Our Ice Cream Party

Charlotte recently turned 3 - which still blows my mind!!! This year was the first time she had a party that she invited her friends to (in the past it has just been family), so she was super excited for the big day to arrive. We decided to throw her a big ice cream party. It's the middle of summer, in Texas, so it only seemed right to cool down and celebrate with some frosty treats. Plus, Charlotte really loves ice cream. It's one of the few sweet treats she goes nuts over. With the help from Pinterest, we pulled together a bunch of great ideas and managed to throw together a pretty great celebration. I thought I'd share everything here, in case anyone else is looking for some ice cream inspiration!

Special Decor:
For simple garland, we bought long plastic tablecloths in pink and brown. We simply cut the length we needed, hung it to the wall and used a pair of scissors to fringe the bottom! Easy.

Ross tackled the big statement pieces. First up, he made a piñata. Yep, made one. Never knew he had that talent and let me tell you he rocked it. Come to find out, it's actually not that hard to make your own. Yes, it takes a bit of time, but it far surpassed the quality of the ones we found in stores. He followed these instructions, but added a extra scoop and cherry on top. By making his own, he was able to control what goodies went inside and he was able to section off the insides so there was candy in each layer (cone plus scoops). Worked out perfectly because once the cone broke off , everyone was a bit bummed that the fun was over until we announced that there was indeed more goodies to be found. It made the activity last longer and gave everyone plenty of turns up to bat. It truly was a highlight of the party. Who doesn't love a giant piñata?

He also made this stand that we placed in the living room for gifts. We decided to paint the top board using chalkboard paint so that we can use it for other occasions in the future. I'm thinking lemonade stand, bake sales, street parties, etc. It will also be great around the holidays when we need extra space for drinks or a dessert bar!!!

Last, but not least I updated our chalkboard.

Activities:
- Temporary ice cream tattoos that we offered to put on kids as they arrived.
- Decorating your own ice cream hat. I just placed several markers in a plastic ice cream cone cup and let the kids decide what they wanted on their hats. I ordered these soda jerk hats and they worked perfectly. We've already used some for other art projects around the house!

 - Ice Cream shop felt board. If you're not already, go follow The Busy Budgeting Mama. Her blog is packed full of inspiration and encouragement for moms. Plus, she shares some super cute craft and party ideas. This board was one of them. You know I'm all about making felt toys, so Ross and I had a bit of fun picking out the favors that we wanted to include. Can you tell what they all are?
-  Play-doh station using this  Play-doh Scoops 'N Treats kit. This was a very popular area. Charlotte still asks to play with it daily!
- Of course, the piñata mentioned above.

 - Ice painting. This was such a fun activity and a huge hit! I got the idea from this website. My recommendation would be to definitely use watercolor paper.  It's more study, plus it soaked the colors up nicely. I used a permanent marker and hand drew some cones on each pages to give them something to color in. I used a mix of half water and half Crayola Washable Kids Paint ,then stuck a short, wide Popsicle stick in the top which was the perfect handle for small hands. I made these up a few days before the party and left them in ice cube trays in the freezer. When it was time for the activity to begin, I simple popped them out of their slots, sprinkled a bit of salt in the bottom of the tray (this helped them melt quickly, so the kids could use them immediately) and placed them back in the trays as a holder. The kids made some great art work to take home!
- Another, creative ice cream station using this Fisher-Price Ice Cream Party Set . This really turned out to be another favorite and a super cute toy. The ice cream scoop magically picks up the scoops so little hands can easily place them on the cones. Charlotte takes our orders often every time we are near her play kitchen.
- We found bubbles and chalk in the shape of ice cream cones at the $1 store so we set them all over the porch for the kids to play with before lunch was served.


Sweet treats:
- Chocolate sprinkle popcorn. Yum and totally addicting.
- Ice cream sugar cookies. They seriously looked like real scoops and the kids loved them.

 - Chocolate Dipped wafers.
- Ice Cream shaped marshmallows.
- Ice cream cake pops. My first ever cake pop & it was pretty easy too!!!
- Ice cream in waffle bowls with a pick your own topping bar. We included: nerds, mini M&M, licorice, pop rocks, mini chocolate chips, shredded coconut, gummi bears, chopped strawberries, various sprinkles, crushed Oreos, Tootsie Rolls, chocolate dipped cherries, magic hard shell and chocolate syrup.

Party favors:

I ordered these White Quart Frozen Dessert Containers . To decorate them, I bought some cheap wrapping paper and $1 Michael's ribbon to cover the outsides. For the top, I stamped an ice cream image, sentiment, colored with Copic markers, added Stickles to the cherry, then used my Cuttlebug to easily cut out the various circles. It seriously was a quick project that I worked on one evening while Ross took Charlotte to the pool. I filled each container with temporary ice cream tattoos, scratch and sniff ice cream stickers, ice cream chalk and bubbles, balloon, Dumdums and Neapolitan salt water taffy.

It truly turned out to be a wonderful party. We had a house full of family, friends and lots of laughter. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Hope this helps you come up with some ideas for your next party or ice cream social!!!

Most of the ideas listed above  can be found on my Pinterest boards if you need to easily save the idea for later! Just search under my Pinned It and Did It board or my Pinned and Did Recipe board. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I will do my best to help you out!