Texas Snow Party -6yr- Blizzard Bottle Craft

We live in Texas and rarely have snow, but we do go to the snow each year, so my son wanted a snow party for his 6th birthday.  A little tricky in Texas but we pulled it off and had a great time! 

The INVITATIONS were snowman invites I found at Walmart before Christmas but they did not look Christmassy at all.  However, you could easily make cute ones on the computer or just homemade cards with snowman stamps stickers or paper. 

All of the DECORATIONS were purchased at Party City before Christmas.  I had snowflake and mitten cutouts, snowflake napkins, plates, tablecloth and cups.  I just hung the cutouts all over the windows in our kitchen and living room.  I also found snowflake garland that I edged our countertop with. 

The GOODY BAGS were winter friends" also bought at party city and I put snowman maze puzzles snowflake and mitten shaped cookie on a paper plate inside a gallon Ziploc.  I had them all laid out on the table with plastic knives frosting and winter sprinkles.  They loved that. I told them the only rule was that they couldn't lick their knife until they were finished. 

Then we moved into the living room (the moms then bagged the cookies back in the Ziplocs and labeled them with a sharpie) to play games.

FIRST GAME we played a dress up relay where the kids had to put on winter coats big mittens and ski goggles (which many of them had never seen since we are in Texas)  We had two teams and they had to put on the clothes take them off again and tag the next person in line.  They had fun cheering for their team. 

Then for GAME TWO we played a game with cotton balls.  I had two children sitting down in chairs and I blindfolded them then one of their teammates held a bowl on the blindfolded child's head.  The blindfolded child then had to use a tablespoon to put cotton balls from the bowl on their lap to the bowl on their head.  It was hilarious because they couldn't do it (even adults can't do it) pretty soon their teammates clued in and started helping out. It was so funny. 

GAME THREE was "hot snowball"  I had bought a big soft snowball from party city (but you could use a Styrofoam ball) and we sat in a circle and passed it around to music. When the music stopped whoever had the snowball was out and got to go get a prize (candy watches).  So getting out wasn't bad. 

After the games we went back to the kitchen to do a CRAFT and made a blizzard in a bottle.  I used small sized water bottles took off the labels ahead of time and put their initials with a sharpie on the lid.  Then we passed around all sorts of white silver and blue glitter and even some snowman and snowflake confetti.  Then we put the lids back on tied a blue ribbon around the top and shook up the bottle to watch the blizzard. 

We then had cake and ice cream and blue Gatorade for our snack.  The CAKE was a snowman shaped cake made from cupcakes that I had ordered from Walmart.  It was one of the cutest cakes we have ever had! 

We then moved on to presents.  Opened those. I took a picture of each child with the birthday boy as he opened their present.  That way I knew who had given him what and I also will include that picture with the thank you notes. 

Our last ACTIVITY was to actually make snow!  The website www.stevespangler.com has a product called insta-snow.  I put 4 tsp. of the product (non-toxic) in a zipper Ziploc before the party.  Then we went outside and I added 1 cup of water to each child's bag.  They quickly zipped it up and shook for a minute and voila! SNOW!!  Their faces lit up when they saw it.  When you reach in a feel it feels cool like snow as well.  So I sent them home with their snow cookies blizzard and goodie bags.  ****They all had a great time in the "snow" of Texas!!"