20190

Ice Cream Social -7yr- Soda Fountain Hats

July 2009

Cathy in Ellington NY, USA

Honorable Mention

Ice Cream Social for a 7 Year Old.

I found some computer paper with an ice cream cone border at my dollar store with 20 sheets per pack. I just printed out all the information on this paper and let everyone know we would be having pizza,playing games and that the kids would be making their own sundaes ( I didn't want anyone dressing too nicely and ruining good clothes).

We had about 40 people come, 19 of these were kids ranging in age from 2-9. The first thing we did at the party was to have each child make ice cream in a ziploc bag, directions for this can be found on line. To get a harder ice cream put the bags in the freezer for a while after making the ice cream, which is what we did while we had lunch and played. The kids thought this was so much fun and all but the very littlest of kids were able to do it themselves.We let the kids eat lunch and play in our yard for a while.

The next activity we did was an obstacle course. We split up into 2 teams with 7 players each (1 little girl did not want to play). The first section was the kids had to run to a wagon and pull the wagon through obstacles (popsicle boxes filled with sand). The next section was walking with a balloon between your knees and the next section they had to crab walk to a bucket filled with sawdust that had puzzle pieces hidden in it.

After each player had gone through the obstacle course and they had collected all their pieces they could put together their puzzle. The puzzles were the backs of ice cream cone boxes that have pictures on them.I just cut the backs off of the boxes glued them to some heavier cardboard and cut them into some twisty, jaggedy puzzle shapes.

We just do games for the fun of it at our parties, so no prizes but all of the kids do get one of the items for their goody bags after the game, this time it was bubbles in ice cream cone shaped bottles. For the 4 littlest kids that were unable to do this game we filled a sawdust pile with age appropriate toys/candy and let them do that while the other kids were doing the obstacle course.

Then we did the pinata I could not find an ice cream pinata locally and did not want to order one so we just bought a basic pinata that had no theme. Most of the kids got to hit it before it broke and of course bedlam ensued once the candy started pouring out.We let the kids play in the yard for a few minutes while we gathered up the sundae stuff and began handing out the goody bags.

In the goody bags were bowls shaped like ice cream cones that came with spoons shaped like ice cream cones that I got at the dollar store for 3/$1,cups with crazy straws also shaped like ice cream cones that also came from the dollar store for $1 a piece and a few pieces of Baskin Robbins hard candy.

We had the kids use the bowls to make their sundaes in. They used the ice cream that they made and the toppings were mini choc chips, sprinkles, m&m's, peanuts and crushed oreo's. There was also whipped cream, choc syrup and caramel syrup. We also bought a couple of gallons of ice cream for the adults and in case somebody's ice cream did not turn out.

The kids wore soda jerk hats that I bought at a local restaurant supply store ($10 for 100, the extras I gave to my sister in law who works in a class with disabled children because they will be doing an ice cream party for the end of summer) , these hats made for the best pictures!

To set out the toppings I put them in 4 veggie tray trays that I got at the dollar store for $1 each. This way there was not too much of a line up for the kids. The kids all sat in an ice cream parlor" area that I set up next to my garage with as many small tables as my mother in law and I had. I covered all the tables with pink table cloths for a uniform look and decorated the area with crepe paper stremers and balloons. All in pink and white.

After this my daughter opened her presents while I quickly washed all the bowls and spoons and stuck them back in the kids goody bags we had labeled the bags and the bowls the night before to avoid cofusion. After this we let the kids decorate cupcakes with frosting and leftover sundae toppings  the cake was definitely not the star at this birthday party. The kids then played until it was time for them to go home. As each child left they got a piece of sidewalk chalk shaped like an ice cream cone (3/$1 I broke open the packages and wrapped each piece of chalk in some cellophane and tied it with a ribbon).

Everybody at the party said what a good time they had and the kids had a blast. My daughter thought it was her best birthday ever. I did start looking around for supplies for this party as soon as summer things came out in stores so I was able to get lots of ideas and the dollar store was definitely my savior here. Also my 4 older nieces ranging in age from 14-22 were a big help with wrangling kids for the different activities and my husband and I probabaly would not have gotten it done without them. The party came to slightly over $200 but that includes everything even the food for 40 people.

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