Loot

Inexplicably, and without my say-so, the town has decided to hold Bad's birthday parade a week early this year so we're having his party a week early too. It's a dinosaur/Christmas theme. Bad has somehow got hold of the idea that rather than turning two, he will become a dinosaur on his birthday, and he roars whenever it's mentioned. I'm going to make a dinosaur cake, Santa is coming for his parade, ergo the weird theme. The parade route passes within 100 metres of our house, so we'll all walk up to the end of the street for the free entertainment (and pick up pizzas at Gigi's) before coming home for lunch.

The kids and I went to countless stores this week looking for something dinosaur themed to make into loot bags. I don't like to spend a lot of money on them, but I don't like sending home bags full of junk that I know will just be discarded either. We came up empty everywhere, and the Princess and I made the executive decision to abandon the dinosaurs, and do Christmas loot bags instead. We were in Zellers, and we saw little 16" high silver tinsel trees for $2 each. (My grandparents had a full-size silver tinsel tree, and I admit to harbouring a secret nostalgic love for them.) We bought 7.

Then we designed a teensy weensy angel topper out of recycled Christmas cards and put together a little kit with the instructions and materials for everyone.



Isn't she purdy?

We got a big box of mini candycanes and divvied them up into little baggies, and to put it all in, I grabbed paper bags from the grocery store and labelled them with all the kids names.



I love how the sparkly tops of the trees look, peeping out of their bags. I can't wait to line them all up on top of the piano.

Today I baked a hundred little tiny star shaped sugar cookie ornaments for the kids to decorate with sprinkles and candy at the party.



Yum! But next time I'm just cutting the strings and letting the kids' parents tie them on. I can't believe my fingers aren't bleeding!

It worked out to about $22 for 7 loot bags (well, 8, because I had to have one for myself!) I think they're cute and fun....I hope the kids do too. What's the best loot your kids have ever given or gotten?