18592

Little Einstein Party -4yr- Leo's Baton Craft

August 2008

Beverly in Jackson, NJ USA

Honorable Mention

My daughter decided she wanted a Little Einsteins birthday party theme for her 4th birthday.  She LOVES the Little Einsteins! Thankfully there was the Little Einsteins partyware at our local party discount store.

I purchased the standard INVITATIONS from the party store; it read We're on a Mission. Inside read to come celebrate Charlotte's 4th birthday. I also purchased Little Einsteins theme dessert plates, party hats, blowers, and cups. Since our daughter was now asking to invite some of her friends; we split the party day into two separate times. From 2pm to 4pm was the kids party and from 4pm on was the family party.

DECORATIONS: We decorated the inside of our home with red and yellow balloons and streamers; and used a Little Einsteins table cloth for our dining room table. This would be for when our family came. Outside on our deck I hung on our lattice work the Little Einsteins banner that read 54321.Blastoff and hung 3 decorative wall musical instruments underneath.  We set up a table on the deck for when it was time for the kids to have cupcakes. I decorated the table with a solid red colored plastic tablecloth from the party store and set up each child's place setting. Each place setting had a Little Einsteins dessert plate, blower, cup, and party hat.

I also had purchased very colorful, small crazy straws from the party store. I fill two big red Solo cups with the crazy straws and put them in the center of the table. I then opened a bag of mini Pez packaged candies and spread them all over the table. It really made the table look fun and festive! In our backyard I set up a craft station and a paint station once the kids arrived. As each child arrived they painted a Styrofoam ball that would be used to make a craft later. I worked on the craft earlier in the week and did realize there would be a need to allow the paint to dry in order to do the craft.

So by starting off the party this way it gave the kids an activity to do as they were arriving, as well as giving time to allow the paint to dry by the time we went to do the craft. Warning: the paint can be messy, use paper towels to dab off excess paint! I had two containers of wipes ready.

COSTUMES: As the kids were arriving I also used face paint sticks that I found at a fun children's museum months earlier and face painting musical notes on their faces. The kids LOVED this! I had bubbles and sidewalk chalk set up on our basketball court and Little Einstein coloring pages with crayons set up at the craft table, but the kids loved playing on our swingset. 

PARTY SNACKS: Since the party was in the afternoon, there was not much food.  I put out a veggie tray with dip for the parents, party snack mix, fruit tray, Little Einsteins fruit snacks and chips for the kids.

GAMES: Before the party my husband and I blew up about 40 white balloons with helium and tied them to plastic sandwich bags filled with stones.  I got this idea off this website from another Mom. They were at different heights, close to a 2 or 4 year old height and clustered together enough to look like clouds. I purchased a cosmic hula hoop that lit up when you banged it (i.e., like a rocket). The kids had a rocket flight through the clouds and held the hula hoop like a rocket through the maze.

Next we played two more games, freeze dance and musical chairs, which the kids were given a toy flute once they were out. I purchased some classical music for the rocket flight and for the musical chairs. I borrowed CDs from our local library of the Little Einsteins and other kids music and played that during the party.

ACTIVITES: Next we started making our baton craft.  Just like Leo's baton. I found colorful dowels at a craft store. We took our painted Styrofoam balls and inserted the dowels into the Styrofoam balls.  With poured glue, we used paint brushes to apply the glue and then sprinkled gold glitter onto them.  I found a plain adhesive foam sheet at the craft store and cut it to size.  The kids stuck the foam around the bottom of the baton and picked out fun foam stickers to stick on the bottom.  Parents did have to help with this craft, but they came out cute.

For the CAKE I made cupcakes with my daughter two days before and iced them one day before.  I decorated them with cake gel in different colors with musical notes. We also provided ice cream to go with the cupcakes and juice.

For the FAVORS I bought red paper bags and filled them with watercolor paints, pencils, pens, colorful erasers, colored chalk, and glue sticks. Her birthday is in late August, so back to school supplies are very inexpensive. Using the computer, on a business size card I typed each child's name and wrote Mission Complete! Thank you for celebrating my birthday I picked a LE character sticker for each child and stuck it on the card. I then stapled the cards to the front of each of the red paper favor bags. The kids had an awesome time!

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