3.5 year old flowergirl - ideas to keep her occupied during the speeches?

[lovecat]

DD is to be a flower girl at BIL's wedding this Saturday

DH thinks we should just leave her to run riot with her (much older) cousins, which is going to be fine once the band strikes up, but for the speeches I was thinking it might be an idea to have a party bag of bits & pieces to hand, to keep her occupied just in case she isn't transfixed by the father of the bride/best man/groom warbling on.

I freely admit I got this idea from MN (as people have suggested it in the past on this and other topics!), but if you've done this, what sort of thing do you put in it? Can't be anything messy/chocolatey, but apart from those mini-aquadraw mats, I'm drawing a bit of a blank...

So if you've done this (and it worked!), please let me know what sort of things you had in your bags!

Cheers

Iphone or ipod

download an episode of Dora the Explorer from the itunes store

provide headphones

job done

My Auntie did wee shoe boxes, wrapped in pretty sparkly paper for all the wee ones. She went to Tesco and got loads of wee bits and pieces for next to nothing, little bobbles for the girls' hair, cars, a wee mirror, beads for threading. The dcs loved them

Ooh, MP, she already has several episodes of the Wubbcast downloaded on my ipod... never thought of that!

Cheers MmeL, she's very girly so would love things like that - I shall head off to nearest Tesco megamart and investigate!

Message withdrawn

and pack the little bits in their own wee boxes, that will keep her occupied for ages

Stickers will end up on her dress, the bride's dress, the table, my head, DH's crotch.... she has no self-control when it comes to stickers, they must ALL be stuck somewhere and NOW, so unfortunately that's a no-go... but ta for the thought!

bubbles, colouring, stickers and a little sparkly notepad to stick them in.

I bought my DD a pepper pig set she wanted. She knew we had got it in the car. Told her once she had finished her meal she could have it to play with (providing she behaved). Worked a treat. As toy was new (but quiet) kept her occupied for ages. Also took a colouring book and pencils, some small character toys. I know it was bribery but she was happy and so were we. I also took some snacks as I had a feeling it would be a quite a long time from arriving at the venue till the meal was served. This helped keep her from being grizzly because she was hungry.

Thanks sweetie, that's great advice re snacks - hadn't thought of that one!

Cheers

And if you are worried about mess on her dress, do what 3 of us did at a recent friends wedding - cover them up with an adult extra large t-shirt Covers them from chin to toe

The one thing that distracted DD during the speeches was the champers glass she was given by the hotel staff, with apple juice and a straw. Amazing powers a straw can have!