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Showing posts with label {Parties}. Show all posts
Showing posts with label {Parties}. Show all posts

DIY Crackers for Christmas or New Year


DIY Crackers for New Year's Eve


Remember how fun it was pulling Christmas crackers at dinner? Well, we had loads of fun making these homemade crackers last year to pull during our New Year's Eve celebrations with the kids! They were easy to make with just recycled materials and a few odds and ends to pop inside. 


homemade DIY christmas crackers for new years eve with kids

If you want to try these all you need are some paper rolls, leftover tissue paper, glue, and bits of string or ribbon. You might also want some stickers or whatever you have on hand to decorate with.

First, we got some empty paper roll tubes and cut them to about 5 inches long (one paper towel roll cut in half).

Using a pair of scissors, we cut along the diagonal line where the tube has a seam. We cut about two thirds of the way along the roll, following the seam, leaving just the last third intact. 

Then we cut some leftover tissue paper from gifts to about double the length of the tube and wide enough to wrap the tube in. After that, we reformed the tube back into its original shape and rolled the tube up in the paper. We sealed the edge lightly with some glue. 

Using bits of string and ribbon, we tied the tissue at one end. Then we filled the tube with a few small surprises*! Once it was filled, we tied the other end, too. 

Finally, we decorated the paper with more stickers (or you could use whatever you like - glitter glue to make it sparkle?)

When the time comes to pull the cracker, one person pulling each end will tear the tissue paper and the roll will fall open, spilling treats!

*When I asked the kids what they thought we should put in our crackers, they raced around the house gathering up small things that we already owned: hair clips, tiny figures, candy, dress-up jewelry, etc. They each picked some 'surprises' for the other one's cracker. It was so sweet to see how absolutely delighted they were to find out what the other one had surprised them with, even though it was something that was already theirs! However, some other suggestions to put inside might be:

* a joke printed on a tiny scroll of paper
* a Lego or Playmobil person
* a sprinkling of glitter, if you don't mind a bit of mess
* a wrapped chocolate
* enough loom bands, loose, to make a bracelet and/or a loom band charm
* a mini pack of cards
* glow sticks (you'll need to make sure you cut your roll long enough for these)
* lip balm
* a couple of crayons and a few sheets of small note paper rolled into a scroll
* temporary tattoos
* stickers
* a finger puppet
* some kind of nature treasure: a feather, a tiny pine cone, a walnut, a pretty stone, etc.

Enjoy!


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{Rainbow Fairy Science Birthday Party!}

Rainbow Magic Fairies

Science Adventure:


An Exciting, Colourful Birthday Party!


Rainbow Magic Fairy Science Birthday Party - cover image


Princess Pea turned 7 last week, and this year she really tested my creative party planning skills by requesting a 'Science Fairy' party! (Erm...sure, honey, I can do that!) So, I put on my party planning hat and set out creating a Rainbow Magic Fairies Science Adventure party! It needed to involve fairies, magic, science experiments, and plenty of colourful fun! Read on to see what we did to create this super-fun, super-colourful, crazy party!


Rainbow Magic Fairies


Her favourite books are the Rainbow Magic Fairies series [affiliate link]. If you don't know it, check it out, they're actually pretty good books if your child is into imagination and adventure. The stories are well-written and she also likes that there is a fairy with her name, her sister's name, and the names of pretty much all of her friends, too - there are over 100 books in the series, each named after a different fairy, so there's a good chance you can find one with your daughter's name, too. Although they are fairies (inherently traditionally 'girly' to some extent), the fairies themselves have a variety of interests, so something to match most any interest your children may have - be it animals or sports or dance, or whatever. I think they've really helped my 'girly-girl' to widen her horizons, and I appreciate them for that. 


+ Love of Science


That said, there are no 'science fairies' in the series, so I needed to get creative! Since science is her favourite subject at school, she really wanted to combine those two loves into one birthday party theme! (Eh...lucky me!)


girl wearing science goggles
My budding scientist :-)


= Rainbow Magic Fairies Science Adventure!


So, I put on my party planning hat, and set out creating a Rainbow Magic Fairies Science Adventure Party (whew, what a mouthful!) It needed to involve fairies, magic, science experiments, and lots of colourful fun! (While most of the experiments were done with household items, I did order this science kit [all product links in this post are affiliate links,] which gave us some special harder-to-get ingredients as well as 'professional' equipment such as test tubes and droppers. But mostly we used empty yoghurt pots and medium and small squeeze bottles.) 

I created a story to build the party around. In the series, the antagonists are Jack Frost and his band of dull-witted goblins, who always cause trouble by messing with the fairies' magical items that they use to control events in the human world. So in our story, Jack Frost was deliberately mixing up all the colours in Fairyland, which the fairies use to colour our world as we know it, and the fairies needed our help to sort out all the colours again. 

I'll share more about the details of the experiments in a series of shorter posts, but for now, here's a glimpse of how the party actually went. I don't, unfortunately, have pictures of all of the experiments they did, but here's an overview:


The Letter


The party started off with the girls receiving a letter:


"Dear friends,


What’s your favourite colour? Everyone has a favourite colour… Mine is green, like the grass and the leaves on the trees… But I also love yellow, like the sun and daffodils, pink like roses, blue like the sky…. in fact, I love all the colours of the rainbow! Just think how dull and boring the world would be without colours... 

Well, as it happens, that is exactly what the evil Jack Frost wants! The colours you see all around you in the human world are controlled by the fairies in Fairyland. But Jack Frost and his band of wicked goblins have mixed up all the colours in Fairyland, and now the fairies are all mixed up and confused! And if the fairies don’t get all their colours back and sorted out, pretty soon all the colours in the human world will disappear! 

The fairies in Fairyland are very worried and we are asking for your help… You will need to use your science skills, some science fairy magic, and your powers of observation (looking carefully) to help us sort out all the colours! Work together with your friends. Remember to record all your observations in your science notes so you can remember how to fix the colours. 

Thank you for always helping us! You are truly wonderful friends.


Yours sincerely, 

Fern, the Green Fairy"


The girls were then divided into small groups, each with an adult/helper. Each girl got a packet with the letter, the rest of the story including the directions for all the experiments, and science notes pages for each experiment if they chose to record their observations (some did, some didn't - my daughter took it very seriously, haha!) Then they each got a pair of science goggles to wear (we borrowed them from our science teacher friend), which they thought was really cool!


Magic Fairy Crystals


The first thing they had to do was mix up some Magic Fairy Crystals. 


"The Science Fairies have some SPECIAL FAIRY CRYSTALS that have magic powers. They have sent us some to give us temporary magic fairy powers, so that we can help the rainbow fairies to find all their colours."


magic fairy crystals (water beads)

Over the course of the party, the tiny magic crystals (which were really water beads) grew bigger and bigger and they had fun playing with them at the end.



Fairy Waterfall


Next, they had to help find the colours in the Fairy Waterfall:



"In Fairyland, there is the most beautiful, crystal clear waterfall that flows into a lake with a rainbow volcano in the middle! Unfortunately, Jack Frost has turned all the water in the waterfall and lake purple!"


girls doing science experiments

science experiment red cabbage
Fairy Waterfall Experiment


Hidden Colours



"Jack Frost has cleverly hidden colours all around us so the fairies won’t find them! See what colours you can find hidden in these everyday liquids."


household liquids for testing acidity


hidden colours experiment for kids (testing acidity)
Hidden Colours Experiment

[Read all about how we did the Hidden Colours Experiment here.]


Test Your Fairy Powers

 "Have you been checking your magic fairy crystals? Are your magic fairy powers working yet? Let’s test them and see…"

They did a cool surface tension experiment to see if their fairy powers (that they'd gotten from the Magic Fairy Crystals, of course) had kicked in yet.


Magic Milk


Now that their fairy powers were working, they were ready to make some magic!


"Now that your magic fairy powers are working, you can make some colours come alive."

girls doing magic milk experiment
 Magic Milk Experiment 

Make A Boat


They had to put their understanding of basic physics to work with the next activity. 



"Make a boat to help the fairies float across the fairy lake to where Jack Frost and the goblins are hiding. Choose whatever materials here you think will help you. Then test your boat to see if it floats."

whatever floats your boat - making boats out of recyclables
Boat Building

Rainbow Volcano


Their final experiment involved lots of colourful, fizzing fun!

"Lookout! The Fairyland rainbow volcano is about to erupt! Hopefully it will help us to get back some more colours!"

rainbow volcano baking soda and vinegar experiment
Rainbow Volcano Experiment

Rainbow Blast


The grand finale was blasting Jack Frost and his wicked goblins right out of Fairyland with this Rainbow Blast experiment (otherwise known as elephant toothpaste!) We used a slightly stronger concentration of ingredients to make it really blast out.

flasks of coloured liquids for science experiment

elephant toothpaste experiment
Rainbow Blast Experiment


And finally, the girls had fun mixing up their own magic potions and eating some rainbow snacks! 


girls science experiment mixing potions
Mixing Potions



rainbow jello cups for party food
Rainbow jello cup snacks



rainbow magic fairies birthday cake
Rainbow Magic Fairies Birthday Cake
(made by my incredibly talented friend, Masha)


Some party planning notes:


Since the experiments required a lot of set-up, I decided to forego fancy party food and just order pizza instead - plus some fruit/veggie plates and rainbow jello cups. (Can't have a rainbow party without rainbow jello, right?)

I recruited a 13 year old helper to take one of the groups so that each group would have an 'adult' to help them with the experiment directions. We also made it more manageable by only inviting a few friends.

We held the party outdoors, but even so I wanted to minimize the mess as much as possible, so each experiment was set up on a tray or in a large baking dish. It worked well at containing the mess, and the clean up was really easy.

The girls each took home their story/experiment packet (with explanations of what all the 'magical' ingredients really are, in case they want to do them again at home), their boats they had built, and a Rainbow Magic Fairies book as their party favour.

We ordered this fairy-themed party set.


happy birthday girl 7 years old
A happy birthday girl!


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All product links in this post are affiliate links. By clicking these links, at no extra cost to you, we get a small percentage of the sales cost in exchange for advertising the products from Amazon.com.


{Dinosaur Party for Kids (Boys AND Girls!)}

Our Dinosaur Birthday Party for Kids

(all kids!)

Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party for Kids

I'm putting all our Dinosaur Birthday Party posts in one place for easier reference. Our daughter LOVED her dinosaur-themed party for her 4th birthday! We kept it all 'neutral' - this is not a dinosaur party for boys, nor is it a dinosaur party for girls - it's just a dinosaur party for KIDS! :-)

Click on the links below for more details:


Dinosaur Party Invitations

Dinosaur party invitations




Dinosaur Cake and Party Food

Creating the food for our party was so fun! From a dinosaur cake to dino dig jello cups, to dino poop (mmm, yum!), we kept to our dinosaur theme for a delicious table of treats fit for carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores!

Dinosaur birthday cake

Dinosaur cake

Dinosaur birthday party food

Dino Dig Jello Cups

Dinosaur Games and Activities

For our little 3 and 4 year old guests, we decided play stations to move freely among would be more appropriate than organized 'games'. Here's what we set up:


Rainbow Dinosaur Dig:

dinosaur rainbow sensory dig



Cool Dinosaur Small World Play Table:

cool dinosaur small world play table


Making Decoupaged Dinosaur Eggs:


dinosaur egg decoupage craft

Sweet Pea made the paper maché dinosaur egg above before the party as a decoration. See how we did it, here.

dinosaur party craft

And then all the kids decoupaged wooden dinosaur eggs in the same way at the party to take home as favours. (Since our party was held just before Easter, these made cute hanging Easter eggs, too.)


Dinosaur Colouring Pages

I printed some pages for kids to colour at the party. Find a selection of dinosaur colouring pages here.

Pin the Horn on the Triceratops

This was our one organized game, which they enjoyed (parents stayed at the party, by the way, so they were able to help their kids with this game). We got our game from a friend, but you can get something similar here. [affiliate link]


party game pin the horn on the dinosaur


dinosaur party game


Dinosaur Birthday Gifts:

We like to get our kids a gift that fits with their party theme, since their theme is usually representative of their current interests anyway. 


Easy DIY Dinosaur Dress-Up Costume

This time, Sweet Pea had requested a dinosaur costume for her birthday, so here's what I put together for her (you need to know that I am a super beginner seamstress!)


diy dinosaur dress up costume



Other dinosaur-themed gifts she got:

[affiliate links]

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{Free Printable Easter Egg Hunt Invitation}

Easter Egg Hunt Invitation

Free Printable

Easter bunny and Easter eggs
Image: Patou / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our annual Easter Egg Hunt party is a highlight of the year for my kids. Hidden eggs to find, games, crafts, lots of yummy food, and a special bunny cake - it's a favourite Pea family tradition! This year will be our 5th annual Easter egg hunt party.

I'm busy in planning mode right now, but I thought some of you might also be planning Easter egg hunts, either for friends or just for your own kids, so I thought I'd share a printable template that I made for our invitation. It's in jpeg format and it should print nicely as a 4x6 inch postcard size.


FREE PRINTABLE easter egg hunt party invitation


Have a great Easter!

You can see some of our past Easter Egg Hunts here:

3rd Annual Easter Egg Hunt Party

2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt Party

and some of our Easter crafts here:

Egg Decoupage for Preschoolers

Easter Craft for Kids: Fluffy Chicks

Easter Bonnets

Easter Bunnies Craft

For more inspiration directly to your inbox, subscribe to Mama Pea Pod using the button below!

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Follow Mama Pea Pod's Easter Ideas board on Pinterest.

{Cool Dinosaur Small World Play}


Cool Dinosaur Small World Play

with Play Dough and Nature Items


fun dinosaur play small world with playdough

This dinosaur small world play scene was a big hit at Sweet Pea's dinosaur birthday party! The kids had so much fun playing with it, and it was really easy to set up in about 10-15 minutes with just a little preparation ahead of time. All I used was some no-cook homemade play dough and nature items collected from the garden!

Dinosaur small world imaginary play from homemade play dough

A few days before her party, I made several batches of no-cook homemade play dough in 'earthy' colours - shades of blue, brown, grey and green. To make the brown I first tried mixing red and green food colouring, but it made more of a greyish colour (which I used as 'rock' in our dinosaur world.) Then I found it worked much better to make brown if I just added some cocoa powder instead - and it smelled divine, too! In total, to fill our whole sensory play table [affiliate link], I made 5 batches of this no-cook homemade play dough recipe. I stored it in resealable plastic bags to keep it soft and fresh.

fun dinosaur world play from play dough and nature items from the garden

I flattened the play dough down in sections to make different landforms - blue for a lake, grey/beige for sand/rocks, brown for mud/earth, and green for grass/forest.

Then I went out to the garden and collected some bits and pieces of nature - clippings from some bushes, bits of grass, twigs, rocks, wood chips, and some flowers. I brought them in and placed them around the dinosaur world - bush/tree clippings, grasses and flowers in the grass/forest area, wood chips and twigs around the brown parts, and rocks to section off areas.

dinosaur and volcano made from homemade play dough and flower petals

I used some brown play dough to form a volcano shape and rose buds and petals to make the red lava. Then I hid our Playmobil dinosaur set and all the dinosaur toys [affiliate links] I could find in amongst it all.

Doesn't it look fun?

If you have a little dinosaur lover, too, you might also like our Decorated Dinosaur Eggs and our Rainbow Dinosaur Dig!

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=1346032&c=cart&aff=219646&ejc=2&cl=206960

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{Dinosaur Birthday Party Food}


Dinosaur Party Food

For Herbivores, Carnivores, and Sweetivores


green dinosaur shaped birthday cake with colourful confetti sprinkles

Sweet Pea loved her dinosaur birthday party for her 4th birthday! And I had lots of fun creating crazy dinosaur-themed food for the party menu!

For the cake (yes, it did take me all day! and no, I'm not good at cakes at all!) I pretty much followed the directions in this pin but added spikes from small triangles of cake that I attached with frosting blobs. I didn't bother printing the template and just did it freehand instead, which may have been a mistake but oh well! To decorate it, I used colourful confetti sprinkles, a spot of frosting and a candy dragée for the eye, a line of frosting and mini chocolate chips for the mouth, and brown mini M&Ms for the toes [affiliate links]. This was my first time making a shaped cake and I have to say that cutting the cake to make the dinosaur shape was pretty easy. It was frosting it that was hard for me, but I always seem to have trouble with frosting.


Some of the other treats we had include:

Dinosaur Dig Jello Cups

Dino Dig Cups

Layered jello cups with crumbled chocolate Oreo cookies on top, topped off with a gummy dinosaur candy and some watermelon jelly beans as dinosaur eggs [affiliate links].




Dinosaur poop chocolate covered marshmallows party food



Dino Poop

Gross, but let's face it - four year olds love gross! And they love marshmallows! So these chocolate covered marshmallow treats were Sweet Pea's special birthday party food request. And I'm sure real dinosaur poop wasn't nearly this pretty!



Vegetable sticks dinosaur party food


Herbivore Platter

Gotta get some veggies in them, right?


dinosaur shaped cheese party food


Dinosaur Cheese Plate

My original plan was to make dinosaur-shaped sandwiches with this adorable dinosaur sandwich cutter I got specially for the party (similar but not quite the same as this one [affiliate link]). But as it turned out, our bread is smaller than the cutter, so I had to scrap that plan at the last minute and make normal sandwiches and dinosaur shaped cheese slices instead!



Dinosaur party carnivore sausage rolls

Carnivore Rolls

Our little carnivore loves sausage rolls, so we have to find a way to fit them in to any party theme! So carnivore rolls it is!


Dinosaur party food marshmallow eggs in silicone cupcake nests

Dinosaur Nests

A handful of coloured marshmallows (I did mention that Sweet Pea's special request was to have lots of marshmallows at her party!) in mini silicone cupcake holders [affiliate link] made easy-peasy nests full of dinosaur eggs.


Four year old girl blowing out candles on her dinosaur birthday cake

If you have a dinosaur lover, too, you might also like these posts:


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