Earth Day Birthday Party!

Happy Earth Day!  We celebrated another birthday this weekend, and it was lots of fun.

There was strawberry cake covered in colored buttercream roses (original tutorial seen here).  There were snack necklaces, dirt pudding cups, citrus punch, and painted terra cotta pots as party favors.

The kids had a lot of fun putting this party together.  They made the dirt pudding cups, the citrus punch, the snack necklaces, and they painted the terra cotta pots.  I’ll be posting the super-easy recipes for the punch and pudding in a few days.  Consider letting your kids help you throw your next party!

Edible Candy Necklace

This edible necklace is my take on the candy necklaces that we all enjoyed in the 70s, 80s, and 90s – are they still around???

Anyway, I never did like the candies that were on them and there are so many options (cereal, candies, cookies, etc) available nowadays - so there’s no excuse not to string your own (or have your kids do it)!

In fact, stringing these necklaces is a great activity to do at a party, or if you’re homeschooling you could use this to practice patterns and counting.

Plus it’s edible, so that alone makes it a winner in my book!  You can even customize these to make them appropriate for even your youngest party guests.

To make these you need. . .

Twine

Pretzels

Chocolate-covered pretzels (white & dark)

Gummy circles

Cookies (any with holes in the center)

Cereal (again, with holes in the center)

Set of yarn darners (I found some at Walmart for under $2 for a set of 7) – they’re essentially a large-eyed needle – don’t skip buying these it’ll make threading so much easier!!!

Cut the twine to the desired length, and start threading, then tie it off when you’re done!

I packaged these in individual cellophane bags with a twist tie on top.

Linking to I Heart Nap Time, Tidy Mom, Inside BruCrew Life

Update March 6, 2012: My kids and I had fun making these on a playdate we hosted at our house.  I opted to use regular fudge cookies (since the hole in the center is large and easier to string – without needles) and I’m happy to say that all the kids (ages 4 and up) were able to do these without assistance.  Success!