Running out of ideas for a Birthday Party for your little ones? I was getting a bit stuck. We did the whole class party, hiring a hall and an entertainer and whilst it is great, it was also quite pricey. I did a party at home for my son with a Skylanders theme and it was fab. It took a lot of time and preparation on my side. We did a pamper party for my daughter and she really enjoyed it. But this year I was short on time, ideas, you name it. So I said she can have a play date at home and we will order in some pizzas :D I did order her a cake for the party and hoped that this would be enough.
Luckily for me, I went to Rugrats Playgroup the day after I did my two day Christmas Photo session there. They had a lady coming in to do Sand Art. As I felt bad for not spending much time with my youngest one I thought this would be a nice thing to do as a mummy and daughter thing. If you have not checked out Rugrats Playgroup up till now it is definitely worth looking them up as they offer such a wide variety of activities for children! https://www.facebook.com/rugratscafe/
Turns out my little one was more interested in the bouncy castle than sand art but I loved it. And I knew my almost 7 year old would too! The whole idea is a picture covered in a sticky layer separated into different parts. You peel a part back and sprinkle your choice of sand colour on. Then peel another part and repeat the process until you have covered the whole picture in sand.
I approached Corine and asked her if she did birthday parties. To my delight she did! And her pricing was not extortionate. My daughter was delighted when I told her that she will have an activity at her party and I felt a bit better about the party myself, after all entertaining a group of 7 year olds for two hours could be interesting.
On the day of the Birthday Party Corine arrived with her assistant and they set up the tables, the coloured sand and an array of pictures. I decided to use our kitchen for this as the floor is easy to sweep/hoover afterwards and I think it was the right choice :). My daughter and her friends got to pick a picture and Corine explained to them what they needed to do.
Her and her assistant then helped the girls to peel, apply sand and create magical sand pictures. All of the girls loved it. Some got really creative and managed to mix different colours of sand to create an ombre effect in their pictures. Everyone had lots of fun. My youngest enjoyed scooping the sand out of the bowls onto the floor and the picture of Mickey Mouse that I was convinced she would LOVE to create ended up being finished by my reluctant to join 12 year old. I do think he had fun too, but he would not admit that :D
The sand art part took one hour and the girls managed to create two pictures each (apart from my youngest who only collaborated on one with her brother :D) Corine and her assistant were ever so good with the kids and each of the girls got to keep their pictures that they created. This saved me the job of sorting out party bags :) Win win situation for me :D
Only downside to the party was that for the time of the creative hubbub our kitchen turned into a private beach. Our youngest was the best at scooping the sand out with little wooden spoons straight onto the floor as soon as nobody was paying attention to what she was doing :)
No matter how much we all (especially the ladies running the party) tried to keep sweeping up and stop the sand from falling off the tables it was inevitable that the hoover had to come out after the party.
My daughter was given an extra picture with sand tubes as a present from Corine at the end of the party. She then spent the evening with her cousin creating another picture and trying to make their own rainbow coloured sand. All in all I would say it was a huge success.
You can find Corine's details on www.facebook.com/sandytherapy or email her on sandy_therapy@outlook.com