This post is sponsored by Lego Friends.
Every now and then you just need to spend a day hanging out with your best friends, doing all the stuff you love.
Every now and then your Mum turns into the coolest Mum ever when she organises a best friends day and sets up all kinds of fun stuff to do!
I was that ‘cool mum’ the other day when I surprised my girls and their friends with a day just for them, but I have to admit I did wonder what I’d gotten myself when the day arrived! Keeping a bunch of 8-11 year old girls busy seemed a little daunting at first, but I had a plan, and a secret weapon!
The first step in my plan was to keep it simple – I knew it didn’t need to be over the top for the kids to have a great time. The next step was working with a theme – I know that these four girls are crazy about animals, so I went with that. I came up with a fun and easy lunch idea, a quick craft and an activity I knew would keep them all busy for hours.
We started the day with easy to make animal face pizzas. Remembering my ‘keep it simple plan’ we used pita bread for the base and I pre-cut a variety of toppings. The girls had lots of fun creating animal faces pizzas!
Next we got to work making paw print pendants. We used air drying clay and simply rolled out the clay, used a cookie cutter to make a circle and then our fingers to make paw print indents. Don’t forget to make a hole! After they dried we painted them with water colours and sealed them with varnish.
While they were busy working on the pendants I set up my secret weapon on the table… Lego Friends!
Each of the girls had a Lego Friends set to build and I made a printable play mat so the girls could create their own location in Heartlake City, ‘Petsville!’
Our play mat is made up of four A4 sized pages that connect end to end to make a scene from the ocean to the country (If you are printing on US letter sized paper make sure you choose ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer settings). It was perfect for our Lego Friends sets, but it would work just as well with any Lego setup.
There’s a spot for the Heartlake Lighthouse where you can row out and visit the rescued seal who has been returned to the wild.
It’s a short drive from the beach, past the Vet surgery where the dog is having a cat scan, and out into the country where the horse lives next door to the cutest pet turtle you’ve ever seen!
You can download your own ‘Petsville’ ocean to country play mat here.
It was impossible for the girls to pick a favourite Lego Friends set, they were all so ‘cool’. The smaller sets were quick and easy to build, giving us a good start with lots of fun accessories, while some of the bigger sets were quite detailed and took longer to put together.
The girls loved the challenge of building the lighthouse together. It was great to see everyone’s love of Lego and individual skills and strengths coming together as they built – someone was good at reading the instructions, another at finding pieces and another at putting it all together. I loved watching them all supporting and encouraging each other, working together as friends.
Once they were finished building they played together for hours and I loved listening to them creating stories and playing together.
They sent pets to the vet, invented pet-alicious ice-cream flavours like sardines and liver choc-chip, and had a great time using their imaginations and simply playing – something my older girls don’t get as much time for as they used to.
I had to drag them away from building their Lego Friends sets for a few minutes so they could paint their pendants and there was a collecting groan of discontent when parents came to pick up.
Our best friends day went so well that I am still wearing my ‘coolest mum ever’ crown weeks later!
Win a Lego Friends Pack
This competition is now closed – congratulations to Catherine, Sue and Danya who are the winners and who have been contacted via email.
If you’d like to wear your own ‘coolest mum ever’ crown and host a best friends day you are in luck as I have three Lego Friends packs to give away to my Australian readers.
To enter simply share the #LegoFriendsLove and leave a comment on this post telling me what you would plan for your best friends day.
The three most interesting and entertaining answer will each win a Lego Friends pack which includes a Lego Friends Bunny & Babies set, a Lego Friends Olivia’s Garden Pool set, and a Lego Friends Vet Clinic set.
Over the next 3 weeks (21 April 2015 – 10 May 2015) I will choose one #LegoFriendsLove winner per week – see full terms and conditions below.
Competition Terms and Conditions.
You must be 18 + years of age to enter.
You must provide a valid email address and entries are limited to one per household.
Entries close Sunday May 10th at 11:59am Australian EST.
Entries will be judged on merit and creativity.
Three winners will each receive a Lego Friends pack – a Lego Friends Bunny & Babies set, a Lego Friends Olivia’s Garden Pool set, and a Lego Friends Vet Clinic set.
Winners will be contacted by email and announced on this post by Wednesday May 13 2015.
The winners must contact me within 5 days or the prize will be re-drawn.
The winners agrees to have their contact details passed on to the appropriate PR company or brand representative who will send out/organise the prizes directly.
This post is co-ordinated by The Remarkables Group
Best friends day would involve being with my girls and doing things that they love to do. My kids love to be with me without any distraction. So no computers and if I have the phone I will just to take some quick pictures and not to disrupt our day.
We would paint our nails and toes, get dressed up and go out to explore. We love going to parks and different parts of our own neighbourhood.
After our fun adventure at a park and different area we will make our way to the kids favourite pancake shop for some much needed lunch.
Lunch done, we are off home for some much needed cuddle and play time with the kids. It either consists of playing with their teddies, getting a check up by the on call doctors in the house, playing with their Lego Friends, or watching an episode of Dr Who or a good movie.
Best friend days or time with your special someone is important. Also making sure you are present during this time is important also…I think it does not mater what you get up to as long as you have fun.
We would start with some art, I’m thinking something like making printing in shirts, small canvases or decorating library bags -something that everyone can take home as a momento of the day that is a little different. There would a decorate cookies and cupcakes stage before a high tea for lunch with some mini sausage rolls and pin wheels, some little crust less cucumber cheese sandwiches served on pretty cake stands and juice and iced tea served from pots – all that good China that doesn’t get used all that much would come out to play and let the girls have a fun time with. Then I would bust out some Lego to distract them while I cleaned up from art and them being in the kitchen and are any of their lunch remnants with a strong cup of coffee! If that phase ever ended I’d finish it up with some crazy outside energy burn off.
#LegoFriendsLove
The playmats are a great idea! My eldest loves Lego Friends. She would love a playdate with her best friends.
Our Best Friends day would be filled with lots of fun things that my daughters love to do. They would make some art and colour-in, paint each others nails, jump on the trampoline and play in the sandpit, then enjoy lunch on the deck in the sunshine. Once they’re finished lunch then inside to play with Lego Friends because Lego is best shared with friends!