I feel the need to mention that this 80's party was not about any kind of pop star, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, or any other 'tween' interests. Nothing like that. At. All.
Thank goodness.
Seriously, my girl loves 80's music. Started years ago with Material Girl and We've Got the Beat and was solidified with Cyndi Lauper and the Bangles (I believe I've mentioned Manic Monday here before!). Really? A lot of good, fun girl bands happened in the 80's, so I think it's way fun, too. And for the record, she also totally digs the Cure, the Ramones, and the Clash... I could go on. So, boy bands, too.
Anyway! This party has kept me busy for a while! Besides the invitations, I made record bowls:
New, matchy bunting tied with scraps:
And embellished with wallet-sized photos and stars.
Ribbon barrettes for favors:
You remember these barrettes, right? I totally wore them when I was little. I was originally going to make cassette tape sugar cookies for favors and had emailed Ann for advice several times (thanks, Ann!), but when Lori pointed out these, I had to go with the barrettes.
Also, I thought it might be faster/easier. That's debatable. I wish I would have had time to do both.
They were surprisingly hard to make. Luckily I had my mom and sister to help out (and my mom to actually figure them out and start all of them for us). I believe my sister's exact words were 'Are you sure this is easier than sugar cookies? I kinda hate you right now.'
That's just cuz we made 24 of them.
I also whipped up a 'Women of 80's Pop/Rock' mobile. Because the Supermonkey mobile was so fun to make.
This one is not quite as cool...
In the above shot you can see Joan Jett, Madonna, and Tiffany. Not pictured are the Bangles, Blondie, and Pat Benetar. All faves of the girl.
I put together some giant posters. I used this site to turn some images into awesomely huge ones that I could print/trim/tape together to make giant posters.
One for the dining area:
And one over the couch. Good ol' Cyndi.
Right before the party started I got a little nervous. Everything was ready.
The treats were on the table, pink lemonade made, posters hung, etc. But what if this didn't work? What if no one wanted to sing?
What if they thought the silly inflatable guitars (also Target) were too silly to play with?
I shouldn't have worried. It rocked. They sang (and sang). They played with the guitars and danced and fist-pumped. The adults laughed and laughed.
When the girls arrived they got to pick out some accessories - the ones I stumbled upon at the Target Dollar Spot last summer - because that's when the ideas for this party started flowing (I know - nerd!). The day after we decided on the theme, I found fingerless gloves, buttons, and clearance jelly bracelets there. It was meant to be.
They had to earn their buttons, though - by singing!
They got to have purple streaks put in their hair (wash out, of course), the crimper was plugged in and ready to use, and we added tulle bows and scrunchies around a few side-ponytails.
The girls looked awesome. We had textbook 80's bangs, Morrissey and Tiffany concert tshirts, big hoop earrings, wig + aviator glasses, the works. LOTS of jean jackets were hanging up and most opted for the skirt/legging combo. I would've, too.
We used the Singstar (80's version) game for our karaoke. My parents have several Singstar games and we love playing them when everyone gets together. The advantages to Singstar over traditional karaoke are that they show the real music videos behind the words (ha! HILARIOUS!), which is entertaining, but also a little more interesting for everyone to watch. And since everyone faces the TV, instead of staring at the singers, it's good for shy singers. Not that we had any of those. And then everyone just gets up and sings all together, which was awesome. Singstar also has party mode settings - like 'pass the mic', which we did a few rounds of.
The girls signed up for turns - it filled up fast! By the end, though, everyone just sang all together - adorable and oh, so loud.
We got the girls away from the mics long enough to take some shots in our playroom photo-op setup (Thanks, Whitney for bringing the frame!!!). They hammed it up quite nicely. We'll be printing some of those for thank you cards.
After presents and 'cake' (the girl requested a pile of donuts), the girls sang and sang some more. Until their parents dragged them away. Or I kicked them out.
It was awesome.
My husband asked, "Who had more fun, you or the girls?"
The girls. Which is how it should be.
But it was a close call.
p.s. Monkey cut some of the balloons off today. They'll come down one of these days, right?