Host a Sand Castle Birthday Party

This is a fun, beachy party theme that kids from 3-12 will love! If your child likes sand and fun, consider throwing this party for her. It even works in the dead of winter, since you don't have to go anywhere near the real beach!

Invitations:

Make your invitations by cutting 8"x 5"rectangles of beige cardstock. Cut a 2"x2" chunk out of the top center and make the two "towers" look like a castle by cutting "teeth" out of them.

Use a pencil to write the information in clear, big letters. Next, use a glue bottle to trace the letters with a continuous bead of white glue. Sprinkle with sand and let dry. You can do all the cards at once and leave them on sheets of newspaper to dry. After a few hours, shake off the excess sand and slip them into sand-colored envelopes.

Decorations:

Beige and brown streamers are quite appropriate for this party, as are beach colored balloons. Cut starfish, fish and sand castles out of craft foam, punch a hole in each and thread them onto yarn to be strung up around the room. Make a giant sand castle out of cardstock and hang it on the wall.

The Cake:

You will need to plan ahead to make this cake. Get 2 gallons of your child's favorite sand-colored ice cream, caramel or butterscotch works well. You will also need some brand new sand castle molds from the toy store and some crushed animal crackers.

Let the ice cream soften a bit, then spoon it into the molds, pressing it firmly down. Put back into the freezer overnight. On the day of the party, unmold the castle parts onto a large platter that has been covered with crushed animal crackers. Sprinkle the entire cake with the crushed cookies and return to the freezer before it begins to melt. Serve with toothpicks and construction paper pennants. A nice touch might be some candy rocks or chocolate starfish. If you really want to get creative, add some green fruit leather seaweed, just cut the fruit leather into wiggly strips. All this should be added immediately before serving.

Activities:

Any party games are fine, but you might want to stick to the sand theme by having a "sand" dig, where kids have to find treasures buried in a box of rice.

Another fun activity is sand sculpture. You need to provide each child with a clean baby food jar and have colored sand for them to layer in their jars. If you can't find colored sand at the craft store, just mix some powdered tempura paint with salt. The children can pour small amounts into the jars and use popsicle sticks and toothpicks to form hills and ripples. When they finish, the jar will be a myriad of pretty layers. Older children may even try for sunsets over a blue sand ocean, with tiny black birds above.

Sand painting is another fun one. Provide printed beach scenes glued to cardstock and have the children apply glue to the pictures, then sprinkle with colored sand (or salt). They can take their dried pictures home at the end of the party.