I got a little distracted with Thanksgiving, but I'm back for the final installment of the Egyptology party pictures! This time it's all about the fun that was had at the celebration.
I always like to start off a party with some sort of craft or individual welcoming activity that doesn't require all the kids to be there. I'd hate to start the games before all the kids arrive, but I still want to keep them entertained. This year, it was all about the glitter tattoos.
So easy to do, so inexpensive, and the kids loved them so much! I was so delighted to find a marvelous supplier that had Egyptian stencils available. I'll have all the details on where to get the supplies and how to do your own glitter tattoos in tomorrow's post.
Even the adults couldn't resist the fun of the glitter tattoo!
While kids were waiting for glitter tattoos, they could wander over and have their pictures taken in our Sphinx photo prop.
And for yet more sparkle, we also had a hair tinsel station!
I bought the hair tinsels at Hair Flairs, where they have an incredible selection of colors, fabulous prices, and full instructions for doing it yourself. We had a a lot of happy, sparkly seven and eight year old girls!
These activities took enough time that all the guests had arrived, and we could move on to the main event: the archaeological dig.
I staked off a section of the yard, and buried dozens of treasures under paver sand (it was less expensive than playground sand, and perfectly good for my purposes).
The shovels were on clearance at Michael's, only $.40 each! At that price, I could afford to buy one for each kid. I also had a selection of brushes so they could gently unearth their finds.
Each girl was given a muslin artifact bag, where she could collect the treasures she found in the dig.
And dig they did! I tried to teach them some proper excavation techniques, but in the end, they were too excited and just went for it. It's all about the fun at a party, after all--if I can teach them a little bit, too, it's a bonus!
The girls found scarabs (made from Fimo clay), potsherds withEgyptiansymbols, golden coins, golden nuggets (over-spray from when I painted the torches on the gravel), necklaces, bracelets, and Egyptian figurines.
The older girls loved it, of course, but it was perfect for younger siblings, too.
After the archaeological dig, the girls learned how to make paper, and learned a bit about how Egyptians invented papyrus, the first paper.
Wet, squishy fun!
Next up was the toilet paper mummy contest.
Followed directly by the Who-Can-Pick-Up-Toilet-Paper-the-Fastest contest. ;-)
The girls played in the warm evening, ate pizza from our wood-fired oven, and of course, had dessert!
I have fun tutorials coming up on how to make many of the elements of this party, so stay tuned!