Kenzie’s birthday was earlier this week, and per our school’s policy, we can’t bring in any food or treats (peanut allergies, etc.). Instead, we’re encouraged to come in and do a quick craft with the kids, which ended up being much easier and a lot more fun!
Kenzie is really into rainbows and unicorns these days, so we decided to do a rainbow cloud with sparkly curling ribbon, rainbow stickers and cardstock clouds.
It’s such a simple project, but I puzzled over the logistics for a couple weeks. I didn’t want kids fighting over ribbon, running around with scissors, arguing over tape dispensers, or making a huge mess with glue. I also really wanted each kid to feel that sense of anticipation and joy that comes with having a birthday. I also wanted to teach my kid that birthdays aren’t just for receiving, but for giving and sharing. I need my kid to embrace the idea of “hostess with the mostess!” 🙂
The solution was to pre-cut the clouds and all the ribbon, thus avoiding scissors and ribbon fights. Then I used dollar store stickers instead of tape, so each kid had their own sticker sheet. And I put all the supplies into a party favor bag, that I sealed shut, so that each kid would get to open a surprise.
I also snuck in some extra party favors…
I got everything except the stickers, from Amazon! I’d say, only counting what I actually used, it cost about $25 for 24 kids.
(These are affiliate links, so if you click through and purchase anything I’ll earn commission!)
- Unicorn party favor bags, 24 for $6.99
- Unicorn key chains, 48 for $9.99
- Flashing jelly rings, 24 for $12.90
- White cardstock for clouds, 250 sheets for $9.98 (I’m going to have cardstock for years, as I only used 12 sheets)
- Curling ribbon, 24 spools for $16.59 (I’m going to have curling ribbon for eons, as I only used 6 spools)
We had the birthday girl pass out a bag to each of her classmates. They were allowed to shake the bags, and guess what was inside, but they weren’t allowed to open their bags until everyone had one. We did this so everyone could enjoy their own surprise.
Then they took out their cloud, wrote their name on it, and attached curling ribbon onto their clouds with the stickers. I also included a small piece of ribbon so they could make a loop to hang their rainbow cloud. I loved that everyone was really engaged, and it was a simple enough project that Mrs. Mitchell and I didn’t have to run around helping everyone, the students were able to help each other.
There are a lot of days where I feel I’m not “momming” enough, or that I’m not doing everything Kenzie deserves. Her lunches aren’t perfectly balanced. We definitely don’t get showers or baths every day. Sometimes I get home from work late, and end up having to do dishes instead of snuggling. But now that I think about it, I think that’s normal, and being able to do stuff like this, being able to hang out with her and her classmates, that’s the extra, bonus bit. 🙂
Happy 6th birthday, my love!