Play: Ice Cream Birthday Extravaganza

My sweet Alethea turned 3 yesterday! To celebrate, I planned a whole week of ice cream related activities (one each day) and then topped it off with an ice cream themed birthday party on Saturday.  Here are some of the highlights.

Monday

We got ice cream from the ice cream man. Up until Monday, all they knew was that some big truck came around blaring music from it, typically right after they got in bed and were trying to fall asleep. Now they know the imitation ice cream goodness that lays inside of it. They chose a Dora ice cream bar to share and they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Tuesday

We colored paper ice cream cones, cut them out, and used real sprinkles to decorate them. This was EASY and a huge hit. Thanks to All Kids Network for the idea!

Wednesday

I cut out some felt ice cream cones and scoops of ice cream using this pattern from Making Learning Fun.  I used the scraps to make sprinkles and some cherries. This was an activity that even Ada (16 months) could participate in!

Thursday

I picked up this game for a dollar or two at a consignment sale. It's kinda like an ice cream version of Hi Ho Cherri-O. They weren't so interested in playing the game, but they loved playing with the stackable ice cream cones.

Friday

 We made homemade ice cream without a machine! Here's the recipe we used: Screamin' Ice Cream.

Saturday

The Birthday Girl!

I didn't go too fancy on decorations, but I did a few fun things. 

balloon + brown paper= ice cream cone!
inspired by Martha Stewart 

free-handed these out of extra large construction paper

The Food

We served some of Aly's favorite foods: 

* goldfish

* mini corndogs

* grapes (green and purple)

* caprisuns

* cheese and crackers

And of course, the cake. Christina made an awesome three scoop ice cream cone cake. She even made a  real jumbo sugar cone! Before bed I asked Aly what her favorite part of the day was, and she replied, "I got to have a cake shaped like purple ice cream!"

The Activities

First, we made an ice cream magnet craft from Oriental Trading. I forgot to take pictures of it because it ended up being more help-intensive than I expected.

Next, each kid got their own ice cream bowl and then filled it with homemade playdoh ice cream. We made chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and banana. This is the recipe I used for the vanilla, strawberry and banana (substituting different extracts). The chocolate recipe is a little bit different because you use cocoa to get the rich brown color and chocolatey goodness smell.

Each bowl was a double batch of the playdoh recipe I used.

We used some sequins for the "sprinkles" and I painted small wooden balls red for the cherries. I think the kids really liked it!

cherries!

The Playdoh Spread

I think it was fun to use real ice cream scoops,
but the kids also liked using their spoons.

Finished project! We bought the bowls off Oriental Trading as well.

Our last activity was pin the cherry on the ice cream cone. I wasn't sure if the kids would be old enough, but this was a funny and fun game. Aly was a little nervous at first (telling me she didn't want to play it)...but after most of the kids went, she saw how silly it was and decided to participate.

Our results!

The Favors

Christina and I had a fun time making these cute ice cream cone cake balls. 

The kids also got to take home their bowl of playdoh as well as an ice cream cone balloon! A few lucky parents even found some extra cake stashed in their take-home bags.

As soon as the last guests left, we closed the door and headed upstairs to our bedroom for some family wrestle and snuggle time. We were all exhausted but happy!