Hartley's Messy Play Party

To celebrate Hartley's First Birthday we had a messy play party for all of his friends and family. 

It took weeks of planning and preparation but was well worth it in the end. Everyone had lots of fun and I was so happy to see that all the babies got fully involved.

We hired a hall and I bought some tarpaulin so that most of the floor was covered.

I set up different messy 'stations' .

Dinosaur Gloop

Gloop is just a mixture of cornflour and water, I also added green food colouring and some plastic dinosaurs to make it even more interesting.

Even the big children and adults loved this one! It is such a strange substance that is a solid and a liquid at the same time! 

Minibeast Jelly 

My plan was to make up tubs of green jelly and then add plastic minibeasts and  magnifying glasses for a messy bug hunt. However the jelly did not go quite to plan and didn't set properly. So was more like a gloopy watery goo! However the babies did not mind one bit, they added porridge oats to make a really nice gooey oaty mixture!

Rice Crispie Construction 

I filled a paddling pool of rice crispies added a few diggers and spades and created this really fun construction area.

 

 

Rainbow spaghetti

I cooked 4 packets of spaghetti and then coloured each packet with a different colour using food colouring. I then added some small plastic animals that the babies could hide and find.

 The babies loved this pool and because it was edible it didn't matter one bit when they started to eat it!

Water Tray

This was a big hit with all the babies and children.  To start with I just aded some boats and fish but the children ended up adding their own things too!

Edible Finger Painting

Hartley especially enjoyed painting. I set up a big roll of paper and then just put out a few pots of edible paint and paint brushes. I used a really simple recipe of just flour water and food colouring. 

I also had a few tables for the older children

Cupcake Play dough

I made up some strawberry and chocolate flavoured play dough. I also added cutters, rolling pins, cupcake cases, sprinkles and straws for candles so the children could make their own birthday cakes.The older children had lots of fun with this.

Chinese New Year crafts

As it was Chinese New Year on the day of his party I set out a few crafts for the older children. They had lots of fun making hanging snakes and lanterns. 

Hand Printing

I also made a canvas so all the children could paint their hands so Hartley had a keepsake of the party.

There were also mini canvas's so the children could print their hands and take them home.

Each child also had a party bag to take home. I made a little bag of play dough for each child and added  a little cutter. 

See my post on Play dough for some recipes to make your own play dough.
Play Dough

We all had a great day and are already looking forward to the next party!