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Mardi Gras Party -14yr- Make a Mask!

June 2008

N.B. in Ontaio, Canada

This year, I decided to celebrate Mardi Gras! There were 4 of my friends, 4 of my sisters and us, so 10 kids, ages 9-14. The party was after lunch and before dinner. 

INVITATIONS: For invitations, I cut out black masks (but no eyes holes were cut out, however colored in white) and glued a skewer stick wrapped in tin foil to hold it. I also hole-punched (on each mask) a hole on a top corner of the mask to tie green, purple and yellow (we couldn't find gold) curling ribbon (the 3 colors of Mardi Gras). We typed out the standard party information and glued it on the back.  

DECORATIONS: Since we were only going to use the basement, I only decorated it and the entrance. The entrance was simple, I made a mask (like for the invites) and taped it to the door. In the basement I used dollar store streamers and balloons in the Mardi Gras colors. I also stuck up squares of tissue paper to make patterns on the wall to make them look less blank. I cut out more black masks (but these had eyes holes) and hung them from the ceiling with more curling ribbon. We also used colored light bulbs.

ACTIVITIES: Once everyone got here, we made masks. My sister and I had already put out 10 white masks and 10 black masks (you could do any color). We had set out glitter-glue, pompoms, ribbons, feathers, and every other craft decoration you could think of out to decorate the masks with. We had a glue gun gunning to glue your skewer to your mask (so you could hold it), some wrapped their skewers in tinfoil, some with nothing, others with ribbon. 

GAMES: We had our Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) for the Wii set up, our DDR for the PS2 (the game is more popular than you think), karaoke, twister (just a favorite), and dancing.

COSTUMES: The costumes were masks (that they made), beads (that we gave them when they had arrived), and my friends were told to wear something fun and different from what you would usually wear. Everyone was wearing the masks and beads wherever they went.

FOOD: Since it wasn't a meal we just had A LOT of snacks. We had chips, popcorn, etc. then came upstairs for dipping fruit, pound cake, pretzels, etc. into a chocolate fountain (we just happen to own a small one but before we had it we would just melt chocolate in a pot) and cake.

CAKE: The typical Mardi Gras cake is king cake. But since we didn't want to go out and buy one (which, even if we wanted to would have been hard due to lack of Mardi Gras celebration where we live). To make the cake I used a lemon cake mix (followed its directions), then added nutmeg, and lemon peel. For the icing its just water, lemon juice, icing sugar, and lemon peel. I cooked the cake in a bunt ban.

Once it was cooked and cooled I piped the frosting on so it would drizzle down (you don't cover it like you would a birthday cake) then sprinkled yellow, green and purple colored confectioners sugar (regular sugar, just colored) on the top of the cake. You can buy colored sugar at a bulk candy stone instead of making it colored yourself.

FAVOURS: Since it wasn't a big party there weren't many favors. They took home the masks they made and 3 bead necklaces (in Mardi Gras colors that we gave them when they arrived). (The necklaces were a huge hit! Since they weren't big and plastic they could be worn in public, almost everyone who came was wearing them at school months after!)

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