I’m working on a sleepover party now, and since the party will last longer than the standard two-hour time frame, I thought I’d leave the order of activities up to the girls. But on the other hand, I’m WAY too organized to leave it completely up to them and I can’t abide the thought of the guests shouting out (and maybe disagreeing) about what’s next. Leave it to my 8-year-old to save the day: what we need is a cootie catcher.
Remember these from grade school? I honestly didn’t until Baby B came home from school looking for folding help. But it all came back pretty quickly! I decided to tie the cootie catcher into the party theme with paper from the Love the Day “night owl” collection I’m using for the party.
How to fold your cootie catcher
1. Print the three solid papers from the party collection.
2. Trim a sheet of white paper into an 8.5″ square.
2. Fold the four corners in so each corner forms a triangle. You should now have a smaller square.
3. Fold each corner backwards. Again, you should have a smaller square.
4. Cut a square out of the other paper colors and glue one to each square.
5. Flip over the square. You should have four triangles, each split in the middle. Label each half-triangle with a number, 1 through 8.
6. Open each triangle flap. Write a different party activity on each flap. The activities I was willing to happen at any time were:
- Owl mani pedis
- Facials
- Photo booth
- Sign pilowcases
Of course, we’ll have other activities (like watching a movie and maybe catching fireflies or decorating owl cupcakes), but I want more control over the timing of those activities, so I won’t add them to the cootie catcher.
7. Crease the center vertical and horizontal lines of your cootie catcher.
How to do the cootie catcher thing
1. With the numbers facing up, insert fingers from both hands into the bottom of the cootie catcher and pinch it so the colored papers show.
2. Pick one person to control the cootie catcher and another to make choices. First, pick a color. Open the close the cootie catcher to spell out the name of the color. For example, P-I-N-K, opening and closing on each letter.
3. Now, pick a number from the numbers that are showing. So, if 5, 6, 1, and 2 are showing and 5 is picked, count and open and close 1-2-3-4-5.
4. Pick from the next numbers showing and open the flap marked by the number. Voila, you now know that your next activity is signing pillowcases.
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