Flock Party: Final Fleecing

I will sheepishly admit there is just one more Shaun the Sheep item to write about.

Before the party, I spent some time with the kids. No cable TV. No Wii. Just the three of us and a big quiet lake. It was a wonderful long weekend. It was a great opportunity to show the kids some of the things I grew up with. One of the things I shared with them was my Mom's shape board. Mom made us felt boards and many shapes to move around and just be creative. We did have some Colorform kits but mom's was best. I gave each of the kids a full size sheet of felt. They both asked many questions to figure out what I was doing. Then I started to cut out shapes. Squares, triangles, circles, trapezoids, hexagons, and any others I could using my single quilting guide and things left in the kitchen cabinets. They thought it was great. They made all sorts of pictures from the shapes.

They were happy and entertained and I was getting bored. I did not want to just keep cutting shapes. I wanted to make something too. I pulled out a copy of Shaun the Sheep and started to cut free hand a sheep's head, then a set of ears and eyes out of a piece of glittery black felt. The scraps were trimmed up and added to the kids shapes. I arranged the sheep parts on a piece of white felt. By then I had the kids' attention again. After saying, I was thinking of making a pillow. I was told I needed to make two. I cut out a second set and they were packed up to be brought home with us. A month later after the party they were finally stitched together and stuffed.They are being loved to death. I might need to make another pair out of a more durable fabric.

Flock Party: Take Homes

Shaun the Sheep website has a lot of coloring pages and other activities. I took advantage of these wonderful items for the kids to take home and hopefully fall in love with Shaun and the flock as much as my kids have. Each birthday bag had print outs of the coloring pages and directions on how to make a bobble Shaun from recycled yogurt cups and a Shaun note holder. The goodie bags also had a small stuffed sheep for them to play with. The kids also had their flying disc creations to take home.

I had printed out mask from the site for the kids to make at the party but we didn’t use them this time. I’m holding onto the print outs for the next flock gathering.

Flock Party: Carnival Toss

Shaun the Sheep has an episode where the flock goes to a carnival. In the episode Shaun is left behind to cover for the missing sheep while Blitzer tries to find and bring back the flock. While at the carnival the sheep play the bottle game – throw a ball to knock down the bottles. I decided we could have our own version of this game. If you want the show the field has the farmer’s junk pile which the sheep managed to salvage things to make whatever Shaun dreams up. So for our version of the game we saved some of our own junk. I saved several cat litter containers (14 pound size). I had purchased bean bag for a different game.

We stacked the containers in pyramids of three on top of picnic tables and gave each child several bean bags. They took turns trying to knock down the stacks. A brave parent volunteered to fetch bean bags and re stack one of the pyramids and we tried to keep up with the overly enthusiastic kids. They loved the game!

Flock Party: Sleeping Bag Races

Shaun the Sheep has a camping episode. In the episode one of the sheep crawls into a sleeping bag to check it out and gets stuck. For awhile she jumps around before her back legs tear through so she can walk again. This was my inspiration for our Sheepish Sleeping Bag Races – sack races.

Sack races can be done with old feed bags or store bought bags made just for them. I found sacks for sack races at Oriental Trading Co. They had several kinds but I decided to get the 6 smaller kids sacks with handles and ‘racing’ numbers.

The day of the party had light rain right up to when the party started. I was concerned about doing sack races on the potentially slippery grass. Luckily the volley ball game ended well before we were ready to do sack races. The sand provided a fantastic surface for hopping kids. It dried more quickly then the grass and made for a softer landing as they scurried (or flopped) from one end to the other.

Flock Party: Frisbee

Shaun the Sheep can be seen playing catch with Blitzer (the dog). The two playing Frisbee is the opening scene for Blitzer’s love story.

I found design your own flying disc at Oriental Trading Co. When I was shopping for the party they were priced $13/24 but if you bought 3 or more the price went down to $8. At those prices I ordered 3 pack. That’s 6 dozen flying disc. I experimented with a poster paint marker which was suppose to work on plastic and Sharpie permanent markers. The markers worked better. They do smear a little and can rub off but it was far better then the paint option. If you scuff up the plastic it will adhere better, but who wants to scuff up 72 flying disc. I purchased 3 colorful packages of thick and thin tipped markers and tossed in the markers we used for the cup coloring. We handed out flying disc to all of the kids and encouraged the parents to do one for themselves too. The art work was amazing. All of the kids young and old seemed to really enjoy the activity. Some finished quickly and took their disc for test flights. Others used them to dig in the nearby volley ball court. They were having such a good time I didn’t interrupt .

The samples shown were done by my little ones and their big sister.

Flock Party: Flocking The Hall

Shaun the Sheep has a full flock to watch over. The flock was going to be turned into decorations for the party. I made the mum, baby Timmy and an anonymous sheep.

The white corrugated plastic I salvaged was perfect for making sheep. I pealed off the film with the conference information to get a clean white surface. If I planned carefully I could get a one sheep out of each poster board. The head I cut free hand and colored with Sharpie permanent markers. I drew random lines, squiggles, and spirals in black and gray crayon and markers to add depth to their wool. The head is attached to the front body piece with sticky Velcro squares. I used a metal kabob skewer to punch small holes on either side of where their ‘necks’ are so I could loop twine through and tie them to the shelter’s post or a near by tree.

Flock Party: Shirley Toss

If you have seen Shaun the Sheep you know you are not likely going to be tossing Shirley. She’s just too big. BUT you can toss things into her wool. In several episodes things get thrown or fall into Shirley’s wool and in the ‘goat’ episode the goat and Shaun go right trough her. These were the inspiration for the Shirley’s Toss.

I made a small model out of paper to and started to think about how I could make it work. I initially thought of using cardboard but beanbags would destroy cardboard. I decided pingpong balls would be an option.I was still trying to decide between recycling cardboard boxes or cut the shapes out of wood. I came across some white corrugated plastic and decided it would be more earth friendly and easier for me to manage.

I salvaged white corrugated plastic which was used for conference signs. I pealed off the film with the conference information to get a clean white surface. I used 3 sheet s: the head, front & back.I found that kitchen scissors worked fairly well. The head I cut free hand and colored with Sharpie permanent markers. I cut the front and back separately and free hand trying to get the fluffy curvy look of a sheep. I used a glass as a patter to cut circles in the front pieces. I used a small bowl to cut one in the center of the front and the back pieces (straight through). The head is attached to the front body piece with sticky Velcro squares. I used a metal kabob skewer to punch small holes to attached the front and back pieces. The top edge is attached with 1 inch ring binder rings which act as a hinge. On the sides there is a place for twine to keep it from opening up too wide. Shirley looked a little 'flat' so I used black and gray crayons and markers to draw random swirls and squiggles to look like curly wool. I found neon pingpong (table tennis) balls at Oriental Trading Co.

The game is adorable but the day of our party was too windy to actually play it. I’m tucking it away to bring out at the next party.