For school-aged children, there may be nothing like a Mad Scientist Party, especially as school gets underway and kids are back in science class. It will be a fun party theme that holds their attention, and could even be educational. If your child is interested in the wacky side of science, seriously consider this theme!

Invitations:
Using large size test tubes with a rubber stopper, print all of the party details on a small piece of paper that can be rolled up and placed into the test tube. On the outside of the tube, write in permanent marker, “Inside contains the Mad Scientist Secret Formula for Party Fun!” These will have to be hand-delivered or mailed in cushioned envelopes.

Decorations:
• At the entrance to the party, make a sign welcoming them to Dr. X’s Mad Lab!
• In the party room, make it look like a high tech lab using the colors of silver and black.
• Using black construction paper, cut out question marks, mathematical formulas, etc. and place around the party room.
• Have green slime on the tables and around the room.
• Fill different sizes of jars with colored water. Inside, place plastic eyeballs, hands, noses, plastic animals, etc.
• At the tables where the Mad Scientist experiments will happen, place face masks, magnifying glasses, test tubes, etc. to make the area look authentic.
• When the kids arrive, provide them with white coats, and have them create a nametag. Don’t just have them use their own names, but make up a mad scientist name, i.e. “Dr. Insanity.”

Activities: You can either have the kids do the activities together, or rotate throughout the party room to different lab stations to complete the different mad science activities.

Make Green Ooze! 3/4 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup water. Mix together. Add green food coloring to look like Slime.

Static Electricity: (balloons, aluminum soda can) Blow up balloons and rub them in the kids’ hair to make it rise. Set soda can on a hard surface so it can roll. Use one of the rubbed balloons and move it closer to the can. Does it move the can? Will the rubbed balloon stick to a wall?

A Shocker: Need one per child: 1 penny, 1 lemon, 1 paper clip. Cut a slit 1/4 inch in to the lemon to fit the penny, then another for the paperclip, close to but not touching the penny. Let the kids touch their tongues to each of the metals.

Falling Coin: 1 glass, 1 index card, 1 coin. Place card over glass evenly. Place coin in center. Flick the card end with your finger to send it flying. What happens to the coin?

Suck an Egg into a Jar: 1 hard boiled egg, peeled and at room temperature,
1 narrow top jar (baby food jars work well), hot water. The egg will not fit into the jar on it’s own. Fill the jar with the hot water for 2-3 minutes. Pour this out and set the egg on the opening. The egg will end up inside the jar.

Osmotic Celery: Cut celery stalks and set them in glasses of tinted water. The stalks will absorb the color and then the kids can eat them!

OUTDOORS ACTIVITY:

Volcano Eruption: Make a volcano from a soda can, set on a tin pan, and form papier-mâché around it. Leave the hole in the top open. Dry and paint browns and greens. To make the volcano erupt, place baking soda in the can then pour in vinegar, tinted with food coloring.

Rocket launch: Fill a small plastic film canister with one teaspoon of water. Quickly add one Alka-Seltzer tablet, put the lid on, and place the canister on the floor with the lid side down. Wait about 10 seconds and then your rocket should fly into the air.

Games:

Atom Burst: Tie two balloons to each of the kids’ ankles. Have them run around trying to burst the atoms. The last kid with a “live atom” wins!

Mini-Molecules: Take very close-up pictures of everyday items around your home. During the party, have the kids use their magnifying glasses to figure out what they are.

Scientist Scramble: Muddle up the names of famous scientists, and have them work them out properly.

Menu:

Serve snacks in clear bowls and name them madly, i.e. electric chips, magnetic munchers, etc.
• Serve electric dogs, i.e. hot dogs.
• Serve green Kool-Aid. Place plastic critters and body parts into the punch for extra madness!

Goody Bags:
Send the kids home with a facemask, test tubes, green slime, goggles, magnifying glasses, magnets, etc. Alternatively, send them home with test tubes filled with candy like M&Ms.
Have a fab mad party!

Looking for a few new classic games to play at your kids’ parties beyond Musical Chairs and Pin the Tail on the Donkey?

Why not try …

Pass the Parcel 
items needed: gift wrap, small present, music
This game is hugely popular in the UK and Australia! Wrap your prize in as many layers of gift wrap as you have kids attending. Have the children pass the parcel around to one another while music plays. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel must unwrap one layer. The game continues until the last child unwraps the final layer and wins!

Candy Hunt 
items needed: candy, paper bags
Hide the candy around the party area and give each guest a paper bag. Give them five minutes to find as much candy as they can. The children can take these sweet bags home as the party favor.

Sock ‘Em 
items needed: socks, music, a prize
Make a huge pile of socks, perhaps ten times as many as the number of kids attending the party. Play music and have the guests try to put on as many socks as possible while it is on. When you turn the music off, whoever has the most socks on wins the prize!

Button, Button 
items needed: a button
Ask a birthday guest to leave the room, and hide a button in the party area. When the child returns, have him or her try to find the button. The other guests must direct the child by saying if he or she is hot or cold as compared to the location of the button. Once the button is found, another guest is chosen until all have had a turn.

Balloon Buds 
items needed: balloons, a prize
Pair up the kids into teams. Have the teams stand back to back with one another with a balloon wedged between them their backs. The kids must walk sideways with the balloon in place to a designated finish line. The team the crosses the finish line first wins! If a team drops the balloon they must begin again!

This is a party theme that is easy to put together, very budget friendly, and often a favorite of kids aged 2 to 3-years-old. Essentially, the party is all about the party child. Given that kids this age are learning and recognizing who they are, having a party that reflects them will be a lot of fun for this age. For you, it is super easy to put together!

Here are the tips:

1. Ask your guests to dress in the same outfit as your child will. Make it something simple like jeans and a blue T-shirt. When everyone walks in they will be dressed exactly as your kid.

2. Decorate with your child’s favorite colors using balloons, streamers, and tableware. If there is a favorite candy, have these scattered around the table as well. Print off pictures of your kid and have these hanging around the party room as well. You could also attach the pictures from streamers for additional fun decorations for when the guests arrive at your party.

3. Have several of your child’s favorite toys on a table and Play Dough for the kids to make replica creations of your kid’s favorite things.

4. Have the birthday kid lead the gang in a round of “Simon Says,” but use your child’s name instead of Simon.

5. Play “Pin the Nose on _ (Your child’s name.)” Print off a very large picture of your kid and hang it up. Cut out a big red nose and have them use this to try and pin the nose on.

6. What are some other fun games your child loves? Charades? Tag? Hide and Seek? Freeze? Mother May I? Red Light, Green Light? Whatever those favorite games are, if you have the room, play them.

7. Take pictures of each guest with your child, and place it into a frame to be taken home by the guests for the party favor. If you have a digital camera, these pictures can be printed off and placed in the frames. Alternatively, send the frames home and send the pictures with the thank you notes afterwards.
8. Have a cake with a picture of the birthday child on it. Make it his favorite cake and icing flavors.

9. Serve your child’s favorite foods, even if outlandish, like Fruity Pebbles, serve them up to keep with your theme. It will add fun to the party menu.

The point of the whole party is to celebrate the uniqueness of your child and to share this with everyone at the party. It is easy, budget-friendly, and because there is no one just like your kid, it will be very special!

Banana Splits are so yummy, especially for kids during summertime. One of the BEST parts of this ice cream classic is that you can either make your own concoctions or stick to the tried and true. If your child loves to make and eat banana splits, a great summer-themed party could revolve all around making, judging, and eating them!

Make invitations using bright yellow construction paper cut out into the shape of bananas. Write all of the party details on one side, and draw brown spots on the other. Alternatively, hand-deliver real bananas with tags tied to them that include all of the party details. In the invitation, ask the guests to bring their own favorite ingredient for making banana splits along with them, or have them bring a banana that they dress up in some way, i.e. with a hat on it.

Decorate the party area with yellow and brown balloons, streamers, and party ware. Have a large piece of butcher paper lying flat on a table. The kids can draw a huge banana split together and hang it in the party area.

Make the banana splits on the party table. Be sure to arrange the table so that there are dishes with all of the toppings laid out, as well as spoons, bowls, etc. You may want to pull the chairs away from the table while the kids are making their sundaes.

The main activity of the party will be making banana splits. You can have a competition where the kids make their splits using the ingredients you have laid out and the special ingredient they brought. Hold a tasting competition, where everyone gets to taste everyone else’s and wins prizes.

If you have had the kids bring a banana that is “dressed up,” have a competition to see whose is most creative, the funniest, etc. Hand out banana candies as prizes and make sure everyone wins!

Play Pass the Banana like Pass the Parcel.

Have the kids jump up and down and do “banana splits!”

Hold a series of relay races with bananas. Divide the kids into two teams, and have a bowl of bananas at the opposite end of where the kids race from. When a kid runs down, he or she must peel a banana, eat it, place the peel on his or her head, and race back to the team. The first team done wins!

For another relay race, have the kids peel a banana at the start, race down to the other end and make a mini banana split, eat it, and race back. The next kid must do the same. The first team done wins!

Today, more and more parents are opting to request No Gifts on their kids’ party invitations. It often doesn’t work out very well, as some people adhere to the guideline while others ignore it altogether and bring a gift. The fact is people want to bring something to a child’s party, as a result, to get around embracing the concept of traditional gifts or no gifts at all; there are creative ideas that offer an in-between the two options:

1. Host a book exchange and organize it in a few different ways:
-Guests bring a wrapped gift and everyone takes one home.
-Some open the books on the spot; others wait until the kids have gone home.
2. Give your child an experience rather than a party. If you allow friends to be invited, let the experience be the celebration, not the stuff.
3. Hold an inexpensive gift exchange (under $10) so that every child receives a gift.
4. Request art supplies and donate them to a shelter.
5. Hobbit Practice - Better to Give than to Receive! Each child receives a gift, although they do not bring one.
6. Request a donation to a great organization like http://www.heifer.org/.
7. Contact a charity that is a favorite and ask for a Wish List, i.e. a list of stuff the organization really needs. As an example, the Humane Society may need leashes, collars, toys, etc. Request guests bring these items in lieu of birthday gifts to donate and make the wishes come true!
8. Whatever donations are brought to the party for a favorite charity, have the birthday child deliver the donations to his chosen charity.

This is a great round-up of ideas that are alternatives to traditional party gifts. Also, keep in mind, if you are concerned about the amount people will spend on a party gift for your child, it is appropriate to write in your invitation, Gifts under $__ would be appreciated. Putting a price limit guideline on the invitation can help to keep gift-giving budget friendly.

Happy Gifting ─ or not!

That silly, foolish day is almost here: that’s right, April Fool’s Day!! It’s the perfect day to play some tricks and jokes on your kids. You could do just one, several, or make a full day of slapstick fun. If you are interested in doing something special to kick off April, check out these quick and easy ideas:

1. Place a For Sale sign in your front yard. That will get your kids asking what’s going on, especially if it says “sold.”
2. Place Wet Paint signs on the walls of your home. I’ll bet your kids will just have to touch the walls and see if it’s for real!
3. Place No Trespassing signs on the toilet. What a way to wake up!
4. Place whoopee cushions or other fun gags at the breakfast table.
5. Place signs on the backs of your kids’ shirts in the morning (do this without them knowing by giving them gentle hugs). Have the signs say anything silly that is in good fun, such as, Flap your arms when I look at you, Hug me, and pat my head.
6. Make up word games, like Hang Man, that have no solutions.
7. Serve dinner for breakfast or vice versa.
8. Rearrange two rooms of furniture. Have the couch in the kitchen and the kitchen table in the family room.
9. Serve Oreo cookies as an after-school snack, but scrape off the cream and fill them with toothpaste. Minty fresh!
10. Reverse your spices. Put pepper in the salt shaker and salt in the pepper shaker.

Kids age 8 and older will appreciate the challenge of an April Fool’s Treasure Hunt. Take average clues that seem quite easy, and have your kids search for the obscure. When they figure out the first clue, it will lead to the next clue, which will lead to the next clue, and so on. Put together as many clues as you want. The last clue should lead the kids to a special treat for all of their efforts, such as a joke book.
Here are some sample clues:
1. I spout water and make everything clean (hose).
2. It’s just another way you can get to school (a wheelbarrow, if you have one or some other obscure form of transportation you have at your home).
3. I’ll keep you warm at night when it is cold (hot water bottle).
4. I see you compactly when you open me (Mom’s powder compact).
5. I’m thinner than string and can make everything squeaky clean (dental floss).
6. I keep things cool that are yum to eat (ice cooler/chest).
7. Play me to entertain you just in time (clock radio).
8. I go around and around all day long (dryer).
9. I welcome you and your guests home (front door mat/rug).
10. Stomp, run, and walk on me; I can take it and still grow (grass/front yard).
These clues will have your kids looking all over the place for these obscure things and places! You can either preface the hunt with the fact that the clues may seem easy, but are meant to be puzzling, or you can let your kids have the full challenge of figuring it out for themselves!
It doesn’t take much to mix up your April Fool’s Day and have some goofy fun! Enjoy the spirit of foolishness!

Spring is upon us! The kids are tired of being indoors, drinking hot cocoa, and watching the snow fall. The days are longer, the sun is shining brighter, there's a hint of spring flowers in the air, and snow is turning to rain; it's spring!

The vernal equinox is a wonderful time to plan some spring fun with your children. If you want to mark the entrance of spring this year, here are some resources and ideas to enjoy:

1. Plant flowers together! Head out to your local garden center, and let your kids pick out the flower bulbs they would like to plant. Have them not only plant the bulbs, but water them throughout spring and watch them grow!

2. Give your children a watercolor set and white construction paper, and have them paint their own spring masterpieces to hang around the house.

3. Enjoy bird watching! Birds are now migrating north, so it is the perfect time to head out to an open field and watch them. Of course, with it being spring, there are many opportunities to feed ducks, watch scampering squirrels, and take in the natural world coming to life.

4. When a rainy day pops up, pull on your galoshes and go splash in the puddles. Make it fun!

5. Enjoy playing Leap Frog!

6. Fly kites!

7. Play Frisbee. To make it even more interesting, play Frisbee Golf. Hang buckets from trees, and have the players toss the Frisbee into the buckets for points.

8. Purchase small terra cotta plant holders for the kids to decorate with tempera paint. They can paint bugs, butterflies, or anything else they like!

9. Gussy up lollipops to look like flowers. Using felt, googly eyes, heavy card stock, and a glue stick, create flower faces atop the lollipop. A sweet treat.

10. Make Paper Mache Eggs. Blow up small balloons and paper mache the balloon with liquid starch and newspaper strips. When the balloon is dry, stick a pin in and pop the balloon. Cut out a hole large enough for the goodies you will place inside. Fill your egg with the treats, and seal the flap with either paper mache or tape. Paint the eggs with tempura paint in a variety of spring colors, and have the kids write their names on their eggs with markers.

Have a great time celebrating spring with your kids and their friends this year. It will be a bloom'n good time!

Do you want to plan something extra special and fun with your children this St. Patrick’s Day? How about sending them on a treasure hunt to find their own pot of gold at the end of the rainbow this holiday?

Here are the creative clues to use:

• Blarney Stone: Kiss me and maybe you’ll be as lucky as we!
• Shamrock: Small, lush, four-leaf, and green, pick me and make a wish for your favorite team.
• Pot of Gold: If you follow the rainbow, I’m what you’ll find, making you rich in mind.
• Rainbow: In the midst of light rain, with sun shining through, I’ll make beautiful colors true.
• Leprechaun: Small and green, with top hat on head, I’ll visit on St. Patty’s and spin some legendary Irish lore.
• Irish Jig: A little dance to keep the cheer of the day. Once you have figured it out, dance your way to the next clue.
• Green: I rhyme with bean and mark the annual day. No matter if a button, flower, balloon, or flag in the parade, I am the color to wear today!
• Top Hat: Standing tall and black atop your head, I bring a funny look to your stead.
• Ireland: Where it all began on the Emerald Isle.
• Famous Sayings: “When __________ are _________.” & “______ o’ the _________ to you!”

Have your kids figure out the clues and find the objects around your home. The last clue should lead them to their own pot of chocolate coins!

When you are finished with your treasure hunt, serve up a green menu your children are sure to find lucky:
Make a Green Shake for breakfast: Blend one banana, 2 cups of lime sherbet, and 2 cups of milk.

Magic Milk: Add a few drops of green food coloring to the bottom of the glass and add milk!

Golden Coins: Use Ritz crackers, peanut butter, and butterscotch chips. Spread the peanut butter on one Ritz cracker, top with second cracker. Melt the butterscotch chips and dip the sandwich crackers in it to coat, and place on wax paper.

Shamrock Mashed Potatoes: Prepare mashed potatoes and have the kids add a few drops of green food coloring. On their plates, let them play with their food and make shamrocks out of their mashed potatoes!

Leprechaun Dust: Use one box of Jell-O™ instant pistachio pudding, milk, and empty, clean baby food jars. Place one tablespoon of the Jell-O™ powder into the baby food jars, and add milk to fill the jar. Have the kids shake it up to turn it to green!

Serve a Green Buffet: Grapes, pickles, olives, cookies, cupcakes, kiwi, green apples, celery, broccoli, cucumber, pear, green Jell-O™ pudding, sour apple jelly beans, etc.
Enjoy this Top O’ the Morning day!

A perfect outdoor winter venue for a party is an ice-skating rink! It is usually quite inexpensive to have a group skate, and facilities typically offer a party room to host the lunch/cake/presents. For kids age 6 and up, this is a very good idea. Planning this theme can take as little as 30 minutes as well. So, if you don’t have a lot of time and want to hold your party outside of your home, this may be a great idea for you.

If so, here are a few suggestions and points to keep in mind as you plan:

• Call the facility 4-6 weeks in advance in order to secure the party room.
• You may want to inquire if there is a skating instructor available to help the beginners learn to skate, and to teach a few moves to those kids who already know how to skate.
• Ask the facility if you are able to bring in themed party decorations for the party room. The colors, blue, silver, and white would be good choices for this theme, though any color scheme will work here. Balloons, streamers, and party ware are all easy decorations to bring the party room to life.
• In your party invitations, make sure to provide the details of the facility. Also, guests’ parents will assume that the host will be paying for the kids to skate. It is a good idea to make it clear on the invitation that the kids’ skating tickets will be taken care of.
• You will need to decide if you will also pay for skate rentals. If so, ask the parents to provide their kids’ shoe sizes to you when they RSVP. You can rent the skates upon your arrival and have them waiting for the kids when they arrive.
• If you want guests to pay for their own skate rental, note this plainly in the invitation. The invitation can be in the shape of a skate with all of the details included on it.
• The main activity of the party will be skating! So, there is very little need for you to plan additional activities or games. Let the kids get their skates on and enjoy the rink.
• When the kids arrive, provide them with nametags or something they can pin on themselves so you can easily identify which kids in the facility are attending your party. This can also be a party keepsake.
• When the kids become tired, have them take a break. Often, skating facilities provide pizza or some other party food that kids enjoy. If you’d like food, be sure to make this arrangement with the facility beforehand.
• If lunch will not be provided, handing out a bag filled with little treats, such as a bag of chips, piece of fruit, granola bar, popcorn ball, etc., may also be a good idea.
• For a party goody:Provide a little bag of skating stuff: a pair of gloves, hot cocoa mix, lip gloss (for chapped lips!), skating stickers, skating keychain, etc.
• Another idea is to send home decorated skate cookies placed into cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon.
• Make sure to take a snapshot of the kids on ice to include in your thank you notes.

It is that time of year again, and everyone is gearing up for the big game. In anticipation of Super Bowl Sunday, it’s a great time to throw a party and include the kids! They may or may not understand football, but they certainly understand the fun and excitement of the big game. And, oh boy, if you are lucky enough to have a football-crazy boy with a late January or early February birthday, half your planning is done for you!

To decorate, throw football confetti on the party table and around the room. If you have any football “stuff” in your home, such as jerseys, knee pads, shoulder pads or other memorabilia, put it out as well.

Arrange your party area and furniture to accommodate all of your guests. This is an especially good time to set up a separate kids’ area if possible. You can decorate the kids’ table with a football tablecloth and a balloon tied to each chair, perhaps in the color scheme of the teams playing, or the team you are favoring!

When your guests arrive, hand out a safety pin for each person to wear and make “football” the quiet word. When someone says “football,” the person who catches him collects his safety pin. The person who has the most safety pins at the end of the game wins!

Assign a party referee—an older kid may love to play this role. Have him wear a referee shirt and throw a yellow flag for the following offenses:

• Party Foul: Double dipping anything!
• Holding: Holding on to food for too long!
• Illegal use of hands or language

Have the kids make their own paper footballs. Buy brown construction paper, black markers and finger paint kits for decorating their balls. Play a round of football Pictionary and definitely include the kids. Some of the words teams may want to draw include cheerleaders, penalty, helmet, pass, bleachers, fans, safety and touchdown.

Have the kids break open a football piñata. You can fill it with trading cards, whistles, bubble gum, stickers, etc. for goodies to take home.

If you have two TVs in your home, arrange one for non-football viewing. Even kids with good attention spans can find the pre- and post-game shows and all the hoopla of the big game a liitle long.

Serve a great party food menu and make sure to rename each item to fit the party’s theme:

• Nachos (Touchdown Tortillas),
• Hot Dogs (Holding Hot Dogs),
• Munchies (Defense Doodles)

Other foods to serve include a large pot of chili with breadsticks, veggie platters with dips, cheese platters with crackers and relish side dish, etc.

For dessert, make a batch of brownies and cut them out with football-shaped cookie cutters.

Here’s to the best team winning and the kids really whooping it up for the big game!

It’s winter outside and many people are actually snowed in and/or digging out from the snow. Your kids may be developing cabin fever, and are looking forward to not only spring blooming, but summer break. You can give them a little taste of the fun to come this summer by throwing their winter birthday at the local indoor swimming pool. It can either be at a hotel, YMCA or local gym that has an indoor pool and rent it out for kids’ parties. It should be pretty easy to find a place to hold your event, and easy to put together!

In your invitation, have the party guests bring their swimsuits, a change of clothes, flip flops and a towel. The entire party will be taken with the kids swimming and playing together in the pool. Hopefully, you will dive right in as well, or have a few parents who are interested in getting in as well, so they can lead some games too:

1. Marco Polo

2. Hold a Rubber Duck Race. Give each child a rubber duck and have them use their noses to move it to the other side of the pool. First one there wins!

3. Play Shark! The birthday kid starts off as the shark and must tag the fish, i.e. the rest of the kids. As they are tagged, they also become sharks. Game is over when the pool is full of sharks!

4. Who can make the biggest splash? Make sure to follow pool rules however!
5. Place floating toys all throughout the pool, and divide the kids into two teams. Blow a whistle and see which team can gather the most floaters in a two minute time frame.

6. Have the kids swim through rings, i.e. hula hoops

7. Play Water volleyball

Besides swimming, make sure to have fun pool party food and drinks on hand:

1. Juice boxes and small water bottles would be ideas

2. Fish Chow, combine popcorn, raisins, gummy fish, Goldfish crackers, and chocolate chips. Yummy snack.

3. Serve small sandwiches cut into little fish shapes and filled with all sorts of fillings.

4. Ordering pizza would be an easy option for this party too.

5. Have fruits cut up and placed on skewer sticks and yogurt dips available for dipping.

6. Serve Blue Jell-O with gummy fish inside the Jell-O.

And finally, send the kids home with a taste of summer: beach balls!
It will certainly be an easy party to pull together and the kids will have loads of fun swimming and playing in the pool during the entire party; only taking a break for party food and cake. Easy and fun!

If your little one is soon to turn one and it is cold and wintry outside, a perfect theme for your party may be a fabulous Winter One-derland! If it is December, January, or February and you are sure to be throwing an indoor party, here are some ideas to pull this theme together. It will work well if older children will be attending the party. Otherwise, if you want to host a Winter Wonderland party, just drop the play on the words and you have a great party for many ages!

For your invitation, cut out an array of mittens, snowballs, scarves and snowflakes in your party colors and place all of the pertinent information on the cut outs. Use cookie cutters as guides; they can pull double duty later for craft projects or treats.

Another invitation idea is to paint Styrofoam balls with your party colors, for snowballs, and attach a tag with the party details. These invitations will need to be hand-delivered.
For the decorations, use white for one color, for snow of course, and pair it with another color you would like to use as well. Since you are emphasizing the winter time frame, if you go with a 1st Birthday theme, you may want to keep it on the generic side.

• Hang snowflakes from your ceiling at different lengths.
• Decorate the party walls with big snow people that you cut out from large cardboard and other wintry items, i.e. mittens, hats, scarves, etc.
• Cover your furniture with white sheets
• Place Styrofoam packing peanuts around the party room for the snow
• Create the look of a frozen lake by placing clear plastic bags on the floor.
• Place a sign stating, Danger: Thin Ice!
• Hang twinkly lights all over the party room.
• Make snowmen out of balloons; taping three different sizes of balloons together and decorating their faces with markers.

Craft Ideas: Make Snowmen

You will need:
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tbs. Veg. Oil
• 1 Tbs. Cream of tartar
• 1/3 cup silver glitter
• 1/4 cup white powdered tempera paint.

Mix all ingredients together. Cook over medium heat, stirring until ball is formed. Knead dough until cool. Provide bowls with bits of cloth, paper, beads, pipe cleaners, felt, etc. Have the guests sculpt their own snow dough snowman and decorate it.

Make Snow Globes: Use baby food jars and fill the jars almost to the top with water and stir in a few drops of glycerin and 1/2 a teaspoon of glitter and star and moon confetti. The glycerin increases the density of the water and causes the glitter to fall slowly. This is a great party goody for the kids to take home!

For Activities:
Hopefully, you will have snow and your party guests can make snow angels, build real snow people, go sledding, go on a winter nature hike and/or simply play in the winter wonderland!

Have a Race to the Pole.

Set up different stations in the party room and have the kids complete a different task at several “places” as they make their way to the North Pole. As example, go to Klondike, where the kids wrap up yarn into a coil, which they take to Greenland, where they dress in heavy winter clothes, to go to the Arctic Circle, where they map their progress by drawing a circle with a compass, and finally reaching the North Pole.

Play Hot Snow Ball as you would “Hot Potato.”

Have a Blizzard. Blow up a large amount of white balloons, e.g. the snow, and provide small fans to the two teams. The purpose is to fan as many of the balloons to their designated goal areas in the room. First team to get the majority of balloons in the designated area wins!

Hide icicles of various lengths around the party area. Have the two teams hunt for as many as many as possible and then, as a team, piece them together. The team to form the longest icicle wins!

For the Menu:
Make Snowman Pizza, using cheese, olives, and other veggies for the toppings!
Make Snowman Pancakes using different sizes of pancakes and have the kids decorate them with chocolate chips.
Pigs in a Blanket, to keep the piggies warm!
Ice Chips: Use any type of chips with a dip
Snowman Crackers: use cream cheese and veggies to decorate.
Make a batch of sugar cookies and cut them out into different winter shapes and have the kids decorate with sprinkles, candy, and frosting.
Serve mud and snow, hot chocolate with whipped cream
Serve little donuts rolled in powdered sugar, mini snowballs.
Serve a Polar Ice Cap. You will need: Blue Kool-Aid, ginger ale, vanilla ice cream, clear glasses, and straws. Refrigerate the Kool-Aid and ginger ale. Fill a glass almost halfway with the blue Kool-Aid. Add ginger ale almost to the top of the glass. Drop in one big snowball (scoop of vanilla ice cream), and enjoy with a straw!
Send home the Snow Globes as the favor!