I finally decided to make my life easier and throw a joint birthday party for Owen and Carmendy last summer, and “let’s get messy” was the perfect theme to celebrate the two of them!
To sell the idea of a joint sibling birthday party to Owen and Carmendy, I had to come up with a really cool theme, one that would equally appeal to both of them. This was not an easy task, because the two of them have pretty different interests.
But one thing they both love is getting messy! Mud, slime, sand…if it gets them dirty, they’re happy. I suggested a messy theme party to them, and the birthday duo were immediately sold on the idea.
Normally, I don’t do much with games and activities for birthday parties. Even though I love decorations, I keep the rest of the birthday festivities pretty simple, mostly because I like kids birthday parties to be short. But a messy birthday party needed to have messy activities!
So I picked three messy party games with the help of Owen and Carmendy:
- “Find the worms” whipped cream pie eating contest
The kids raced to find gummy worms in a whipped cream pie without using their hands. The winners received containers of kinetic sand for their prizes. - Rainbow paint war with spray bottles
I filled spray bottles with water mixed with tempera paint. The kids wore disposable plastic ponchos for this VERY messy activity, which had no strategy or purpose – they just got to run around and spray each other with paint. They had a blast! - Muddy treasure hunt
We filled a plastic kiddie pool with mud and hid prizes in it. We also buried some in the dirt around the pool. The prizes went with the messy theme – slime, playdoh, kinetic sand, slimy sand. By the time they found all the buried prizes, they were super muddy and super happy.
For the decorations, I wanted the party to be really bright with lots of color. I piled a bunch of paper shreds in a rainbow of colors along the center of the table. Marble balloons were also perfect table decorations to go with the theme. Using canvas sheets, I made messy-looking placemats by scribbling them with markers. I crumpled up napkins to add to the messy feel of each place setting. I put messy-theme words on bright-colored paper plates, like “mucky” and “sticky.” Acrylic numbers 6 and 8 splattered with paint were the cake toppers, made by one of my favorite Etsy shops. They also made the lettering for the paper plates, sign, stir sticks, and favor bags.
For the party treats, we had cake (of course!), donuts, and cookies. I made the gluten-free sugar cookies and decorated them to look like messy splatters of paint with icing. I decorated the cake too, which was inspired by many “paint party” cakes I’ve seen on Pinterest.
The favor bags also went with the theme. Each one was filled with “messy” candy, including candy buttons and pixie sticks (which really did make a mess, because the kids dumped the sugar dust everywhere).
Even though I didn’t send invitations for their party, I did create an invitation design for my Etsy shop inspired by their party (shop here). Using the saying I came up with for the invitation (Carmendy is 6 and Owen is 8, let’s get messy to celebrate!), I made a sign for their party. I bought a clear acrylic sheet from Home Depot and splattered it with paint and then stuck the phrase on the other side.
I also bought a very cheap white bed sheet and splattered it with paint. We hung it up as a backdrop. Originally I planned to hang it behind the party table but rain was in the forecast for the party, so we decided to put it in the garage where it was safe from the threat of showers.
I think that’s all the details from the party! I hope you love their party as much as I do and that it inspires you to have a messy party! It really was a blast for the kids (even though I still have splatter stains on my flower pots from the paint war). Take a look at many more photos from the best Let’s Get Messy Joint Birthday party below!
