The kids all seem to really like it, keeps them busy and focused and they love getting to pick their favorite candy that they might not ordinarily get.

Also, I had my daughters christening at a catering place a few years ago and it was in march. I got a bunch of spring type coloring books at the dollar store and put them out with washable crayons.

Good luck, hope you enjoy your dd's beautiful day!

 

[Aliceacc]

I was just looking at Oriental Trading. They have some design your own jewelry crafts, along with some of those black scratch off things. (Kind of like lottery tickets, except that there's a rainbow underneath. You scratch off any design you like.)

 

[Mkrop]

I was just looking at Oriental Trading. They have some design your own jewelry crafts, along with some of those black scratch off things. (Kind of like lottery tickets, except that there's a rainbow underneath. You scratch off any design you like.)

Cant those black scratch things get messy? Again watch her dress if she is not changing

 

[Mouse House Mama]

The black scratchy things are messy. I would stick to the foam stuff with stickers. Bring a radio and some cd's. I wouldn't worry too much about entertaining the kids. I am sure you remember family parties when you were young and we didn't have crafts and we still had a ball! No matter what you chose I am sure it will be great!

Oh- what about those long skinny baloons that you can make into animal balloons? The kids will have a ball making their own things with them!

 

[lntsmom]

that you just use white glue to complete. They should be fairly safe.

We don't have any family so when my older ds made his First Communion I just took the friends who attended out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

I do have one cheap, easy game idea if you have room for the kids to run. Buy white yarn and First Communion balloons. Inflate each balloon about 3/4 full. Tie the yarn to the end of it. Tie the other end of the yarn around a child's right ankle. At a signal the kids run around and try to pop everyone elses' balloon. The last one with an unbroken balloon is the winner...if you want to do winners.

Kids also love the game where they each take one shoe off and put it in a pile, then at a signal they all try to find their shoe.

If you aren't afraid of frosting you could have a cupcake decorating contest. Give each child a white cupcake, white frosting, coconut flakes, white jelly beans, and any other white candy you can come up with. Let them go crazy decorating. Have an adult who doesn't watch the decorating choose the "winner".

You could put the kids in teams and have a race to see which team can unscramble a set of sentence strips that have the words to whichever prayers they had to learn this year in PSR (RE...etc, whatever you call your classes there.). A variation is to write words to the first line of the prayer on pieces of paper, put the paper in a first communion balloon, and inflate and tie the balloon. Each team has to line up and take turns running to their pile (bag) of balloons, chosing one, popping it, and putting it where it belongs in the prayer.

The last idea I can come up with is that you could buy the supplies needed and have the kids make their own roseries. You can buy the cheapie kits online, or you could purchase nicer beads and other supplies and have them build their own.

The last thing I can think of is to take prayer cards to Kinkos, have them enlarged to poster size, mount them on tagboard, and cut them into puzzles (with large pieces...maybe no more than 20 total per puzzle.) Then put the kids in teams, give each one the pieces, and have them race to build the picture of the saint. You could get prayer cards for the saint(s) your daughter is named after to make it more personal.

Good luck with your party!

 

[_queenie_]

Are the other kids there friends from school where you don't know what their religion is, or are they all going to be family and friends from church or CCD that are Christian/Catholic? If so (which is what I'm guessing because of the varied ages), I would suggest somewhat incorporating that into the party. Maybe you could have bingo (which I thought was a great idea, great way to keep kids that age entertained) where they put chips on pictures or names of different saints/biblical figures or something instead of the traditional numbers. I also thought the idea of making rosary beads was also a great idea.

If you think they would like this, you could have them design a Communion dress, I did a similar thing at my DD13's sixth b-day party (they designed princess dresses) and it worked wonderfully. What I would reccomend doing is cutting out three or so different dress templetes out of either some white construction paper or typical 8x11 sheets of computer paper and a few crayons to decorate with. That way you eliminate the mess of cutting, but they still get to be creative and color. You would just have to be sure to have a few boy activities, if you or someone has a laptop (large screen, best bet) or portable DVD player with a loud speakers they'd be willing to bring you could play a gender neutral movie/episode of a TV show (Spongebob, Cars, something like that) for anyone, even girls, not wanting to do certain activities. If it's possible for them to run around or go outside that would be work also.

Another suggestion I would make to you is to have your DD change out of her dress (I'm guessing it's a big flower girl type dress), if that wasn't already your idea. Just have her change into a formal white outfit, like an eyelet capri set or sundress. This one's pricey, but it's the general idea, http://www.bestdressedchild.com/lablgiwhbala.html. Here's another cute one that's a little cheaper, http://www.littlefashionsboutique.com/a6767.html, still not a bargain though, I'm sure you could find something for around $20 in another month or so at a Macy's type place. I think it would definately work in your situation because she could still wear something white, but it would make it a lot easier if the outfit's cotton since you can bleach it (I've been buying more and more white things since the Clorox pen). When my DD had her First Communion we went over to the in-laws for a while and I knew that was the perfect place for her dress to be destroyed, so I took a few pics of her in that with her veil and then had her change into a little white sundress (with a sweater since we're in New England) for some more casual ones in their garden. That seemed to really work well, especially since my memories of my DS complaining all day about his tie!

Whatever you do I wish you and your DD the best of luck!