Having a birthday around New Year's always makes for an interesting party. When Hazel was young we had a party on New Year's Day for all of our family and friends. Then we started having two parties, our New Year's Day for family and family friends as well as another one for her friends. Eventually we stopped the family and friend party. Themes for her friend parties have ranged from current favorites like Minnie Mouse, Harry Potter, and Frozen to generic themes like New Year's Eve. As she got older we started doing sleep over parties. That changed with Covid. Last year we did a social distant with a window open Paris themed party. We had multiple small tables for the girls to sit in pairs like a Paris Cafe. This year we are having a party on New Year's Day with a butterfly theme. I picked the theme. I chose butterfly since she is turning 13. I feel like 13 is a big birthday since she will become a teenager. Just like a caterpillar metamorphosizes into a butterfly Hazel will begin to metamorphosize into an adult. She likes the butterfly theme but does not like my explanation of it.
LOL, I promised not to go overboard with the theme. We had a butterfly on the invitation from Greetings Island and made butterfly necklaces (using this charm and this necklace cord) for favors and I got edible butterfly cake decorations. Her cake will be pretty simple. I ordered a cake topper, which she picked out, and the butterflies so that will be it on white frosting. I may put a few butterfly pictures around and have a butterfly themed craft for the girls. However, I wanted some other things for the girls to do at the party. The four girls coming ten to be on the quiet side and are awful at making decisions, so I thought we would plan more activities this time. One activity is New Year's Resolutions. Since the party is on New Year's Day it seems like the perfect thing to do. I made up these resolution cards for the girls. I printed their names on the back of them as well. I printed them on Avery Postcards #5689.
Now of course this activity is perfect as well for a New Year's Eve Party or New Year's Day Brunch, etc. I also printed out some focus word ideas from Elizabeth McKnight and some ideas for new year's resolutions for teens from sites like Modern Teen and Raising Teens Today. I printed out all the pages for each girl and a personalized card for each girl.
The other activities we have are painting a canvas and then gluing on a butterfly I used my Cuttlebug to cut out, as well as some Birthday Party Scattergories, Disney Scattergories, Invisible Think and What's It? and of course pizza, cake, and opening gifts.
This week I plan on spending time with my family so please don't expect too many posts!
