Create-Celebrate-Explore: Orange and Blue Party

I was recently asked to host an Elmer's X-TREME craft party at my house. My mission, should I choose to accept it, was to build bird houses using wood, and after I accepted my mission, I was advised that a mystery product also needed to be used, and I could choose glitter or buttons.

Pre-party I attempted to build a bird house for the first time out of popsicle sticks and an hour later still not being finished I realized that this plan had disaster written all over it. Afterall, I had invited 4 and 5 year old children over. Short attention spans coupled with fiddly work was not going to be a good mix for them. So a quick revision of my plan and a quick 30 minute project later and this is what I came up with instead:

So once our plan was in place, Marisol and I hit the ground running for craft supplies and food for our party.

THE FOOD:

Sticking with the orange, white and blue theme of Elmer's, I had a blast coming up with food for the party:

Peach Parfaits: 1 large tub of vanilla yogurt mixed with 1 tub of cool whip, alternate in a cup with peaches and top with granola.
Jelly Oranges: Cook jelly according to the package directions. Slice an orange in half and remove inside. Fill with the jelly liquid. Refrigerate until set. Take a sharp knife and slice through the center again.
Cupcakes: Mini chocolate cupcakes with orange and blue icing piped on.
Blueberry muffins
Sandwiches: Cheese (cut with cookie cutters) for the kids, and roast beef, cheese and mango chutney for the adults.
Jars filled with clementines, goldfish, Sun Chips, and blueberries (I put re-useable ice-cubes under the blueberries to keep them cold).
Beverages: Orange juice, mango juice and a pitcher of iced water with orange slices, and mimosa's for the mums.

THE CRAFT PROJECT:

After lunch and playing outside, we settled indoors to do the craft project. Hubby extended our new dining room table and we placed a plastic tablecloth down to protect it, hung the bird feeder that I had made from the light and then lined up lots of little gift boxes for all of the children containing all of the supplies they would need to make their project.

The gift boxes contained:

50 popsicle sticks
1 large popsicle stick (tongue depresser)
1 bag of bird seed
1 tub of outdoor paint
2 long pieces of hemp cord to hang their bird feeder
1 Elmer's X-TREME glue
2 glitter glue sticks

To make the bird feeder:

Line up 12 popsicle sticks. Glue 2 sticks across them. Turn it over.
Do a second row of popsicle sticks going in the opposite direction to strengthen the base (I actually did this at the end because it was a last minute decision, but doing it at the beginning will give it more support as you build).
Alternate popsicle sticks around the frame once.
Glue down to the tongue depresser.
Continue alternating popsicle sticks around the outside until you have 6 rows, gluing each popsicle stick down as you go. Set aside to dry.
Let the kids paint their bird feeder, and set aside to dry.
Parents: using a hot glue gun, attach the hemp cord to the underside of the bird feeder.
Thread the cord underneath the top round of popsicle sticks (as shown above) and again, glue using a hot glue gun.

All of our little friends took their bird feeders home to paint them and fill with seed. Marisol and Flynn finished theirs after the party but they are yet to be hung outside. First I need to track down that outdoor varnish. Let the unpacking of more boxes proceed ....