i got my head in the game now

So it is time to catch up on all of the events I haven't been posting about. Although I'm thinking only some of the events will get a post - lets be realistic. I am so far behind I'd have to spend weeks catching up.

As you may recall, we used the High School Musical 2 premiere as Emily's birthday party. We did the movie set up in the backyard (see previous posts if you're interested in seeing the set-up) and had dinner and played a few games before Troy Bolton and the rest of the crew danced their way into our hearts.

Dinner was served in the East High cafeteria by some fantastic cafeteria workers. I made aprons for Derek and I to wear and we completed the ensemble with hair nets. Derek took it one step further by inserting his always funny Billy Bob teeth. I'm not sure Emily's friends knew how to take it. Emily has had to live with those teeth and her dad's silly antics so she is already immune to him however I think her friends may be scarred for life.
The meal was a gourmet feast - yeah, right! Mac and cheese, tater tots, cookies, hot dogs - I did throw some fresh fruit in there for something healthy to offset the other garbage.
We had East High water bottles. Just a hint...personalizing water bottles is an easy thing to do and packs a lot of punch when it comes to parties. I print out whatever design I want on the computer, run the paper through my Xyron and slap it on the bottle. No Xyron? No worries, use spray adhesive, tape, whatever.
Each chair had a pennant with the girls first initial. The table was set very plain. I wanted the red cafeteria trays to stand out.
The take home gifts (didn't get a picture) were small photo albums that Emily and I turned into yearbooks. I downloaded a bunch of different pictures of the cast and then added pictures from the party. I also added autograph pages. During commercials the girls could sign each others
yearbooks.

we're all in this together

we'll actually Emily and I are in this together with maybe a bit of help from Derek. We have been working on Emily's birthday party coming up this Friday and we're going with High School Musical for a theme - could there really be another theme? Come on, she's turning 11.

We are keeping it pretty basic or as basic as my over active party brain will let me. I know that a lot of people are planning HSM parties for this Friday so I thought I'd share some of our ideas so that others can steal them if they want. I'm all about stealing for the greater good of a party.

Here are the invites we came up with...

These were so easy to make. I found megaphones at a local party store for less then a dollar. i hot glued them to cardboard cake rounds from Michael's and the hot glued on the shredded paper (I was trying to get a pom pom feel) I printed all the invite information on to a iron on transfers that you can find at any office supply store and then ironed it on to felt cut into the shape of a pennant. That was then glued to a dowel and stuck in the megaphone. I printed out a big collegiate letter with each guests name and then tied it to the top of the dowel so that everyone invite was personalized. These pictures happen to shoe two letters at the top because it was for a set of twins. The fonts I used were walkway black and varsity and cane probably be found at dafont.

These invites could easily be turned into decor for the party. Instead of all the invite info you could put wildcats, etc.

We are doing our party outside so we can show the movie on our big screen. Before the movie we are serving dinner and playing some games. Dinner will be cafeteria food - boxed milk, pizza, bagged burritos, tater tots, not sure what else. I found spork, napkin combos packaged in sealed bags at Smart and Final - I love them and they look so cafeteria. I am serving food on red cafeteria trays that I found a Target.

I'm still working on games. I found plastic cell phone filled with candy that I am adding guests names to. I will hide them throughout the party idea and guests will have to find their phone. I will have some tie in to Mrs. Darvis (you know the home room teacher/ theater gal that hates cell phones) I'm still thinking about other games.

A bit before the movie starts we'll pull out the popcorn machine and movie candy and settle in t watch the East High crew dance and sing.