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
Amanda says
My daughter told me the other day I’m not fun so I would like todo a girls day starting with breakfast in bed for her and her friend then move onto making cupcakes. After this we would have facials and pedicures then move onto a nice picnic lunch. Followed by the girls building their favourite lego Friends.
kate @ livinglovinglaughing says
Oh goodness, my kids would go bananas for a ‘best friends day’!!!!!
The biggest struggle would be trying to narrow down my daughters vast ‘best friends’ list, haha! But once we did, we would kick off with making cupcakes together, decorating them in style and enjoying with a hot chocolate. After running around in the fresh air afterwards, I would bring the kids inside and surprise them with the play table all set up with the cute playmats and Lego Friends kits on top! There would be happy screams ;) Then…..I would sneak away for a cuppa, with a magazine while they play for HOURS ++++++.
At the end of the day, I would pass out a cute stationary set and pens, and encourage them to write notes to each other about what they love about each others friendship. It would be a very special day indeed… I’m already getting excited :)
sue says
I think a blanket fort would be mandatory on best friends day – especially with the current weather!
then pancakes for lunch, some afternoon lego/playdo/craft time – followed by all cosied up on the couch under a blanket to watch a movie
Kath says
We do School of the Air, so a best friends day would be with each other as a family, taking time out of our routine to build, play and talk.
sophie sl says
Ohh…. my girl will totally love to have a day with her friends baking. While we wait for the oven to do its work, I will teach them to scrap and create an album to record all these precious memories. I think we will follow that up with a picnic at the park nearby, armed with chilled lemonade and kites for some outdoor fun!
Nichole {youclevermonkey} says
Love the playmats Kate!
My own 11yr old just had her own version of a best friends day on the weekend for her birthday. Or just over a day seeing as they stayed for 25 hours total! They all brought their scooters so between coasting back and forth outside, they made a washi tape bookmark each and decorated some lead pencils for school in the afternoon. Before dinner, they all sat down and made a farm platmat together out of a plastic tablecloth and some Sharpies for all our animals. Two movies and popcorn before bed then the next day after she got four new sets of Lego Friends as birthday presents, they spent the rest of their time doing what yours did – building and playing with the new Lego! Now three days later the spare room floor is still awash with Lego and all their other sets have been moved in there too :) Love school holidays!
Veggie mama says
hey I know those friends!
We love Lego here. No child is over four years old and we’re already drowning in it!
Sheila @ BrainPowerBoy says
The play mats turned out really neat and it certainly looks like the girls had a wonderful time!
Chantel says
What an awesome day! You certainly earnt your title of coolest Mum ever!
Best friends days at our house normally involve a fair amount of free play and also some sort of treasure hunt. Either the first clue gets posted into the mailbox and each clue leads to the next or a treasure map is drawn up (depends on how creative Mum is feeling). The final treasure doesn’t really matter, it’s the hunt that they love but I can only imagine how excited my girl and her friends would be to find Lego treasure instead of an old toy or a few treats :)
Danya Banya says
Love the playmats! They\’d be great with Lego, play dough, figurines or maybe a combination of them all!
We rearranged my daughters bedroom the other day, and now there is a big blank space on one of the walls, so I think it would be lovely to make a piece of collaborative artwork for her to hang. I\’m thinking a huge (proper) canvas, and some squirt guns full of paint would be lots and lots of messy fun! Maybe a few handprints at the end with each of the girls\’ names underneath their print, so that my daughter can hang it on her wall and think of her friends whenever she sees it.
Catherine says
Best Friends day would begin with a craft activity. I would suggest making large pom poms that they could dance with, Next on the agenda would be a bit of music and l would teach them the moves to a song (perk of being a dance teacher once). Then l would let them dance a bit more taking it in turns to choose the songs. Finally l would suggest making some snacks to refuel. That could include pikelets, cupcakes, fruit sticks, whatever they feel like. Finally l would suggest some free play with the mountains of lego we have.
Chelsea says
I love the best friends day idea!!!! My boys always love to play with friends on the trampoline (especially with a few balloon balls!), then definitely snack time – fruit smoothies and stove top popcorn are always a hit. Some fun science experiments, challenge to build something using recyclables, and then more snacks, maybe mug cake or decorate a cookie station. Then for the all-time favourite… LEGO. LOL. I don’t think we ever have a playdate where LEGO is not involved some way!
Alana says
We’ve done best friend days as alternatives to birthday parties in the past. We take them out to their favorite places (Chick Fil A, pump it up or zoo, once build-a-bear). I let them plan their favorite activities. However, I LOVE this idea, because my girls LOVE Legos!!! Love the printable play mat. Thanks!
sapshu says
#LegoFriendsLove for my daughter’s best friends day with her friends i would organise a fun fruit activity where they can make fun faces with their favourite fruits and then eat them. Then it would be movie time with popcorns.Then they can have activity time in the toy room where they can make their mini doll houses using tissue rolls and have fun playing with legos and dolls and have lots of fun.
Ruth says
Best friends day… What an awesome excuse for some mid year between-birthdays kids party planning! I love it! It always amazes me how just a little extra effort with the planning can turn an ordinary play date into an extraordinary day of memories.
For our besties day we would definitely have a high tea with baby cinos, mini pots of delicious kid-friendly herbal teas, cupcakes, finger sandwiches, macarons and meringues. After playing grown ups for a while (and once the sugar kicks in) it would be time for a scooter ride around the neighbourhood to gather nature supplies for a fun craft activity to finish off the day. I’m thinking gumnuts, feathers, flowers and leaves to decorate some homemade dream catchers.
Lego Friends play a part in every day for my girls and Miss 6 has chosen this for her next birthday party theme. I still have my old Lego from when I was a kid in the 1970s so I’m happy to spend money on a toy that I know is going to last. And I love playing with it too ???? Thanks for the play mat, I’m off to print it now!
Gina says
What a fantastic idea. What lucky kids! Love everything about this.
Mhairi says
I love the idea of a “best friend day”.
I would invite my best friends who all have children who are my kids best friends and we would sit outside gossiping while the kids played in the sandpit.
Then we would organise lunch and hose the children off before they sat down for fruit, vege sticks, dips meat and bread platter. Ensuring the the hosing off hadn’t finished we would then have iceblocks and more fruit.
Finally in the afternoon we would have some craft activities and coffee for the adults. Once the children were sufficiently tired we would either sit ‘quietly’ and watch a movie or play with the toys inside.
I love the idea of the Lego playmat and think that I will be using that for my children but for a playdate I would keep the children outside as it is easier to clean up with a hose than a mop, bucket and vacuum.
Karly says
I’m showing my age here but “in my day…” we would have had bowls of chips, lollies and we were partial to eating jelly crystals straight out of the little box. These days my kids and their friends call them “sometimes foods” and instead prefer popcorn, fruit platters and rice crackers at their play dates. There would be equal amounts of playing together and time spent on their iPads and DSs.
Chi says
Best Friends Day for our houseold would be include creating with Lego Friends, magic sand has been a sensational addition to the beach sets! And lots of schleich animals join in too! Not to forget any Star Wars warriors that come to visit..!
A bike ride to the pier for some local ice cream & pizza is much enjoyed. Followed by rock pooling on the beach, we are always surprised by the wide range of seacritters and shells to be found. From shrimp, sea urchins, crabs, fish, jellyfish, sea stars, sea snails, shells, sea slates….We’ve discovered that it changes with the seasons.
We would finish the day with a lovel, relaxing swim in our pool. Our kids would describe this day as perfect!!
Karen Burgess says
My mum friends would love a friends day where we ate my freshly baked goodies, including scones, tiny teddy biscuits, Anzac slice and more, and I got to sit down and teach them all to knit and/or crochet.
My 5yo daughter would love a friends day where she got to paint her finger and toe nails, apply make up, make layered jellies, bake and decorate cupcakes and colour in freshly printed and personalised colouring sheets.