Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Special Birthday Party...

I read the below post on the Samaritan's Purse blog... and thought.. what a SWEET idea! I know that our church youth will be having a packing party,... but this a different sort. Read and see.



A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARTY
Kristan Simmons, a home-schooling mom of two girls and a fan of Operation Christmas Child, blogs about a special birthday party she is planning for her daughters.

How many moms and dads honestly look at their kids' play rooms or toy closets and say, “Wow, my little angel(s) could use a few more toys, so let's throw a birthday party?” Not me. So what do you do about birthday parties where kids feel it necessary to bring gifts, you know, 10 or more new toys to add to the mess lying around the house!?

My solution this year is to make the party fun, yet about something more important. I am planning an Operation Christmas Child shoe box packing party for Olivia and Sarah’s birthdays (joint because both girls' birthdays are so close together).

I have really cool ideas about making it fun. Samaritan's Purse provides a whole party pack for just such packing parties. They include stickers, bookmarks, coloring sheets for the kids to color and fill out a short note to put in their boxes.

Soooo, instead of the kids bringing gifts for the birthday girls they will bring shoe box items for a child specified on their invitation. We will have a wrapping station where the boxes will get decorated by the kids, a packing station, a letter writing station where they can do their coloring sheets and write their letters, a photo booth where the kids can have their picture taken to put in the box, and a video station where they can see the video of kids receiving boxes.

We will wrap the evening up with prayer over the boxes and some fun and games—a pinata maybe with additional items they can collect to put in their boxes, a scavenger hunt where they can hunt for items to put in their boxes, other prize-winning games where the prizes are added to the kid's box. 

Now for anyone worried about the girls not getting birthday present—don’t! I can guarantee family members will not let them go without. I know Nanny and Poppy, and Grandma and all the aunts and uncles will make sure the girls are spoiled rotten on their big days, but I really want their parties to be fun and meaningful.

Now to be thinking of a really cool cake for this party—maybe a shoe box with the lid sitting off the side and it filled with small toys and such!!! Hmmmm....

Want to host an Operation Christmas Child-themed birthday party? Click here to order party packs or other materials. 

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