Potions!

Have you ever done the ol' volcano experiment with vinegar and baking soda? We sure have. Many times. Many, many, MANY times. And it never seems to get old. We've built volcanoes out of papier mâché and salt dough. The kids love it. But sometimes I just want to try something new. Even if it's essentially the same thing, I want to present it in a new, fun way. That's what happened here.

The key to this activity was discretion. I didn't tell the kids what ingredients we were actually using. I simply took random ingredients from the kitchen and gave them cool labels:

 

Baking soda = fairy dust      

Cocoa powder = dirt from an ogre's swamp

 

 Salt = crystals from the dwarf mines

Corn meal = phoenix dandruff

Food colouring = snake venom, elf tears, dragon's blood, four-leaf clover extract, and unicorn saliva.
Vinegar = mermaid sweat

 Everybody starts with a "cauldron" of mermaid sweat. They can add any ingredients they want (for my older girls I had them decide what their potion was for and they had to write out the name of the potion and a list of ingredients). The only stipulation is that they have to add fairy dust and it has to be the last ingredient they add (I told them they had to say some magic words when they added it). The great part of this activity is that it is great for all ages!        
       

   

 

Happy brewing!

Inside Out

   When my daughter turned 5 she absolutely adored the movie "Inside Out". She loved it so much that she wanted that for the theme of her birthday party.

   Games and activities:

1.  Bag decorating (I don't have a picture of this) - give each child a brown paper bag. I had previously cut out different facial features that represented different emotions. You could also have the kids cut out their own, but I didn't have the scissor power and I wanted to keep it simple.

2.  Pin the Trunk on Bing Bong:

I painted this guy up, using the old school grid technique to draw him out first. I wanted to make the entire picture of him so we could use him as future decoration in her room. For the game, I just covered up his trunk with white paper so that you couldn't see it. I then made trunks out of construction paper for the kids to use in the game. Add a blindfold, and there you have it!

3.  "Disgust's Ice Cream Eating":

This one's a pretty simple activity. Kids eat ice cream on a plate without using their hands. I used plastic bags for their bibs. When they were done they got to show off their disgusting, chocolatey faces and make one of Disgust's iconic facial expressions.

4.  The Sadness Leg Pull:

 

 This game was particularly entertaining. I laid out some treats and prizes along the hallway. My dear husband was Joy and the kids took turns being Sadness. Joy pulled Sadness by the leg and Sadness had to collect as many treats and prizes along the hallway as possible (they each held the little bag that was decorated at the beginning of the party in order to stash away the goods). This was definitely the biggest hit among the kids.

5.  Emotions Photo Booth:

I made a very simple backdrop by painting the different colours and then adding printouts of the characters. Easy peasy! Then we took pictures of each kid at the party doing whichever of the emotions he/she wanted to do. Of course we adults joined the fun!

6.  "Inside Out" Character Cupcakes:

I'm no professional cake decorator, but I tried my hand at drawing out some faces on the cupcakes. The nice part about this kind of a party is that as long as you have the colours about right and the faces in the general shape of the characters, the kids will love them. They loved that they could choose a character to eat and they tasted yummy. Win/win!

So there you have it. It was a really fun party and the kids had such a good time doing the various games and activities. It just goes to show that you don't have to spend a lot of money in order to have a successful birthday party.