Rainbow Fish Birthday Party

I'll grant that "Rainbow Fish" is a bit random for a  party theme, but it was the best way I could see to combine the odd assortment of  things we thought up for my daughters's joint birthday party.

Things like this super easy but fun aquarium cake (inspired by Cakes and Cukes)

an Ocean Punchbowl (once upon the time there were fish in there, but they sank and were never seen again).

Rainbow bell peppers and dip (and of course, Pepperidge Farms rainbow goldfish fit right in there; so we had to have those as well)

Fish Straws (these gummy fish worked great for the cake and straws)

Rainbow doorways (If you've been following me for a while you'll remember our jumping through a rainbow day)

A bubble pond

Underwater artwork decorations.  Each guest to the party drew a picture of fish or an underwater creature to give to my daughters in lieu of presents (no more toys!! :)

Fishing game with waterbeads and marbles (more about this later)

Fishing hats for coloring party favors.  I traced the fish onto each hat using the easy method I wrote about this summer.  The googly eyes were affixed with Jewel It glue.  Each guest got to color their fish with regular markers.  Every time they go through the wash, the hats can be colored all over again.

I'm really a fan of using hats as party favors, by the way.  It makes for such a cute group picture to commemorate the party.

and my personal favorite, rainbow streamers on the ceiling fans.  The picture doesn't do justice to how fun it is to stand in the middle of a rainbow swirling all around you.  (Just be careful where and how you affix the streamers or it quickly becomes a tangled mess!)

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Sticker Resist T-Shirts

Ever since I discovered the fun sticker and tape resist art technique that bloggers like Putti  Prapancha have featured, I've been giddy with all the possibilities.  We've done thank you cards, and tape resist collages, and just yesterday we tried our hand at sticker resist t-shirts.

Michaels has been had some pretty decent t-shirt sales, and I bought up a bunch of them the other day.  I got out our big pot of foam alphabet stickers and let the girls dig through to find the letters of their name.  We made sure that the stickers were pressed on nice and firm and that the names were centered decently well.

Then I got out the acrylic and fabric paints we happened to have around the house (acrylic paint works just fine on fabric, by the way...the only real advantage of fabric paint is the softness and flexibility) and told the girls to dab on colors close to the foam stickers.

They needed to guidance (and help in little G's case) getting the paint into all the little corners and crevices, but we got there eventually.

Since the girls like using lots of paint, I let it dry for about 4 hours before I ventured to take off the stickers.  I think next time, I would choose slightly larger alphabet stickers, but mostly, we were pretty happy with our t-shirts.  I like how they look kind of like a celebration of children's arts and crafts.

Excuse the bed heads on our top picture; we were excited to try them on as soon as the girls got up this morning. :)

Cookie Cutter Snack Cheeses

I really like cookie cutters, but I have to admit: sometimes I don't relish the prospect the mess and hassle of making a batch of cookie dough. Then, of course, there's the trouble of transferring the delicate cookies to the cookie sheet without good ole Gingerbread Man losing an arm or a head!

When there was a small party the other day to which I was bringing cheese and crackers and I happened to notice some of our flower cookie cutters in the closet, I decided that M might enjoy the idea of making pretty cheese flowers for the ladies at our church. And she did!
I imagine there are lots of things besides cookie dough that would work well with cookie cutters. Have any of you had good experiences you could share?

Balloon Treats Party Favors

Balloons make most things more fun, don't you think? Even cheesy little 10 cent toys and cheap candies! That was the philosophy behind the party favors for M's Yellow Birthday Party last month.

The night before the party, we filled each balloon with a small trinket, and a couple of wrapped candies. Then we blew up the balloons, tied them, and hung them with ribbon from the eaves of our front porch. As each guest left the party they got to cut down a balloon and take it home to pop so they could find their little surprises.(I was thinking that it would have been fun to include a little note or joke inside of each balloon also, but we I ran out of time.)

Homemade Bean Bag Toss

In my mind a bean bag toss is the quintessential party game- simple, quick, and the difficulty level is easily adjusted for a wide age range. Growing up, we had a big, wooden clown target with holes that I imagine my mother purchased at a garage sale. By the last time we used him I think most of the paint had worn away from his red clown smile and the wood was starting to warp.

Though an avid garage saler myself, I haven't yet had the good fortune to run across any ready-made targets and I couldn't stomach the idea of paying twenty dollars or more for a set that would likely seem chintzy anyway. So, I scrounged around for the makings of a homemade set.

An old maternity shirt furnished the material for the bean bags (which I filled with yellow split peas from the split pea treasure hunt mentioned below). For the targets I used foam stars from the craft store that I stenciled with numbers. The stenciling proved to be a bit more work than I had counted on. I had planned to buy some cheap number stencils at the craft store, but couldn't find anything under $7 which seemed a bit much. So, instead, I printed some large numbers off on cardstock, cut them out with scissors, taped up the incision and used those as stencils. (I found that it is important to use a very dry brush or they run and drip easily)

We taped them on the floor with packing tape. I was a little afraid that the tape wouldn't hold up to the thrown beanbags, but it did fine (maybe it wouldn't have if the kids had been older and rougher).

It wasn't anything spectacular, but it looked fine, worked fine and saved me a little money!

The Yellow Split Pea Treasure Hunt

20 pounds of yellow split peas

+ 20 pounds of white rice

+ cheap yellow foam visors from the craft store

+ lots of foam stickers

= a very fun and unique birthday party activity!

We used two big tupperware containers to hold the rice and split peas and buried hundreds of foam stickers in each tub. Each guest at the party was given a yellow visor and dug for stickers to decorate their hats throughout the party.Just sifting, pouring, and feeling the rice and peas was a wonderful sensory experience for the kids, and adding the "buried treasure" element made it especially fun. It WAS a bit of work to clean up but I would do it again in a heartbeat. (Now I just have to find about six dozen recipes for dried yellow split peas!)

Birthday Balloons Wreath

I really enjoyed the mindlessness of making this wreath. It kind of "made itself" one evening while my husband and I watched a movie. Now I have something cheery to hang on the door every time there's a birthday in the house!

Supplies:

Large straw wreath (with plastic still on so that it won't shed)
About 142 balloons
Florist pins

M's Yellow Birthday Party

This past week when M turned three we celebrated our first ever real birthday party at our house. I'm afraid I got a little more carried away with it than I had originally intended (I don't like the idea of setting a precedent of too much expense or fuss) but we also found some good ways for making it fun while keeping it relatively inexpensive.

1. We chose a simple party theme: the color yellow (M's favorite) Having a theme that wasn't too specific made it easier to take advantage of sales, etc.

2. Homemade cake. Making it myself was much less expensive and all I did was cover it with yellow frosting and colored Necco candies. It was easy and cute!

3. Much of the table and serving ware was complimentary because I was reviewing it for Smarty had a Party, a company that specializes in elegant disposable dinnerware. They sent some really nice things for us to use: napkins, plates, tablecloths, cups, fun yellow petals to sprinkle on the tables as well as really nice flatware that looked like real silverware. Probably the nicest thing though was the set of wood skewers with yellow wooden balls on the ends for easy holding. Those really looked nice and worked well!

4. Big bunches of yellow wildflowers from a nearby field brightened up the party for free!

5. Homemade party favors, decorations and activities. I'll be writing specific posts about some of those later this week.I'd love to hear more idea for creative and inexpensive birthday parties for use in future years. Please feel free to leave ideas in the comments section!

A very merry unbirthday...

Does your family have a long space of time during the year when nobody has a birthday? Here's something to break up the monotony of everyday life: throw a surprise unbirthday party!

Dinosaur Birthday Party

Do you have a little boy with a birthday coming up? I have just come across a delightful idea for his party!

How about a dinosaur party with the following activities?

Dinosaur Dig

Save all of your chicken, turkey, and beef bones from dinner for a few months. Boil them so that all of the meat comes off. Then bury them in your sandbox or in an old garden bed. Give the birthday guests buckets and send them off on an archeological dig to find as many bones as they can.

Museum Creations

Let the kids create their own creatures out of the bones they have just found. Give them white modeling clay to hold the bones together. Distribute index cards so they can make placards for their creatures and encourage them to make up names and descriptions. Each guest can take his/her dinosaur home in a shoe box.

Colossal Volcano Eruption

As a climax to your party, make a giant volcano eruption in the sandbox. Ask the kids to make a big mound of sand. Maybe you can have little plastic dinosaurs and trees and such available for them to decorate the scene. In the middle of the mound, bury all but the top of a clean frozen juice can containing 1/4 cup baking soda. In another can mix 1 cup water with 2/3 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup diswashing liquid and a few drops of red food dye. When the kids are all paying attention, pour the vinegar mixture into the volcano and enjoy the foamy eruption!


(It's probably worth noting on the invitations that guests should arrive in play clothes that they don't mind getting dirty)

This idea for a party is from Prime Time Together with Kids by Donna Erikson

Old Fashioned Taffy Pull

The slumber parties at our house growing up were always unique, and there was one activity in particular that none of my friends ever did anywhere else but at our house. When the night was getting late, things had started to die down, and we were scrambling around for something to do next, my mother would be in the kitchen cooking up a batch of vinegar taffy for us to pull.