Ice Cream Cone -4yr- Pin Cherry on Sundae

My daughter and family LOVE ice cream, so for her 4th birthday we decided to have an ice cream cone" party! 

INVITATIONS: I found a large clipart ice cream cone (with chocolate vanilla & strawberry scoops on it) and typed the information over the clipart.  It read "I scream you scream __(her name)__ screams for ice cream! Come celebrate with us as ______ turns 4.  Ice cream cake games and so much more!"  Then I listed the day time address etc.  I printed them in color on white card stock and cut them out so they were in the shape of a cone.  I also found a small 3 scoop cone clipart and used that on address labels for all the kids and the return address labels.   

DECORATIONS: I made ice cream cone ballons for each guest and a BIG 4 scoop cone for my daughter!  I drew brown lines on construction paper (for the texture of the cone) and covered a cone-shaped party hat with the brown paper.  I stapled it onto the cone so it wouldn't come off.  Then I blew up pink (for the girls) and white (for the boys) balloons and glued them onto the cones.  I wrote each child's name on the balloon and taped them all around the house.  The kids loved their balloon cones! 

Our colors were pink and brown for chocolate & strawberry.  I had pink plastic table cloths on the tables and kitchen island.  They add color and make clean-up easy!  I found an ice cream cone alphabet border in the teacher section of the Dollar Store so I cut up all the cones and taped them to the table cloths and placed them around the room.  I made a wreath for the front door out of a wire hanger and marshmallow ice cream cones.  I also put the foam pieces in between the cones.  I also made a large ice cream cone out of poster board with the three scoops and put a picture of my daughter in her ice cream cone birthday dress in the middle of the scoops.  That was by the door when guests arrived.  I had little cones (from an IC notepad) with all the guests names around the big cone.  

PARTY SNACKS: The party was at 3:00 so we had ice cream sundaes (the kids got to fix their own!) and fruit veggies & dip pretzles and goldfish.  I found ice cream cone shaped bowls and spoons at the Dollar Store so wrote each child's name on them and they ate out of those.  Toppings included chocolate sauce caramel sauce whipped cream mini M&M's crushed oreos rainbow sprinkles and cherries.    

CAKE: I made an ice cream cone shaped cake that we ate at the end of the party.  I baked 1 rectangluar cake and 2 round cakes.  I cut a triangle out of the rectangle and stacked the round cakes on top of each other.  The cone was brown with piped stripes and the ice cream was pink with piped swirls.  I also spread some white icing on the cake board and covered the edges with rainbow sprinkles.  It turned out to be pretty cute!  We used pink and brown plates napkins and utensils.  

GAMES/ACTIVITIES: When the guest arrived we made bracelets out of foam beads and pipe cleaners.  I found the foam beads in ice cream cone shaped containers at Michaels.  Next the kids colored ice cream themed pages I found on the internet.  Then we got up and played "Pin the Cherry on the Ice Cream Cone."  I made another large cone (like the one in the foyer) and cut out red foam circles and wrote each child's name on a circle.  We blind-folded each child and they tried to get it on the top of the cone.  Then we played "Cold Cone" (instead of Hot Potato).  The kids sat in a cirlce and passed around a real cone filled with candy.  We used the song "Ice Cream Cone" by Laurie Berkner.  When the music stopped the child with the cone picked out a candy and then went in the kitchen to make their sundae.  After eating sundaes we went outside and played "Ice Cream Cone Relay".  I split the kids into 3 teams- chocolate vanilla strawberry.  Each team got a real cone and a painted styrofoam ball.  They had to run back and forth and try to keep the ball on top of the cone.  It was cute to watch 4 year olds try to do that!  Then we had some time to just play outside.  Then we went back inside and did presents and cake.  

FAVORS: I used pink and brown gift bags and printed another large ice cream cone with each child's name on it and taped that to the front.  Favors included the ICC foam bead container the ICC bowl & spoon (washed after they ate!) an ICC connect the dots page with a thank you note on the bottom an ICC pencil small box of crayons an ICC bookmark and pencil cover (that I printed off the internet) ICC stickers and one of the marshmallow ICC candies (found those at BJ's).  I tied the top with ice cream cone ribbon.   

OTHER: I always choose a book to go with the theme of my children's parties and have the guests sign it or write a note.  It is a nice way for all of us to remember who attended the party and my children love to read the books later.  This year we had Curious George Goes to the Ice Cream Shop.  I also checked out IC related books from the library and had those out on the coffee table for the kids and parents to read during the party.  I even found a CD of Ice Cream Truck music!!  I used thank notes with pink and brown polka dots and stuck a wallet-sized picture of my daughter in her ICC party dress inside the note!    It was a fun party- probably as fun for me to do as it was for the children to attend!  Hope these ideas inspire more Ice Cream Cone parties!!!"