3 Easy (Rainbow-Tastic) Party Activities for Kids
As I mentioned yesterday, I have a few posts I want to share related to simplifying birthday parties for kids. If I can manage, I'll bust everything out this week while things are top of mind. First, I want to share the 3 easy (and delightfully rainbow-tastic!) party activities I planned for Laurel's party. You can do these any time, really, and I recommend doing the chalk paint ASAP while the weather is good. So easy and fun. Enjoy!
1. Rainbow chalk paint. A while ago I shared some Instagram pictures of chalk paint and people went crazy. Friends, it is SO STINKIN' EASY and kids apparently freak out over the ability to paint outside on big things. For the party, I bought an 8-pack of inexpensive large paintbrushes (and collected a few other large brushes from our craft stash), gathered 12 plastic containers from our reusables supply, and Laurel and Vi mixed up the paint: equal parts water + cornstarch (I used a half cup of each per container) + food coloring. I told the kids to go bananas on the driveway. They loved it.
2. Rainbow bracelets. After recently talking to my friend Janelle about the rainbow loom craze, I picked up 6 packs of colors + fasteners at a local craft store. Crochet hooks are recommended (we collected a few I had in my craft supply) but it turns out you don't need crochet hooks to do this project...nimble little fingers work just fine.
I placed the rainbow loops in two black take-out trays and laid them out on blankets in the backyard and the girls went to town crafting (while singing Taylor Swift songs). For a really, really long time. Incidentally, Laurel received a rainbow loom kit for her birthday. She's been having fun working on more complex creations too.
3. Rainbow frosted cupcakes. The last activity was decorate your own cupcakes. Awesome because kids go crazy over rainbow icing. Extra awesome because the cupcakes also served as the party favor (I gave each kid three cupcakes to decorate and encouraged them to share with family...I can't guarantee that the latter actually happened). Yay for tchotchke-free favors!
For rainbow frosting you will need:
- Vanilla frosting (your favorite recipe or store bought)
- Six bowls + spoons
- Food coloring (I recommend gel over liquid drops so the frosting doesn't get runny and because the colors are more vibrant)
- Frosting bags (I bought a pack of disposable bags, one for each kid)
- Frosting tips (you can get these at a party store; I already own a ridiculous amount of piping tips)
Simply divide the frosting across six bowls and mix in colors. With disposable frosting bags, cut the tip off the bag and fit piping tip inside. To load, I found it was easiest to fold over and invert the bags into empty plastic cups to keep the bags upright so I could move along and fill the bags assembly line style, dropping small spoonfuls in rainbow order and repeating until all the frosting was used up. I secured the bags with rubber bands so the kids wouldn't have to worry about twisting and holding the bags shut.
You can prep the icing a day in advance. Just be sure to take the bags out of the fridge about an hour before you want to do the project so the frosting is at room temperature and the kids can easily squeeze out the contents. Otherwise, if they goof around too much with the frosting bag without actually squeezing anything out, the colors will mix and turn brown.
The effect was AWESOME and I only regret that I don't have a photo of the finished product. I tried to use Violet's frosting bag to pipe a cupcake to photograph it and, well, I got screamed at for taking her frosting bag. I decided to let the kids enjoy the moment and not worry about photography.
So fun, right? I hope you have fun with these projects. The kids had a great time and thanks to these awesome activities, they spent the entire party outside. WIN!