5th birthday arty party

We love a good party theme around here - so far Hendrik's birthday shindigs have mostly been coordinated around foods he likes (avocados! ice cream! everything!), but this year we went for one of his favorite activities: arts & crafts. For our first attempt at having a party with little school friends over, I thought an arty party would be a fun way to keep some preschoolers occupied for a bit... realizing later that it could have been semi-disastrous to give 5 boys a bunch of paint, and also blue frosting, but they all took their art very seriously, and had a great time!

It turns out there are tons of art party ideas on Pinterest, and even a whole line of art party items you can buy on Amazon, so I took advantage of both to plan a fairly simple yet cute (because I can't help myself) event. At this age Hendrik loves to help with this stuff, and as long as he thinks it's fun, I'm rolling with it! Here's what we came up with:

Invitations: inspired by this napkin design, I came up with a quick postcard design in Photoshop and then had them inexpensively printed by Zazzle. But I saw similar cute printables like this on Etsy as well, like this, this, or this.

Decor: going with the paint theme, Hendrik and I stopped by Lowe's and picked up some paint sample cards, which are in this great pointed banner shape already, and then just punched holes and strung them on bakers twine. Did the same with a pack of pom-poms from the craft store. Other than that, just did this fun coloring tablecloth and cute paint splatter napkins from Amazon, and the painter tee for Hendrik that I just couldn't resist (this or this would also have been perfect).

Craft projects: first things first, I covered the table with a big disposable tablecloth, and put out aprons to keep the kids from getting too messy (which I decorated with temporary tattoos - so fun!). Then I set out jars with all of our favorite craft supplies: acrylic paints, paint brushes, washi tape, googly eyes, felt letters, assorted pom poms, and glue. To decorate, we had some party hats along with some cute little white pumpkins I got at the farmer's market for 50 cents each. And then all of these Montessori classmates know the necklace "work" where they string on noodles and such - so I thought they would love a Froot Loops + peach rings edible necklace craft. I just put out some supplies in little bowls and some yarn from my craft stash, and that occupied them all for a bit longer as well!

Cupcakes: I got this idea from Pinterest, to have the kids decorate their own cupcakes with a variety of sprinkles placed in artists' paint palettes. They turned out so cute, and I was impressed how long the kids spent on carefully placing sprinkles onto their cupcakes! Just went with a boxed funfetti mix and jar of blue frosting to keep it simple, but I put the frosting into a piping bag to make it look fancier on the cupcakes.

Party favors: this is the part I'm most proud of... I came up with the idea of a "creativity kit" for each of the kids to take home - and aside from the temporary tattoos I ordered on Amazon, it was totally free! I happened to have some clear cone shaped treat bags, so I just went into my craft stash and put in some fun stuff, like googly eyes, pom poms, stickers, pipe cleaners, paper clips, and even some leftover mini play dohs from Hendrik's last Valentine's handout. Along with a felt letter of each kid's first initial and a cute washi tape closure, these were a hit! If you don't have a craft stash of my size, you could replicate easily with a kit like this from Amazon.


So that was Hendrik's 5th birthday arty party - followed the next day by a family dinner with 16 extended family members and his choice of spaghetti and meatballs. And we've been building his new Lego sets ever since... I think I sense a 6th birthday party theme coming on!