we planned this little party for margaret and a few of her friends — some bending and stretching yoga fun to celebrate her sixth birthday. we borrowed some space from my yoga ashram, brought along some hand-crafted decorations and snacks and simply set up for a mini kids yoga class/party...
well actually, first there were invites... the rolled purple paper invites were inspired by rolled up yoga mats - tied with embroidery floss to have carrying handles, like some real mats do...
after we set the date and time, and you can imagine it wasn't much long after, the yoga party ideas began to flow... here are a few of the details from the day...
we created a happy mandala design that we then silkscreened on some organic cotton t-shirts for the little yogis to wear at our gathering (and to take home too) to spread the happiness. we set these out on the mats before the guests arrived. then there were the prayer flags...
the birthday-wish-filled prayer flags were inspired by the traditional tibetan flags, slightly modified for our celebration, but overflowing with good intentions non-the-less... they were a mix of simple fabric rectangles, some were painted with fabric paints and others were embellished with fabric applique on the sewing machine. these were hung over the party tables where we set out the snacks and drinks and cupcakes. i tried to keep the food as simple as i could... organic red (or perhaps party matching purple?) grapes, cheese quesadillas, water and some homemade cupcakes (with cupcake toppers to match the shirts)... and what would a homegrown party be without a "get your picture taken as a ______ board"? (remember the pirate? well we still had some wood). this one actually starts out upside down, after they had their pictures taken, the photo can be flipped and it will appear as if they are posing in a hand-stand with lotus variation...
the last thing i planned was the actual yoga and body balancing/stretching games. i prepped myself as the parties yoga teacher with a few kids yoga books, websites and library dvds (this, this, this and this) and merged all that with some things from my yoga teacher training... and with that we became a room full of roaring lions, trees in a forest, rising/setting suns, and butterflies with colorful wings, etc... the kids were fantastic. to change the pace we also planned a balancing game (sort of like musical chairs meets prehensile toes and the tree pose.) and the limbo.
and of course there was a little happy birthday and a few candles, and lots of happy party fun. namaste young yogis, namaste. :)
