Now that we have an official adoption date, I am eager to get planning the celebratory party to be held that weekend! Anyone have any ideas (or links to blog posts about their own adoption celebrations) they are are willing to share? I need your help!!!!
We host quote a few parties throughout the year and many are themed, so I am trying to decide on some sort of theme to really bring the event together. I am leaning towards football themed because that will be “in season” in October and I want to order these awesome Patriots shirts for our family custom designed with our last name on them along with each of our years of birth. I thought this might give our family a unified look while allowing others to coordinate (which always makes for great pictures). I am thinking we can tie some football words to adoption, too…. maybe “Touchdown” to show we met our goal? And reference our family as a “team” as in “Look who’s joining our team” with a picture of Daffy on the invitations with those black stripes under her eyes? I dunno…. still thinking about that… I know its not “traditional”, but we aren’t really traditional people, so maybe it works?
Here are a few of the other things I am considering:
- Pictures of Daffy throughout the house, maybe hung by clothes pins like they did here? Could be mixed in with team logos? Or placed on a pennant banner?
- A video running with photos and music throughout the night
- A guest book (saving space for photos to be added later) for our guests to write messages in… I also love the idea of the thumbprint family tree guest book found here!
Also, while I dont want this to be about gifts, I do want to get some things for Daffy that really send the message that she is a permanent part of our family. Here are a few ideas I have:
- A scrapbook showcasing the highlights since we met her last November.
- Personalized items (not sure what, though, besides the tee shirts mentioned above…. got ideas for cool items that can be personalized with a full name and not just initials, since, by chance, her initials arent changing?)
- Adoption themed jewelry of some sort, or maybe a locket with a picture of me and of her birth mom inside?
Speaking of gifts, do people usually bring a gift to this type of event? I don’t want to assume they do, but was thinking if anyone asked that maybe I would suggest a family game of some sort to build the game closet with things we can all do together? This would kind of tie in nicely with the “football/game” theme from above… Good idea? Or should I just flatly refuse any gifts?
On a similar note, should we have favors of some kind? If so, any ideas of something that would represent adoption or family? Maybe I could find something Patriots related? I like the idea of key chains, but $5 per person is gonna add up quickly and it’s not very personal….. personalized Pompoms could be fun for the kids….. ooooooh, what to do? What to do?
Oh, wise experienced party planners or adoptive families, please offer some advice! I would love your thoughts on my ideas or any you might have!
Foster Adoption Blog 
Sarah
/ July 17, 2012Don’t I wish you had posted this a month ago… Our party is this week, and I don’t have ANY of these great ideas!
I think I will do some kind of a guestbook, though, it’s not too late for that.
For favors, we went strawberry-picking and made 4oz jars of jam. I got labels for the lids that have a photo of Grover with the strawberries and say his full adoptive name and the date. Between all the jars, the strawberries, and the sugar and pectin, I think I have probably spent ~$50 for almost 30 favors, which is pretty reasonable in my opinion.
Oh, and we’re having a bounce house. 🙂
Maryam Lane
/ July 17, 2012I would recommend photos framed on the wall around the house of her with you/other close family. We did this and the kids love it. really helps as little reminder that this is home, forever.I like the guestbook and the t shirts idea.
laurke
/ July 17, 2012I went to an adoption party Sunday that was a year in the making. I couldn’t stay for the whole thing, but she had combined the girls’ birthday parties with the adoption party. She had picture frames out for each of the 3 girls for us to sign, and they were doing some sort of individual pictures of families for a keepsake (but we left before that happened). They grilled out, had a new playset for the kids to go crazy on, and lots of people. The girls all had birthday princess buttons on 🙂
jo
/ July 19, 2012At our adoption parties, we asked people to bring donations for children still in foster care instead of gifts for our kids (they’d already gotten TONS of gifts on their arrival, birthdays, etc.). We got our social workers to tell us what was really needed and sent that list to our guests. They brought a lot of useful things- and many brought presents for the kids as well. The next day, our kids brought the stuff to DCFS, said thank you to their workers, and good-bye to the staff they’d gotten to know. It was a nice closure for all of us.
fosteradoptionblog
/ July 20, 2012Jo, Thanks for sharing this awesome idea!!!!!!