Wonderland Croquet Game

I have been finalizing everything for my daughters party this Saturday. I am mostly excited ablout the Queen's croquet game that I (with a little help from the hubby!!) MADE!! My daughter's birthday theme last year was flamingos (She LOVES them for some reason, probably because they are PINK!) I always try to have party decorations pull double duty for me if I can, whether it is recycled through both of my kids, or a bulk purchase (plates, napkins, party bags-in the same colors).And while both of my kids have very different themes each party/year they always (so far!!) Have matched up in some way!

Isn't she just the cutest?! ;)

So since her theme was flamingos last year, I thought, why not re-use those tacky yard flamingos as part of a game? So THAT was the start of how the croquet game was born!! I had my husband drill a hole in the belly of the flamingos, and we gorilla glued a 5/8" dowel in to each one and spray painted the handles pink to match the flamingos. These are our new croquet mallets (just like in Alice in Wonderland!!) Next I needed the rest of the parts so I sent my hubby to the hardware store to buy a length of wire (enough for each "team" to have 5 arches), and he was nice enough to cut them for me, too! :) I bent them in to arches big enough to fit a ball through with out getting stuck and enough to be shoved in to the ground to stay in place during play. 

I bought a red poster board from the dollar tree and cut several hearts from it to stick on the top of the wire arches (Because I think the queen of hearts would have them on there!). 

For the balls I wanted them to be as true to the hedgehog from as I could. I thought of a few ideas that I wasn't really crazy about. Balls covered in furry material (too bumpy for rolling in the yard), regular balls (Not themed enough)... Then a couple weeks ago I was down in California and decided to make a stop in to Pier 1. Not only was I lucky enough to catch a super sweet sale going on, but I found these multi-colored "monkey head" balls in the kid bins! (And they can totally pass as hedgehogs!!) Yay!


(Here's the link:)
http://www.pier1.com/SearchResults/tabid/37/txtSearch/monkey+ball/Search/monkey+ball/List/0/Default.aspx

I am pretty excited to see the girls play the game at the party, I think it will be a "hit!" (ha ha sorry! I just had to!) :) I will post again after the party with lots of pictures of the big event :)