Concoctions and Potions Themed Birthday Party

I threw a "Concoctions and Potions" themed party for L and B's joint birthday party.
This party was so crazy simple to put together, but it turned out to be a HUGE hit!  It really was incredible how long the kids were into this activity..HOURS of mixing and pouring and creating their concoctions!

I raided my sensory collection and kitchen 
for all the concoction ingredients such as 
Colored and Scented Rice
Colored and Scented Epsom Salt
Waterbeads
Shredded Paper
Coffee Grinds and Coffee Beans
Koolaid Colored Ice Cubes
Glitter
Dry Beans
Dry Noodles

About an hour into the activity, I brought out the 
SECRET INGREDIENTS...
Baking Soda and Vinegar!
I put lots of baking soda into a big bowl and vinegar into squeezy bottles so when the kids added the baking soda to their concoctions and then squeezed in some vinegar, their concoctions bubbled and fizzed!
THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE PARTY!


I made sure I laid out  lots of different sized bowls, cups, spoons,
measuring cups, droppers, pots and pans, etc.

Giving instead of receiving gifts
We started a new birthday tradition a few years ago where instead of party guests bringing gifts, I choose a charity close to our hearts and gently ask our guests to bring donations. This year we chose the non profit organization Art Feeds, which is a mobile arts program based out of Joplin, MO which brings fun and free art classes to elementary students and schools who have undergone trauma. I am always SO very impressed and thankful of how generous our party guests are each year with these donations! In the previous years we've asked for donations to The Northwest Arkansas Children Shelter and our local Animal Shelter. This is a tradition we have come to love and my oldest son is so amazing and thoughtful about it. We always talk about the charity we are giving to and I make sure he understands how important giving to their cause is.
 He has never complained about not receiving "gifts" at his party and he has come to love this tradition of giving instead of receiving :) It is a tradition we will no doubt continue!

To read more about Art Feeds, visit http://artfeeds.org/!

Here's the other themed birthday parties we've done in the past..

Messy Art Party
Pancake Themed Party

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Birthday Sensory Bin

I made a Birthday Sensory Bin as one of the homemade gifts for my son's 5th birthday.
I used rainbow rice mixed with confetti as the filler, and then threw in other dollar store birthday supplies.
It was so colorful, festive, and fun!

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Confetti Birthday Play Dough

I made a few homemade gifts/activities for my son's 5th birthday and one of them was Confetti Play Dough. It was so pretty and festive, and had a wonderful sensorial texture! Both both loved playing with it!


I simply made a batch of homemade play dough using the first recipe on THIS PAGE. For an added element of fun, I used Birthday Cake scented fragrance oil that is used for soap making to scent the play dough. OMG it smelled DELICIOUS!



To cover it in confetti, I simply rolled it all into a ball, and put it into a ziplock bag with the confetti and kind of rolled it around and pressed it onto the playdough while molding it to keep it's round shape.

The birthday boy is cutting me a piece of  "cake"

Birthday Snowman :)

I have a few more posts about L's homemade birthday gifts as well as his Paint and Popsicle themed birthday party, but after that I will not be updating the blog any longer. I will keep it open for everyone to enjoy and refer back to for as long as they'd like, but the time has come for me to hang up my blogging hat. 

I will explain more in my farewell post and tell you how you can continue to follow along with our fun via other social media.  But for now, I hope you enjoy the last few posts from Play Create Explore. 

More Ways to Follow the Fun!