5 fabulous birthday parties for kids

Birthday party #2
Theme: Backyard arts and crafts

Certain types of arts and crafts project were meant to be enjoyed in the great outdoors -- like those projects with wonderfully messy ingredients that tend to splatter and scatter everywhere. So give your pudding Picasso a chance to host the best birthday party ever -- a backyard arts and crafts birthday bash!

Location: Outdoors -- backyard

Age: Five- to eight-year-olds

Invitations: Design invitations that tap into the art motif: e.g., invitations that are covered in paint splatters or that are cut in the shape of a palette, an easel, a sculpture, or an empty picture frame. Let your imagination run wild! And while you're at it, don't forget to include a note reminding party guests to wear clothes that can get a little messy. This is an arts and crafts birthday bash, after all!

Decorations: Go light with the party decorations. That way, you'll have plenty of room to display the art that is created during the party. Hang artwork from clotheslines, tape it to fences or garage doors, clothes-peg it to low-lying branches on evergreen trees, and find other creative ways to turn your backyard into an instant art gallery.

Food: Serve your party guests a birthday cake that has been decorated to look like an artist's palette or -- if your child prefers cupcakes -- ice each cupcake with a different colour of frosting to represent all the colours in an artist's paint box.

Fun and games: Set up a series of craft activity centres in your backyard so that your party guests can move from activity to activity. Here are some of the activities that you may want to include.

• Ping-pong ball painting: Put a piece of paper in the bottom of a dishpan. Add a couple of squirts of different colours of watered down liquid tempra paint. Toss in a ping-pong ball. Now paint a picture by blowing the ping-pong ball across the page or by gently tilting the dishpan back and forth.
• Straw painting: It doesn't get much messier than this! Paint a picture by sucking a small amount of paint into a straw and then blowing the paint out through the straw and on to the page. (Hint: You may want to provide plastic smocks for this particular activity.)
• Footprint art: How often do kids get to feel the wonderfully squishy sensation of paint between their toes. Give each party guest the chance to dip his/her feet into one or more dishpans of paint filled with various colours of paint. The party guest can then walk out on to a giant sheet of mural paper that has been spread out on the grass. Note: The dishpans may be a bit slippery, so you may want to hold each guest's hand to keep him or her from slipping.

Loot bags: Sketch books, miniature picture frames, and an inexpensive plastic folder suitable for carrying home some of the art that was made at the party all make great loot bag treats.

Etc.: Be sure to have bins of soapy water and plenty of old towels next to each activity centre so that the guests can wipe their hands (and, in some cases, wash and wipe their feet!) as they go.