A Fairy Birthday

Our daughter is turning 7 this week. We hosted a birthday party with 8 of her closest friends in attendance. What a great day!!!

The girls made masquerade wands. I cut out eye masks of black painted scratch art paper and glued them to a black painted wooden dowel, with a dragon fly attached. The girls embellished the wands with ribbons, sequins and feathers after scratching designs into the mask. Pre-cut masks can be purchased through Oriental Trading. For her cake I made miniature bundt cakes and turned them into dresses on Kelley dolls. Always remember to spray lots of Pam in the pan and flour good or the cakes will stick. I learned the hard way and lost most of my first batch. I used a butter-cream frosting and the Pampered Chef Easy Accent Cake Decorator to frost the cakes. Once I got going it went pretty smooth. The girls were in awe of the cakes and couldn't wait to eat them.

Using permanent markers the girls painted netting butterflies that were purchased from Oriental Trading. These were used as fairy wings on the cakes. When the girls were done eating the cakes, we washed the butterflies and hot glued the butterflies to a headband for the girls to take home.

In their goodie bags were a small pair of stretchy gloves to keep their hands warm when trick or treating later that night, a homemade fairy skirt, some lip gloss, a colorful pony to put in their hair, a bright pair of fairy wings and a deck of cards with 6 spoons and the directions of how to play spoons. During the party the girls played spoons while they waited for their parents to pick them up. A favorite game for our family to play when we have all ages together for celebrations.

A great party to celebrate our daughter's 7th birthday and wonderful way to bring joy after a long year. She has had two surgeries this year and may need a third. We are praising God for giving us such an angel and thank him for giving us the means to throw such a fun party for her. I thank the Lord for my creative mind and our beautiful family.

How to play Spoons:

Players: 3 to 13 players. Best with 6 to 13 players.

Deck: A standard 52-card deck. You also need one spoon for each player except one. EXAMPLE: With 8 players you need 7 spoons.

Goal: To be the first to collect four cards of the same rank and steal a spoon before everyone else.

Setup: Shuffle the cards and deal them to the players. Each player will have four cards. Put the spoons in the middle of the table so that every player can reach them.

Gameplay: Players simultaneously choose one card from their hands, pass that card to the opponent on their left, and pick up the card they've received from the opponent on their right. Each player can never have more than four cards in his hand, so it's illegal for a player to pick up a new card before passing one to the left. When a player collects four of a kind, as subtly as possible, take a spoon. The last player to grab a spoon is the loser.

*OPTIONAL: Players who take a spoon can continue to pick up and pass cards, making it more difficult for other players to realize what has happened. (The player who actually collected four cards of the same rank must always pass the card they just picked up, because passing any other card would break up their four-of-a-kind.) Scoring: The last player to grab a spoon is the loser and is eliminated from the game.

*OPTIONAL: Each player has three lives. The last player to grab a spoon is the loser and loses a life. When a player loses all three of his lives he's eliminated from the game. Or The player left with out a spoon gets a letter with S being first then P-O-O-N-S. The last one to spell spoons wins.

Winning: The final two players in the game are co-winners.