Kitty Party 2011

It is all a sad dream now but at the time it was all so very magical. I thought about even the smallest details and executed every whim of my soon-to-be five-year-old.
When I asked her what one did at a Kitty Party she said:  Paint faces like a kitty, play a game with yarn, play a Kitty Kitty Doggy game, eat cupcakes out of dishes like a cat and crawl around in kitty houses.

If you are wondering how to throw a kitty party, here it is:


1.  Use vintage invites from a summer yard sale and do your best to copy an illustration from 'Millions of Cats' on the envelope.

2. Prepare the goody bags. Gather random small trinkets and roll them up into a ball of yarn. Include kitty buttons and washable markers to use on wash and write kitties.

Inside the yarn: a bell, a ball, a sparkly ring, tiny stickers, a mint, and a nickel.

3. Sew 6 white stuffed kitties.

4. Have your super talented and ever generous neighbor hand paint a sign. Lily still has it in her room. Notice the eye color (like Lily's) and the kitty color(sniff).

5. Hang pennant banner and draw kitty prints leading to the door.

6. Have same talented/generous neighbor stay up waaaaay too late constructing a kitty city out of cardboard. Include residences, town hall, school and other important town amenities. Hand paint city.

7. Display poster from preschool.

8. Hire 14 year old to play the part of 'vet' and give darling and totally hammed-up check up to newly decorated kitties. (I have been told this is very much like Build-a-Bear but since I have never been to B-A-B or heard what they do there, I am still taking credit for this part) Eliza did so great. The kids loved holding their kitty's paw during the shots, picking out a sparkly bandaid (sticker) and giving medicine (m&m's) as well as getting their very own adoption papers signed by a vet.

9. Have previously mentioned hired help string 6 pieces of yarn throughout house for kitties to follow to a treasure. (8b should be paint faces of party-goers to transform them into purrfect meowers)

10. Take treasure (kitty dishes full of stickers) to table to decorate while Birthday Kitty opens gifts (no kid wants to sit and watch another one open gifts)

10b. Let little kittens help.

11. Have a kitty race. 11b. (not pictured): Play Kitty, Kitty, Dog (Duck Duck, you get it)

12. Eat cupcakes out of newly decorated dishes.

13. Move into the Kitty City.

14. Have Daddy bring down a special surprise real pet kitty. Name kitty Willow. Be speachless. Love your life. For three whole days. Man, we are still all so traumatized by the loss of our little kitty. It is embarrassing how sad I still feel about it.

15. Have the happiest little feline in the world.

Not pictured: Reading a kitty story, setting up Willow's pad, weeks of playing in the Kitty City, 3 of the houses crushed and loved to death and covered in snow in my backyard.

Was this party expensive? NO. Did it take a lot of prep time? YES.


Everyone's question: Are we getting her a new cat?
Not immediately. She hasn't asked for one. We are letting her figure out her grief and give it time to heal. She still talks about Willow everyday. She prays that Willow and Orangey will be doing well in heaven. . .everyday. She names herself Willow on Halloween (kitty costume) compares every cat she sees to her late friend. She doesn't cry, though. She is at peace with it but it is still very much on her mind. My good friend brought over a beautiful book "Cat Heaven" by Cynthia Rylant for Lily who has it memorized now. It was a godsend.