Dance Club Party
My seven year old wanted to dance the night away! So, we created Club Alyssa's. The invitations invited folks to a dance party and in the address box, we wrote Club Alyssa's and gave our address. This was a Saturday evening party -- so the mood was right. We started the decorations at our front walk. We posted glitter signs about free dance lessons, dancing all night long, free admission just for that night, etc. We had rented a bubble machine, so bubbles were blowing across the front walk and lawn. We also had a boom box playing so folks could here the music as they walked up. At the front door, we hung a black curtain, and posted Alyssa's dad to be the doorman. He pretended to check if folks were on the guest list. Once inside, we had the foyer lights low and signs pointing to the dance club (our family room). We moved the furniture out. We had a black light on with all sorts of glow in the dark and black light reactive flowers, stars, butterflies, etc. I stuck them on black plastic tablecloths tacked to them to the walks and part of the ceiling. We had two flashing light multi-colored balls spinning in the room and purple and pink light strings hung on the walls. We hired two 13 year olds to lead the kids in all sorts of various dances (e.g., YMCA, The Chicken Dance), help each kid lead a dance to popular music (e.g., N'Sync), and play dancing games (e.g.;, the Limbo, freeze dance). I had purchased several CDs that had a variety of popular dance songs on them and supplemented with by other CDs from our own collection. We had dance constants (e.g., Twist) and everyone got a chance to get a prize (glow in the dark tattoos, light sticks, disco ball key chains, etc.) The kids danced for an hour. Then we had them come upstairs for cake. We setup several small tables instead of one big one, to keep with the club feeling. After cake the kids went down and danced a second hour. (I had planned a craft just in case -- but never took it out!) In the goody bags we put glow in the dark bracelets/light sticks, happy face key chains that lit up, necklaces, and ring pops. Everyone truly seemed to have a terrific time, especially the guest of honor!!!