Ben's Art Party: The Activities

I planned four fun artsy stations for Ben and his friends and just kept my fingers crossed that they would a) enjoy them, and b) enjoy them for more than two minutes.  For the most part all were a success.  Most of the kids spent a good amount of time on each station and the timing of the party went almost as planned.  Ben was of course the most difficult one, demanding to move onto the next station before it was time too- but that's to be expected, right?  It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.
The first station was crayon making.  I had some already made up and left some crayons for the children to peel, break, and place in the mini muffin tins for cooking.  While the crayons were in the oven they got to color this picture of Ben as a little artist, done by Sandy Ford Design.

Then it was on to painting a canvas.  Most of the children really took their time at this station and created beautiful little masterpieces.  

The third station was sand art.  This one brought me back the most to my childhood.  I remember doing cool sand art at carnivals as a kid, and just had to bring it back.  I don't think any of the kids had done it before, so it was a big hit.

The last station was play dough.  I whipped up a quick batch of homemade play dough the night before and rolled them into ten balls.  The kids got to choose a food color to squeeze into their dough and turn it the color of their choice.  Then they each played around for a while with our many play dough tools and stored their dough in a little tin.

 It was such fun throwing a big kid party this year with great participation on behalf of the kids.  It was really rewarding seeing them have such a fun time, plus they got lots of creations to bring home in cute little bags to show mom and dad.