Spaghetti Squish: I filled a small kiddie pool with cooked spaghetti for the kids to walk around in to feel the squishy texture. The spaghetti was coated in oil so it wouldn't get stuck in one giant ball, but I may have overestimated the amount a bit. As a result, we had plenty of oiled-up, slippery kids running around. I also may have underestimated what the kids would actually do with the spaghetti. They didn't just step in it, Lucy-and-Ethel-style; they smashed it into their hair, rolled around in it, draped it over their bodies, and flung it at each other.
Oatmeal Bath: Same principle, but this time the kiddie pool was filled with uncooked oatmeal. The kids walked around in it to feel the texture, but also mashed it into their (wet, oily) hair, flung it at each other and up into the air, and generally spread it all around. I'm pretty sure the birds and squirrels are still feasting on the leftovers.
Pudding Painting: I set up a table with a roll of paper draped on it, and bought industrial-size cans of chocolate pudding for finger painting. Fun, but according to some observers (not the kids), the pudding was not up to snuff in terms of taste.
Cookie Decorating: The other table was set up with different types of cookies, and implements of decorating, including frosting, sprinkles, gel for writing, chocolate and butterscotch chips, and candy decorations. Yum!
Balloons: There were plenty of filled balloons on hand for the kids to throw at each other, step on, or otherwise break open. Some were filled with water, some with chocolate pudding (courtesy of the hard prep work of Avalon), and some with Smarties. I think the kids who got the ones with Smarties were happiest -- they weren't expecting candy to burst forth!
Silly String: Janis brought many bottles of silly string, which lasted all of about five minutes in a crazed frenzy. I also contributed a few bottles of whipped cream to add to the fun and confusion.
M&M Hunt: We put M&Ms on a plate, then covered them with whipped cream and had the kids find them without using their hands. It was a really fun game, until a whipped cream fight erupted between two of the older kids, and one of the parents was the recipient of a direct hit -- all over her and her camera. The only casualty of the day.
Cake and Ice Cream: What party would be complete without cake and ice cream? Of course, there was a twist: no plates or serving utensils allowed. The kids just dug in with their bare hands.
Cleanup for the kids was fairly easy: we just filled a big kiddie pool with water, and Janis brought some cool colored gel soap bottles. Then they hosed themselves off in the sprinkler, and they were good to go. [Side note: Trust me, you do not want to mistake gel soap for the gel cookie-decorating writing stuff and lick it off your finger! That was a mistake I hope to never repeat in this life or any other.] Cleaning up the yard wasn't even as hard as we thought it would be. We put tarps under everything to start with, so most of it just got balled up and thrown away. The rest of it was raked up fairly quickly with some help from Dylan and Brady (who were atoning for their whipped-cream-camera mishap and some extreme spaghetti flinging), and Janis and Laura, who were nice enough to stick around to help clean up a little bit. Then it was just a matter of hosing off the tables and chairs and putting everything away. Success!
As for the boys, they were so happy with the way everything turned out that they're already asking me when they can have another messy party. To which I reply, definitely not anytime soon. It was really fun, but a little too labor-intensive and costly to repeat. I consoled them with the hope that maybe next time, one of their friends' parents will want to have a messy party instead. Yes, it's a slim hope, but what else was I going to say?
No comments:
Post a Comment