on sunday hannah celebrated her 11th birthday with friends for a game party.

we had 3 stations set up with different board games and card games.
there was jenga, skip bo, milles bournes, boggle, mastermind, battleship, sorry, scribblish, wildcraft and blink among others.
there were peanuts and pretzels on each table for snacking and for lunch hannah chose BLTs, potato chips and chocolate milk.
instead of cake (or pie in hannah’s case) she wanted fruit dipped in chocolate fondue which is always a big hit.

i like to stick to a budget with parties so we use what is on hand for decorations. we had a deck of cards that was short a few so we used them to adorn the goodie bags and hang from a paper chain made by hannah.

a few years back i had sewn a paper banner spelling out the girl’s names to hang in honor of their birthdays. i pull it out each year along with simple little paper “happy birthday” flags that i made to make things a bit more festive. i have quite a collection of favorite seasonal cards that i have saved over the years. they make great little pieces of artwork to slip into chris’s card/photo holders for different holidays and celebrations.
the only other thing needed is a bouquet or two and it feels like a party!

the goodie bags included a pad of paper for score keeping, a deck of cards, a pair of dice and some chocolates all of which cost about 2 dollars per bag.

we have on occasion held parties at the bowling alley and roller rink. but most years we celebrate with good old fashioned house parties.
sometimes i worry that attendees might get a bit bored.

but as i was walking in with a BLT and chips to be served i heard someone exclaim “hannah you always have the best parties!”

and really all we did was open up the game cabinet.