Daisy and Minnie might want to powder their noses before a fancy party. Little girls can use these pretty compacts simply to hold lunch money, lip balm, stickers, or mini-candies to hand out to their playmates.

• Breath mint tins approximately 3"-4" across, 1/2" high, one for each guest
• Decoupage or thick white crafter glue
• Decorative items, including pieces of material or felt cut to size for the tops of tins, beveled plastic "jewels," sequins, pictures cut from magazines, stickers, buttons, beads, etc.
• Optional: Small mirror affixed to the lid's interior. A grown-up should do this step before the party and should place color cloth tape around the edges of the mirror to avoid any sharp edges.

1. Have a craft table set up prior to the start of the party. On it, place tins, white glue, and all decorative materials.
2. Have one or more helpers stationed at your craft table.
3. Help girls affix a piece of material or a picture from a magazine to the tops of tins and/or interiors.
4. Help girls decorate tins with other craft items.
5. Set aside to dry during the party's duration.

You can't have a tea party and not teach everyone the teapot song! Gather your guests together in a circle and teach them the lyrics and movements. Run through it a few times and then let them try it on their own!

I'm a little teapot, Short and stout.
(do a quick squat by bending the knees)
Here is my handle, here is my spout.
(one arm tucked into waist for handle, one arm outstretched for spout)
When I get all steamed up, then I shout,
"Just tip me over and pour me out"!
(bend at waist as if you're pouring)

Daisy and Minnie are known for their giant cheerful bows atop their heads and love hair accessories just as much as your party guests do. Help the girls fashion beautiful barrettes out of simple craft materials. Consider making the barrettes in tandem with the Pretty Compact project -- they both use very similar materials.

• Have a craft table set up prior to the start of the party. On it, place tins, white glue, and all decorative materials.
• Metal bare barrettes, typically purchased in a pack from craft stores
• Decorative items such as pom-poms, ribbons, sequins, beads, buttons, or even pre-cut felt flowers
• White craft glue

1. Have one or more adult helpers stationed at your craft table.
2. Help children choose a barrette and ask them what kind of material(s) they'd like to use. Encourage them to choose only 2-3 items -- any more than that can make the barrette too heavy or bulky for comfort.
3. Set aside to dry for the party's duration.

One lump or two? Daisy and Minnie are sweet as can be, so for this game, they need more than just two sugar cubes. The object is for two teams to compete against each other in a relay while holding spoons stacked with two or three sugar cubes.

• One spoon for each team - if children are quite young, you may want to use a soup spoon so that cubes don't fall off quite as easily.
• 6-10 sugar cubes
• A designation for the Start and Finish lines, such as a small rope, a chalk-drawn line outdoors, or a scarf.

1. Divide party guests into two teams of equal numbers.
2. Explain that each team sends one player at a time across the room holding a spoon with sugar cubes stacked on it. The child needs to balance the spoon to ensure the sugar cubes do not fall off.
3. Choose one child from each team to start the game; line them up at your start line.
4. If children are quite young, allow them to stop and pick up sugar cubes that might fall and continue on to the finish line; if they are a bit older, you can choose to send players back to the start line if they drop any cubes.
5. The first team to finish wins!

Minnie and Daisy make a great team -- especially when they grab their bouncy shoes for some fancy footwork. See if your party guests work together as well as our favorite girlfriends!

• Chalk for outdoor setting or masking tape for indoor setting
• Marker, such as a small stone or small beanbag

1. Create a few hopscotch "grids" (enough for all teams of two) either with chalk outdoors or masking tape indoors.
2. Ask party guests to choose a partner and head to one of the hopscotch grids.
3. Ask one child from each team to throw the marker, as in regular hopscotch.
4. Then, one child stands behind her teammate with her hands on her friend's waist.
5. The goal is for the teammates to hop together in unison through the game, without stepping on lines or letting go of each other.
6. The team that gets through the entire hopscotch grid and back is declared the winner.

Some group activities never go out of fashion -- they engage children generation after generation. These "oldies but goodies" like "A Tisket A Tasket" and "As We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" involve singing, cooperation, and quick steps!

A Tisket A Tasket

This 19th century nursery rhyme can be used as a very energetic circle game. We've modified the words to make it perfectly in step with your party theme!

1. Have your party guests sit in a circle.
2. Choose one child to carry a basket and a small handkerchief, scarf, or cloth.
3. The child slowly circles the group while they sing the rhyme shown below; at some point during the song, the child drops the scarf behind a sitting child.
4. The sitting child must jump up, chase the first child, who tries to race around the circle and sit down in the second child's space before being tagged.
5. The second child then gets the scarf and repeats the process.

A Tisket a tasket, a pink and purple basket,
I wrote a letter to my friend, and on the way, I dropped it.
I dropped it, I dropped it, and on the way I dropped it.
A little mousie (or duckie) picked it up, and put it in her pocket.

As We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

Another nursery rhyme,"As We Go Round the Mulberry Bush," is perfect for getting kids to think of tasks they do each day and adding motions to them. We've started you off with one "tea party verse." Take turns going around the circle and asking each child to come up with a verse!

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush,
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush.
On a warm and sunny morning.

(make sipping motion)
This is the way we sip our tea, sip our tea, sip our tea,
This is the way we sip our tea on a warm and sunny morning

This is the way we .... (make up new verses)