Shopping Party Details

Mailee's shopping party was a blast! This is a great alternative to having the party at home while still avoiding the chuck-e-cheese route!! My best advice is to keep this type of party to a smaller number of kids. Here are a few of the fun details!

Spending Money "Goody Bag"- as opposed to filling a goody bag with "stuff", I gave each girl an empty goody bag and some spending money for the mall. I gave my daughter the choice, 8 kids with $7.50 each, 6 kids with $10 each or 4 kids with $15 each. This particular daughter is a quality over quantity kind of girl so she went with inviting her 3 favorite people and having a little more spending money. For what it's worth, I think the party would be equally as enjoyable for the kids even if they had a smaller amount of money.


Scavenger Hunt- I made two lists, one was labeled "take a photo of these..." the other was labeled "complete these tasks...". Each item listed had a box next to it and they all enjoyed checking off the boxes as they completed the tasks. This kept the party moving around the mall as the girls were shopping with their spending money. The even bigger bonus to the scavenger hunt? GREAT PICTURES!!! The kids were happy to strike a pose as long as there was a little box to check off!

completing a task- "play hopscotch".

Clearly this takes a bit of planning. I went to the mall a few days prior to the party armed with my camera and a pen and paper. I scoured the mall for fun little free activities. interesting items to look for, and counted up the number of bank machines and exits. Don't go too far in advance, the mall is constantly rotating stock.

completing a task-find a card at the Hallmark store and "give" it to Mailee.

The girls loved this activity. They took their time and picked out great cards! I don't know about you but with 3 kids in school and at least one friend party a weekend, I do not allow my kids the extravagance of purchasing cards from the store. It's all about the make-at-home cards! They all enjoyed pretending to pick a "real card"!

This is the card my older daughter picked out for her sister! I thought it was a perfect choice coming from a first born!

Stick with the theme- make the gifts match!!!

After 3 hours at the mall, we moved the festivities to the house for cake and gifts. I invite the whole family, aunties and grandparents for this hour of the party. I enjoy doing all celebrating on one day!

Lazy Lanterns- Sometimes hanging lanterns is just a lot of work! I tied beautiful bows on the top of each lantern and plopped them on top of varying sized vases and candle holders. They looked fantastic and they were quick and easy!

Purse Cake- A shopping party must have a purse cake, yes?

This is my version.

Here are my favorite photos from the scavenger hunt...

"take a photo in front of a blue tiled wall"





"take a photo at the front desk of (fill in name of store in your mall with swanky front desk) and strike a pose!"

"Put on a ring, a hat and some glasses and get them all in the photo"


The family photo!

Thanks for looking, I hope you feel inspired to go out and plan a shopping party of your own! I did this theme with my own friends when I was a teenager and again as a bachlorette party in college. It's a winner every time and with any age!

Shopping Party Invitiations!

My daughter Mailee is having a "shopping party" next weekend. This will include lunch at the mall, a scavenger hunt, and spending money for each of the girls to shop with. She has 3 friends coming. The invitations for this party were so fun to make. I made each girl a wallet invitation with all the information on little cards in the inside pocket!

The pretty rhinestone "clasp" was a fancy brad from the scrapbook store.

The little wallet with everything tucked inside...

I laminated a little card for each girl with their own picture on it.
These were a big hit! The back side was zebra print...too cute!

Thanksgiving Inspiration

I live in Canada and in Canada they celebrate Thanksgiving in October. The harvest is earlier up here I guess.. Anyways, We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite details to get my American readers in the mood for turkey!!

The kids and I noticed a stunning tree in our neighborhood. We plucked a few leaves off and hot glued them to simple white candles. Cute, yes?

I bought 3 pieces of felt; brown, rust and green. I cut out the letters and the kids hot glued them along with little pumpkins that they made onto card stock. We couldn't find the hole punch so we used a kitchen knife and the cutting board to make slits in the paper for the ribbon to weave through.

The grown up table...

Cream card stock and gold puff paint...two easy ingredients for simple and pretty place cards.

This china was given to me by my Grandma. I have avoided using it in the past because it "isn't my style". My new philosophy is "embrace it". I built the whole table around the china. I only have 6 place setting so I mixed it with my simple white every day dishes (men got those, women got the fancy ones :).

The kid table...

The kid table does not have to match the grown up one...it can be a mini party! This table was fun and colorful and they loved it. I used puff paint to write the kids' names on their pumpkins. The kids enjoyed picking it off. Ha!

Have fun with your food! Here is my rainbow veggie plate. Nobody touched the cabbage but it sure looked pretty!

Tea time! I set up the tea service on my fanciest cake plate. It looked so pretty and gave some height to the counter.

A spot of tea, anyone? Canadians do tea like the English. If there is dessert involved, tea is essential. if tea is not a regular part of your thanksgiving tradition, why not start something new this year? When the pies come out, break out the tea as well!

Cheers for now!