Emily's Valentine's Party!

January was a long month. We'd returned from a great trip to MN, and didn't have much to look forward to in February. Emily and I were talking one day, and she was mentioning that she didn't really have any good friends at their "new" school. (We switched the girls in November to a different school for academic reasons.) We talked about ways to get to know the other girls better, and how to be a good friend. It was so hard to hear Emily talk about feeling alone, and that no one liked her. I wanted to march into her classroom and straighten out those silly girls! But I had to be a proper mom and come up with a solution.

A few days later, I had a brilliant idea: invite all the girls from Em's class to our house for a Valentines Party! I thought about it a bit more and began to formulate some plans in my head, as well as on Pinterest. I talked with Em and she thought it was a great idea, so we picked a date and gave out invitations to the 10 girls in her class.

All week they had been talking about it, and Em was loving that more girls were becoming her friends. Yesterday, 7 girls from Emily's class came over for the party. They all loved her room and thought her loft bed was "so cool!"

Here's a few things that we did:

We decorated votive candles with ribbon, stickers and conversation hearts.

The girls played Freeze Dance to some fun Taylor Swift songs. If you haven't watched 4th grade girls dance, you are missing out! They are crazy!! Super fun to watch them try to freeze in the middle of a move, too!

Then it was time for the food:

♥ cut-out cupcakes

Candied Marshmallows

Pretzel Kisses

Cream Cheese Mints

After getting the girls sugared up, we played some stacking games with big and small conversation hearts. Who could stack the most, who was the fastest stacker...fun to see how the girls worked to get the stack made. Some quickly, but then quickly failed, while the girl who won the most was slow and steady!

The girls seemed to have a great time, and Emily did too. I was really glad that we were able to have the party and that so many of the girls were able to make it. Now we're hoping that it translates into some better friendships at school too!