What is a recipe for disaster? Thinking that you can do a complete DIY party when you live in India.
But what is also a recipe for success? A focussed mom intent on throwing an art DIY party in India!
Let's face it, in India when you ask for tissue paper, people shove a box of tissues in your face. So getting around all this is quite the task. But this year, I wanted to do an art party and how!
My daughter loves art. Colouring, painting, cutting, pasting, textures - everything. So for this birthday, I really needed something that she would remember forever. I have this out of the world friend , (no I dont mean para normal) who helped me a lot. And I am blessed enough to have 3 sisters in law who are all early childcare teachers! I mean talk about having a firm foundation.
So the plan was simple. Throw an Art party that the girls and boys will enjoy. Limitations: minimal paint work because I conducted the party in my club where painting wasn't allowed. Even though I offered to cover up the walls (which are mirrored) with thin plastic etc, they were firm about the fact that they wouldn't let us use paint on a large scale.
So solution:
Have an art party that's a mix of art and craft both. Considering that I had a nearly 50 / 50 ratio of boys and girls at the party, I needed to make sure that both enjoyed the activities given.
So here are the activities I kept.
1. Book mark making: some coloured ice cream sticks and glittery stickers later, the kids were a happy bunch!
2. Make and decorate a house. So when the kids entered each one got a bag with some crayon box in it. The kids then used these crayons to decorate and make a house. How? by using one paper cup and one cup cake liner! Talk about having a no mess party!
3. Decorate the bag. In the earlier part you read about how the kids entered and I gave them bags? Well they also had to decorate those bags. So I had kept a bunch of stickers, and laces and tapes and the crayons were all their friends to decorate these bags. They were also using these same bags to store the goodies they created.
4. Make a crown. I made shape cut outs of glitter foam paper and the kids then laced them up and wore them. I won't lie, I was really sceptical about this activity, since buys hardly ever wear crowns. Know what? The boys wore them throughout! They loved loved loved this. I can't believe that even in this age where we try not to gender stereotype, wearing a crown fascinated the boys a lot more since its not something they usually do.
5. Hand painting. To make this birthday memorable, I got a large large canvas. Taped off the edges approximately the width of a printed photograph and then used the interior to make hand impressions of all of my daughter's friends who attended the party. This was the only activity where in we involved paint and was managed by my sil and a very wonderful close friend who managed to get everyone clean before they (a) wiped the painted hand on their clothes; (b) wiped the painted hand on their mommies; or (c) hand painted by club which was a scarier possibility as well!
Finally to end it all, I had a ventriloquist because I figured that attending 150 parties with 150 magic shows was boring. My friend had done a bubble show just a few months back, so I didn't want to repeat that, a ventriloquist was something different and something that the mums would enjoy as well.
Now, here are my observations about the party.
1. Many moms didn't know what to do. Not their fault, I just wanted them to participate more. But soon everyone got into action and did participate after a bit of encouraging. usually birthdays are times when the moms just chill, but here I needed them to take their kids to the art stations and be with them while the activities were being conducted.
2. Though it sounds all lovely and sweet, a lot of time does go in the preps. Especially since it;s DIY, I did spend a lot of sleepless nights in making the basics of the party.
3. Prepare for chaos. Kids loved it and their energy was immense. Thankfully I had a lot of help and really sweet family to absorb the excited vibes of the kids around.
4. Keep extra stuff ready. Well in all honesty, I miscalculated the kids coming. And a few didn't come so I was left with extra stuff. But you won't believe the number of kids who wanted to make an extra card, or an extra bag for mommy. And the ones who wanted more crowns for daadi or daddy etc.
to sum it up, I loved the party, and my daughter enjoyed as well. it was tough no doubt, and would I have gone to a planner? Well, no. I love diy-ing things and also it's helping me teach A an important lesson. That not everything has to be out sourced or bought. It's great fun to use your own hands and creativity and that counts a lot. Most moms really appreciated the efforts that we had put in and they all loved the connect of making easy and non messy activities with their kids.
But what is also a recipe for success? A focussed mom intent on throwing an art DIY party in India!
Let's face it, in India when you ask for tissue paper, people shove a box of tissues in your face. So getting around all this is quite the task. But this year, I wanted to do an art party and how!
My daughter loves art. Colouring, painting, cutting, pasting, textures - everything. So for this birthday, I really needed something that she would remember forever. I have this out of the world friend , (no I dont mean para normal) who helped me a lot. And I am blessed enough to have 3 sisters in law who are all early childcare teachers! I mean talk about having a firm foundation.
So the plan was simple. Throw an Art party that the girls and boys will enjoy. Limitations: minimal paint work because I conducted the party in my club where painting wasn't allowed. Even though I offered to cover up the walls (which are mirrored) with thin plastic etc, they were firm about the fact that they wouldn't let us use paint on a large scale.
So solution:
Have an art party that's a mix of art and craft both. Considering that I had a nearly 50 / 50 ratio of boys and girls at the party, I needed to make sure that both enjoyed the activities given.
So here are the activities I kept.
1. Book mark making: some coloured ice cream sticks and glittery stickers later, the kids were a happy bunch!
2. Make and decorate a house. So when the kids entered each one got a bag with some crayon box in it. The kids then used these crayons to decorate and make a house. How? by using one paper cup and one cup cake liner! Talk about having a no mess party!
3. Decorate the bag. In the earlier part you read about how the kids entered and I gave them bags? Well they also had to decorate those bags. So I had kept a bunch of stickers, and laces and tapes and the crayons were all their friends to decorate these bags. They were also using these same bags to store the goodies they created.
4. Make a crown. I made shape cut outs of glitter foam paper and the kids then laced them up and wore them. I won't lie, I was really sceptical about this activity, since buys hardly ever wear crowns. Know what? The boys wore them throughout! They loved loved loved this. I can't believe that even in this age where we try not to gender stereotype, wearing a crown fascinated the boys a lot more since its not something they usually do.
5. Hand painting. To make this birthday memorable, I got a large large canvas. Taped off the edges approximately the width of a printed photograph and then used the interior to make hand impressions of all of my daughter's friends who attended the party. This was the only activity where in we involved paint and was managed by my sil and a very wonderful close friend who managed to get everyone clean before they (a) wiped the painted hand on their clothes; (b) wiped the painted hand on their mommies; or (c) hand painted by club which was a scarier possibility as well!
Finally to end it all, I had a ventriloquist because I figured that attending 150 parties with 150 magic shows was boring. My friend had done a bubble show just a few months back, so I didn't want to repeat that, a ventriloquist was something different and something that the mums would enjoy as well.
Now, here are my observations about the party.
1. Many moms didn't know what to do. Not their fault, I just wanted them to participate more. But soon everyone got into action and did participate after a bit of encouraging. usually birthdays are times when the moms just chill, but here I needed them to take their kids to the art stations and be with them while the activities were being conducted.
2. Though it sounds all lovely and sweet, a lot of time does go in the preps. Especially since it;s DIY, I did spend a lot of sleepless nights in making the basics of the party.
3. Prepare for chaos. Kids loved it and their energy was immense. Thankfully I had a lot of help and really sweet family to absorb the excited vibes of the kids around.
4. Keep extra stuff ready. Well in all honesty, I miscalculated the kids coming. And a few didn't come so I was left with extra stuff. But you won't believe the number of kids who wanted to make an extra card, or an extra bag for mommy. And the ones who wanted more crowns for daadi or daddy etc.
to sum it up, I loved the party, and my daughter enjoyed as well. it was tough no doubt, and would I have gone to a planner? Well, no. I love diy-ing things and also it's helping me teach A an important lesson. That not everything has to be out sourced or bought. It's great fun to use your own hands and creativity and that counts a lot. Most moms really appreciated the efforts that we had put in and they all loved the connect of making easy and non messy activities with their kids.
