treats

Army Pool Birthday Party

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After we almost melted in the humidity at the previous year’s backyard pirate party (see pirate party post), we decided to change venues.  My son thought a pool party with an army theme would be great.  It worked out well until the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in.  This year, we are definitely planning an indoor event!

The Invitations: I returned to Fine Stationery for an army style invitation.  I ordered blank cards and printed from my home printer.  The wording for these invitations included things like, “Attention Troops” and “You’ve been drafted for (name’s) birthday party” and “Report to (location)”. We used military time (14:00) for the party start time and printed everything with Stencil font.

The Food: Our local grocery store did not have an army birthday cake, but they can do camouflage colors on the icing.  They also were able to create a rocky landscape with candy rocks and trees. We added plastic army men, army tank candles from Party City, and an American flag toothpick.  Each guest received a canteen filled with lemonade that I ordered from Oriental Trading.

The Games: We threw handfuls of plastic army men into the shallow end of the pool for a search and rescue activity.  Kids also had a cannonball/jumping contest off the diving board.  For prizes, each child earned a “dog tag” with their award written on the back. We came up with awards like biggest splash, best dive, best flip, best twist, etc. The dog tags came from Oriental Trading, but Party City had a big selection of army themed favors too.

The Party Favors: Guests took home the canteen, the plastic army men, and a squirt gun.

Animal Hospital Birthday Party

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My sister threw an animal hospital birthday for my niece, and I adapted her idea a little when my daughter was turning three.  We lived in New Orleans at the time, and you can book a petting zoo there that will come to your house and set up a pen in your backyard with rabbits, turtles, goats, chickens, and few other small animals.

The Invitations: I like to order blank invitations from Fine Stationery.  I think they have a huge selection of almost every party theme you need. I printed the invitations on my home printer and included phrases like, “Join us for the third anniversary celebration of (name’s) animal hospital” and “Please confirm appointment with the vet” for the RSVP line.

Adopt a Pet: We placed enough Beanie Babies for all the guests in a pak-n-play by the entrance to the party.  Guests picked one out of the crib and could take their new pet to the vet table for a health exam and adoption certificate.

The Vet Table: One of our babysitters was a nursing student.  She wore her scrubs to the party and completed health exams for everybody’s new pet.  She used a play doctor’s kit and took temperatures, looked at eyes, examined the animal’s coat, listened to the heartbeat, etc. before filling out the forms.

The Pet Carriers: At a table, we had white gift bags with handles that you could decorate with stamps, stickers, or markers.  There was a circle cut out of the side of the bag, so the pet’s face could peek out.  We put paper from our paper shredder at the bottom of the bags like that nesting material pet shops use.

The Snacks: We filled bowls with bone shaped sugar cookies (dog food), Goldfish (cat food), and Chex mix (kibble).

Dinosaur Dig

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After the success of the “J” week jellybean treat, we decided to send in another themed snack to the nursery school class during “D” week.  We combined some Chex mix recipes and came up with a dinosaur style snack mix.  The idea was to have kids dig for dinosaur bones and dinosaur eggs in the snack mix.

Ingredients

  • 2 c. Corn Chex cereal
  • 2 c. Rice Chex cereal
  • 1 1/2 c. oyster crackers
  • 1/2 c. small pretzel sticks or pretzel snaps
  • 2 c. graham sticks (dinosaur bones) or Stauffer’s original animal crackers (dinosaurs)
  • 6 oz. dried fruit (we liked a combination of dried blueberries, cranberries, and cherries)
  • 1 c. yogurt-covered raisins (dinosaur eggs)
  • 5-6 T. butter, melted
  • 2 T. sugar
  • 2 t. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 13×9 pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  • Place cereals, oyster crackers, pretzels, and graham sticks in a large bowl; mix lightly.
  • Combine butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in small bowl; mix well.  Drizzle evenly over cereal mixture.  Toss to coat. **If the mixture is pretty dry, mix another half batch of butter/sugar/spice and add.
  • Spread the coated cereal mixture in an even layer on the pan.
  • Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown, stirring gently halfway through.  Cool completely.  Stir in dried fruit and yogurt-covered raisins.

Variations

  • Instead of graham sticks or animal crackers, you could use mini-dinosaur grahams.  I can’t ever find these at my grocery store, but I think they are out there.
  • For “G” week, you could make Gorilla Grub and substitute the yogurt-covered raisins and dried fruit for plain raisins and dried banana chips.

Jellybean Joke Bags

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My daughter’s nursery school class sent home a small Ziploc bag every Friday with a “letter of the week” printed on the outside. Over the weekend, we would find a small item at home to represent the letter and return the filled bag on Monday for a class share. During “J” week, we sent treats for the whole class.

I used a Word label template for the joke inserts and printed them on cardstock.  They are roughly business card size.  We purchased clear cellophane bags from Michael’s, added a handful of jellybeans, and tied up the treat with curly ribbon.

I’ll need some fresh letter-of-the-week-treats for next year so if anybody has suggestions, please comment!

SIDE NOTE: Not all 4-year olds get the humor in the elephant joke even after 7-year old siblings try to explain.