Hello all.. Hope this helps! Ok, My daughter was turning the big "4" and we had a pool/Strawberry shortcake party. My biggest fear was the mess I was going to have to clean up after the party. The age rang of kids were 4 to 13 years old. My dad owns his own carpet company (Lucky for me) and so he brought me over a few pieces of padding (which absorbed the water) and made a walk way from the back door to the bathroom. That way the kids #1 didn't slip and #2 didn't have puddles all over my house. We went to the dollar store and bought a few boxes of juices for the kids so when they needed a drink they were able to get one without the help of the grown ups (made the little ones feel like big boys and girls) Food. We made Menues for the kids by pulling up pictures from the Net on the cover was a picture of SSC holding a cake when they open the menu it said  Lunch special... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \*SSC hot dog $6.00 \*PB and S jam Sandwich $2.00 \*SSC Cheese Burger $10.00 Desert ~~~~~~~ \*SScake in a cup $4.00 \*S Jello $3.00  Each child when they first got to the party was given $20.00 SSC Dollars, We had fun with this because my daughter was the one that went around with her pen and paper and took the orders down (she can't write too good or spell for that matter but we were also listening to what they were saying) She had fun taking the money and giving them change back. (It was also a good way to get her to practice her math on the weekends) we had green and red bowls for the chips (I tried keeping everything in the colors of SSC). For the money we went to search and put in "Fake Money" printed them out then printed out pictures of SSC cut out her head pasted it onto the area where the head of the president was and made a copy we did this on both sides of the money to make it look real. We laminated them and now my daughter can play with them whenever she wants! Decorations: I had bulks of three balloons tied together about a foot apart from each other along the fence around the yard green, red, and pink, The yard looked so nice! I had 3 also tied to the mailbox. I pulled pictures of SSC and all her friends off the Internet and made signs (with a picture of SSC or her friends) on the doors in the house. Like on my daughters door it said I'm sorry Jocelyn's room is closed for the party turn around and join the fun outside. with that sign Ginger snaps was at the top of that sign in color( we always have problems with the kids going in the house to use the potty and never coming out because they want to play with my daughters toys or watch one of her movies and since she was given a Game boy advance and a game cube from Santa last year they were asking if at the party they would be able to go into her room to play with her things. Image that 16 soak and wet kids in her room AHHHH) my bedroom door had a sign with a picture on it , The bathroom door had a sign with a picture of SSC in the bath tub, they all did. On the outside of the front door we put a sign so that we didn't have any traffic from the front door to the back. The sign said Oops you've reached Orange blossom RD. Make a left  and go down Strawberry Lane. On the top of that Sign was a colored picture of Orange blossom which we had laminated. We also Had some pictures of SSC, Orange Blossom, Ginger snaps pup cake, (sorry I can't remember all the names) Blown up laminated and hung on the house in the back K22(where we all were) so during the party all you seen was SSC and her friends. It really madwe you feel like you were in strawberry land!! My mom made SSC pins that we gave to all the girls at the party and Purple pieman pins to all the boys. She found the faces of the purple pieman and SSC at one of the craft stores. The kids thought that was so cool. We had a picture of strawberry shortcake blown up and laminated and pasted it onto a piece of wood cut out a hole and the kids as one of the game had to try and throw the water balloon through the hole without popping the balloon. I couldn't find a "Pin the hat on SSC so (Yes once again we had a picture blown up and laminated as well as SSC hat enlarged and laminated) put rolled tape on the back of the hats and they played pin the hat on SSC. The prizes for the games were bubbles, that I purchased from the Dollar store floats, or water guns, that they could use later on at the party. I purchased a bubble machine at the party store that way the yard had bubbles blowing everywhere all day at the party (It was a BIG hit for the younger kids and can be used when my daughter has her sleep overs) We were given (for free) potato sacks from my local grocery store. We played hop down strawberry lane. Supplies: Four big buckets (they have them at target we purchased each for $6.99 and two small buckets we purchase from the dollar store for .53 cents) AT one end of the yard an Adult was standing with a table 2 big buckets filled of water and some food coloring (Red and Green) at the opposite side of the yard were two empty large buckets and the kids waiting holding potato sacks in one hand and the empty small buckets in the other. They Waited until I yelled Fill SSC buckets. They then jumped into the Potato sack and hopped to the table with the full buckets of water filled the empty buckets mixed the food coloring in with the water (they had to use the food color that was the same as the color team they were on) get out of the sack run to the other side of the yard pore out the water in the other bucket hand the potato sack to his partner touch the partners hand and they did this until every person on the team had a turn. The team that   had the most water in the bucket won. This game was great for all ages at the party. For the smaller kids that couldn't hop in the sack we gave them float tubes that they had to keep around his or her waste while running to the other side (for the younger ones we bought one green tube float and one red tube float so they are still staying within the colors of the team they were on. They loved this game. We had water balloon fights, I filled Green balloons with water colored with green food coloring and did the same with the red balloons and the red food coloring. For this next game we separated the young kids and the older kids. The older kids tend to get ruff when running around trying to get eachother. The older kids played this game while the younger kids played Hot strawberry! Water balloon fight: All the kids were givin a white T-shirt. They had to try and not get hit Whom ever was hit had to sit out (filling them with food coloring helped stop any arguments of "I wasn't hit") We filled the same two big buckets with water balloons and they could only use the water balloons of the color team they were on. To make it fun for the ones out of the game they were givin the job of Helping me set up the next game. Hot Strawberry: Fill a water balloon and have them pass it to eachother without breaking it. The one that pops it or has it in the hands when the music stops has to get out of the game (when they are this young it's hard to say you just lost you have to sit out. have them help out with the music. It's the job of the child that just lost to turn the music off and on) While the older kids were in the pool the younger kids and I mashed strawberries in a masher got out some paint brushes sheets of painting paper and painted with the strawberry juice they had a blast doing this! When the younger kids were in the pool the older kids had water gun fights and played the balloon fighting game again (We went through SOOOOOOO many balloons that day!) We really did enjoy ourselves and the kids before leaving said they had a GREAT time and couldn't wait for her 5th Birthday! That night she had 3 of her friends stay over we layed my king size feather pillow on the floor with blankets on top to make it comfortable we painted nails, had pop corn, watched SSC movies as well as some Disney movies. They did my hair and put makeup on me as well as eachother, The pictures I would never post (lol... I looked too silly) but we all had a great time! I truly do hope someone can use something out of her party. Thanks and Good Luck!