Our first born twins are 6 years old!!! It’s crazy to see how time flies when you are having fun and yelling with fire coming out of your ears all at the same time. Since Shaan and Shailin have an early spring birthday, Sheena is always in limbo about what kind of birthday party to throw for them. Speaking of birthday parties, side note – it is interesting to see that as the boys grow and grow, their birthday party guest list shrinks and shrinks every year. Their 1st birthday party had about 50 kids and this past birthday had 17!!! Sheena used to invite “her” friends and their kids as well as their class mates and local neighborhood friends. Now, the list has dwindled down to the twins friends that they actually interact with or see on a regular basis. Sheena was completely okay with that and loves how they now want to make that decision. And let’s be serious, managing 17 kids is way easier than 50!
Every year, Sheena tries to think of a fun themed party and looks to her creative friends for some ideas. This year, a friend gave her the idea of a painting party and she LOVED it! It was a wine and paint party but kids edition with “creative juice” and a snack bar. The theme was perfect for the boys’ 6th birthday, as it was something they could actually do and enjoy. She took all three boys for a sample class a couple of weeks before the party to test the waters and they absolutely loved it. Being that the owner suggested the age range for this activity was 6 and up, it helped keep the group small and manageable. She chose a local art studio, Artist People in East Brunswick, NJ which has an amazing space and an even better staff of artists.
Naturally, once the theme was decided, she took to Pinterest for all her DIY ideas. There were endless options and so many little things that could be done with this theme, but she kept it simple with a few ideas and let the kids concentrate on their masterpieces.
Shaan and Shailin wanted a super-hero themed painting (go figure), preferably batman or superman. The artist from the studio suggested the logo from the new movie, Batman vs Superman and the boys were SOLD. We took it a step beyond and had the artist sketch each guests initial in the middle of the Superman logo for a personal touch. The kids were so excited to see that.
To assign each canvas to the matching guest, she got these awesome paint chip cards from Home Depot. She printed each guests name and a small message on white cardstock and cut them into rectangles. She cut two slits in the middle of the paint chip cards and slid each guests name into different color ones. She used those as her place setting cards.
In our family, we have 3 little ones under the age of 4 that we just couldn’t leave out of this fabulous party. The art studio was extremely accommodating and set up a finger painting and clay making station for them to enjoy. This was a huge part of why Sheena chose this art studio as other art studios she called were not willing to do this for the little ones.
Since this party was at an awkward time (2:30-5pm), it was neither lunch nor dinner, so the food part was a little tricky. Sheena decided to go with a snack and juice bar for the kiddos and adults. She displayed a huge variety of heavy snacks that would satisfy the guests “snack time.” The snack bar included, granola bars, string cheese, squeeze apple sauce, yogurt tubes, chocolate chip cookies, gram crackers, popcorn, pretzels, grapes, fruit bowl, hummus/pita chips and honest juice pouches.
In lieu of a birthday cake, she had plain cupcakes that the kids decorated with a variety of toppings. To fit the theme, Sheena got these plastic paint trays to display a little of each topping (M&Ms, jelly beans, chocolate chips, colored sugar chips and rainbow sprinkles). The kids loved doing this activity and eating it too!
As the party favor, Sheena got paint mugs from Micheals and filled each mug with a bunch of lollipops. She printed these thank you notes on pre-cut card stock and stapled them onto each bag. Simple and easy and the kids loved continuing their painting activity at home.
