Throw a Messy Party
Details of my favorite kid birthday party to date.
Yesterday we had our cousin Easter Egg dyeing day in the backyard and it was wildly messy. I knew with four kids (two of them toddlers) it wouldn’t be some idyllic pastel afternoon filled with flowers and unicorns but I actually didn’t know it would be smashed eggs and stained, half-naked babies in a few minutes flat. Needless to say the kids had a blast!
I actually love days that end up this messy because the kids stay so immersed and entertained. In fact a few years ago when asking my soon to be 4 year old what he wanted to do for his birthday, he settled on making a mess in the backyard.
I got to thinking while watching those messy kids run around after dyeing eggs that I’ve somehow never posted Tom’s 4th birthday party on the blog, and it was an epic mess worth sharing. Read on for tips and ideas for your very own “messy party”!
The prep
I don’t recommend hosting a messy party at someone else’s home or at any kind of event venue. We had rainbow spaghetti and moon sand in the yard for weeks! This is best hosted in a well-loved backyard that isn’t on the verge of winning any kind of lawn of the month awards.
The perk of hosting in your own yard is you can take your time and prep over the course of a few days, not just at the time of the party. Even so–I still found myself running out for more Reddi Whip and boiling spaghetti noodles while the party was going on. So, learn from my mistakes, and err on the side of more supplies. The kids will mow through those messy materials!
Ahead of time I:
- made moon sand (flour and baby oil) and filled a small baby pool with it
- cooked spaghetti noodles, colored with food coloring and set up a spaghetti slinging backdrop
- filled a larger baby pool with sand and buried toy dinosaurs
- set tables for mud kitchens and added bowls of dirt and lots of containers of water
- set up a science fair board with a face hole cut out and some disposable pie tins
The party
The day of the party I reminded guests to have kids wear their play clothes and I let adults know there was an optional “pie your parents” area in case they wanted to dress appropriately as well. Not too many went for it but I had to as mom of the birthday boy 🙂 I ordered premade slime for party favors and got a chocolate cake from Walmart. Easy enough!
The kids started out a tad slow but eventually everyone was good and messy! I had considered telling the kids they had to eat their cake messy (without utensils!) but they were so muddy/sandy that seemed mean….not one wants gritty cake!
This was really a pretty easy party. Aldi for affordable flour, spaghetti, and Reddi Whip. Dollar Tree for the pie tins, science fair board, baby oil, and mud kitchen supplies. Random panels we had on hand from our camper reno for the spaghetti wall. I should add we had two people generously give us dirt and sand!
It was almost the opposite of a Pinterest party since nothing was themed or pretty, ha! It was perfect.
My kids still talk about this party. And I’ll always remember watching my husband hose them off at the end of the night. Messy memories really are the best!
