Beach/Summer 8yr - Sand Castle Competition

INVITATIONS: We are big ice cream and sherbet eaters so we saved a bunch of the half pint containers, washed them out and used them for sand buckets as our invitations. If you saved up for a few monthes you could get the amount you want but if not, recycling centers may also have these available. We covered these with red, yellow, or blue construction paper. Then we poked holes in the containers and made the handle using old, wire hangers. Then we filled our buckets with regular sand about 3/4 full. We used the little, martini umbrellas and stuck them in the sand. Next, we bought little glass bottles and wedged them in the sand too. We ordered these bottles off of.. Http://www.save-on-crafts.com/smallbottles.html  We cut regular paper in long strips and wrote all the party information: who, what, where, when, what to bring, and RSVP info. Then we rolled it up and stuck it in the bottle like this was our secret message in a bottle. I also bought SMARTIES and stuck them up in the sand, this looked so cute! We brought these to school and invited all the girls in her class because it was a sleepover! 

DECORATIONS: One big object my husband made was a foam palm tree. For the trunk, he cut out a lean, tall, sort of pyramid. He spray painted it brown. Then for the leaves he made long ovals and spray painted them green, once they had dried we painted on black veins of the leaves. To attach it to the trunk, he used long pins. Instead of balloons, we used a bunch of beach balls that we put all over the house. We have tons of extra bathing suits and we pinned those up on the walls, they served as a great decoration. We also filled up big pots with sand and stuck in umbrellas, they looked cute! In some of the smaller, we put water on the sand to make it sturdier. Of course, there were the classic streamers too! 

ACTIVITIES: #1: Beach Babe Bowling- We set up a big tarp in a slip and slide style and at the end of the tarp we put six, big bowling pins. We used camping tent spikes to nail this tarp to the ground to prevent it from sliding around. Then my husband held the hose over the tarp to get it nice and slippery. Then the girls each got a chance to slide down and try to knock down as many pins as possible. They loved it! 

#2: Swim Suit Fashion Show- In our living room, we used red masking tape to set up a runway. Each girl modeled her bathing suit as she struted her stuff to some music with beach/summer" music like "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. None of them were self conceious or anything and they all clapped for eachother and got support! Beforehand we made ten certificates that each girl would receive and rewarded for modeling in a certain way! Some examples were "Best Smile" "Best Runway Strut" or "Cutest Suit". The girls enjoyed being recognized.

#3: Sea Salt Bath Salt- To make this all you need to do is combine epsom salt baking soda and table salt in a dish. Then add a few drops of food coloring. Then we gave them washed out apple sauce containers to put their bath salts in. We gave them shell stickers to decorate the container with as well as a label to name their concoction. We taped on plastic wrap and put a ribbon over the bath salts and we also gave the girls a popcicle stick to apply the sea salt with. 

#4: Sand Castle Competition- We divided the 10 girls into two groups of 5. We gave them instructions on little cards saying: You need to search around the yard and look for cups full of sand. Dig through the sand of the cups and look for the following items: 3 Shells One Little Princess Figurine and 3 little flags. So in the yard there were 13 cups of sand with items in them and we put 20 cups in total in the yard. If the group found an object that they didn't need they had to put it back in the cup and bury it again. After they found all the items they needed they were to report back to me. They were also told to keep the sand and cups in a box that they were given. Now with these cups sand and items they were told to build a sand castle in the box they were given using all the items as decoration. 

#5: Making Lais: Beforehand I cut out tons of paper and the girls were all given string a needle and a bunch of flowers. They were to poke a hole in the center of the flower then thread it through the string to make their lai! 

#6: We bought a cheap blow up pool from BigLots and let the kids have some time to swim and jump around in it!  

CAKE: I made a classic vanilla cake and frosted it blue. Then we used airhead minis for beach towels lifesaver gummies for lifesaver rings yellow M&Ms for a sun etc.. to make a whole scene! "