Extra Birthday Fun

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and it’s advertiser. #GiveExtraGum #shop

This weekend we celebrated Sophie’s 10th birthday with a giant “party of the decade” (including a craft project using Extra gum as part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias®).

I’m not going to lie: I panicked a bit that I’ve been a parent for a decade – which is impossible, I’m not old enough for that to be the case.  Anyway, I gathered up a carload full of girl after school on Friday and sent them up to the playroom to clomp around like a herd of wild elephants (oh wait, that’s just naturally what ten year olds do…) while I wrapped up some work.  Then, we finally loaded up enough luggage for a weeklong stay at an exotic resort and headed off for an overnight at the Inn at the Mill (more on that in the next post) in Johnson.

We made a quick stop at Walmart so that the girls could generally act like buffoons, stand in the way of other shoppers and pick up some Extra gum packs and assorted other holiday candies for a craft project.  I was even treated to a group cheer they made up to incorporated all the selected mint flavors: “Polar Ice!  Spearmint!  Peppermint!  15 Sticks!” Obviously, it was difficult to control my enthusiasm.  Yay for sugar free!

And actually, despite the fact that I am making fun a little bit, I was seriously impressed with the creativity out of these girls.  I set them loose in our (admittedly well-equipped) craft room with the Extra gum packs, a few stickers and candy accessories and a hot glue gun.

When I returned, I found a disaster (obviously – “You left us alone!” they claimed…) and a seriously impressive holiday train they had concocted.  Impressive!  My original plan was to pull up some instructions on various candy crafts for them, but it turns out that when left to their own devices with minimal adult interference (read: I took an amazing nap), tweens are really quite creative.  It’s an excellent testament to the virtues of not helicopter parenting.

In fact, they were so pleased that they insisted on taking the various parts of their creation home with them.  All hail the holiday craft.  And thanks, Extra, for lending a little something extra.  #SuperCute #GiveExtraGum

Stocking stuffers, anyone?