Craftiness

Announcing Ada’s Simple Zoom Birthday Party

Kyra

Sep 2, 2020 •9 minutes to read

Back in June, when places were first starting to open up in our area, we decided to do a Zoom birthday party for Zoey and after looking around we chose to go with Amazing Fairytale Parties (no affiliate) and had Anna, from Frozen, join our Zoom call with friends. After Zoey’s party Ada immediately started planning her own, but limited herself to the Disney princesses that she could think of. I jumped back onto the Amazing Fairytale Parties’ website, saw a photo of Wonder Woman, and, after messaging them and confirming that Wonder Woman was in fact offered, I waited until they started planning again and let them know that we could maybe check if Wonder Woman was available. Both girls got so excited and thus this party theme was born.

Treat Bags

The best part about having a virtual party is that it doesn’t matter where your guests live as long as they have a stable internet connection. I did; however, want to offer Ada’s nearby guests a treat bag that could be fun for the party, and entertain them afterwards, without it being a distraction from the party since everyone didn’t have one. I also wanted to tie the bags to Wonder Woman herself or, at least, a general superhero/heroine theme. I started out by buying a couple items, planned some others, and then, a couple of weeks before the party, I sent out a message to the guests to get a total head count for the treat bags. Once I knew who all were interested in picking up a bag I was able to write their names on white paper bags, bought two years ago for Ada’s science-themed treat bags, and got Ada to decorate them. So Zoey wasn’t left out I got her to decorate Ada’s bag for her.

Over view of the girls sitting at the table decorating white paper bags. There's a container of pencil crayons between them and a bunch of stamps scattered around. — So Zoey didn’t feel left out she got to decorate Ada’s treat bag while Ada decorated the rest of them.

Over view of Zoey drawing a red line coming from one of the many pink fingerprints on the flattened paper bag in front of her. — I looked away for a bit and when I got back Zoey had fingerprinted balloons over the bag and was adding lines for the balloon strings. I loved it and had to snap a quick photo.

Crocheted Water Balloons

A couple years ago I came across the idea of crocheting water balloons using blanket yarn. I absolutely loved the idea; however, other than buying a ball of Bernat Baby Blanket yarn I never got around to trying it out. A month or two before Ada’s party I thought of it again, looked online for crochet patterns, bought three more balls of yarn at Walmart, and started making them. Once I crocheted a couple balloons it was time to take them outside to test with the girls and they worked splendidly… although the kids ended up using them to clean the concrete rather than practice Wonder Woman throws. At this point I knew the balloons would be perfect for after the party so I continued crocheting them and ended up with enough to include two balloons in each treat bag along with a printed off tag, from the Left in Knots website, so the guests would know what they were. I added the words “and target training” to each tag and included two sticks of sidewalk chalk so they could draw targets for the balloons to hit making it more superhero/ione themed. If you want to take this further last year, for Zoey’s birthday party and then Ada’s, we bought water blasters from the local Dollar Tree and laminated coloring pages for the targets. I can see mixing and matching multiple targets and water throwing methods for a larger crowd or if you just want to change up your outside fun.

Image from above showing two blue dappled yarn made balloons sitting on pavement, slightly overlapping, with three small pieces of sidewalk chalk beside them in white, green, and orange. — I brought the first two finished balloons outside so the kids could test it and quickly realized I should find some sidewalk chalk so we could draw some quick targets on the fence or shed wall.

I'm holding both soaked water balloons in my left hand over top of the blue colored pool. — After drawing a couple hearts and diamond-like shapes on the side of our shed I made sure to get the two water balloons really wet.

Image shows a shadow covered shed with some white outlined shapes drawn onto the wall. In the foreground is a single wet yarn water balloon flying towards the wall and spraying water out the back (above). — I then threw the balloon at the shed, with one hand, while attempting to take a great photo with my other hand. The balloons made great splats as they hit the wall but I had to show this photo with the water spraying off of it as it flies to the wall.

Both kids are standing behind the small pool. Ada is slightly in front and has one hand on the side of the pool as she bends over to soak the water balloon in her other hand. Zoey is slightly behind her and is squeezing her balloon out over the pool. — I then handed a water balloon to each kid to see what they’d do with it… after telling them not to throw them at each other since Zoey hates getting wet on someone else’s terms.

Background of the image shows a wooden fence with a couple small orange circles colored on. Ada stands in front of it with a single arm raised holding a wet water balloon. You can see she started swinging as there's water flying off of it towards her in an arc. — Ada drew several circles on the fence before throwing her first balloon at the target.

Ada's arm is now outstretched and angled downwards as she just finished throwing the ballon. The balloon is crumpled up a bit and is falling to the ground. Slightly above the balloon, on the fence, there's a wet splat mark where one of the sidewalk chalk targets were. — She hit a target! I love the satisfying splat of the water when the crocheted balloon hits the fence.

View looking down of the concrete with that's mainly wet. You can see Ada's feet, her hair draping down, and one hand wiping the ground with a crocheted water balloon. — After throwing the crocheted water balloons a couple times both kids ended up mopping the concrete with the balloons instead of throwing them.

View shows two crocheted blue water balloons. The one on the left is dirty and shriveled looking while the one on the right is clean, dried, and puffy. — Only one of the two balloons made it’s way into our home and washing machine so I ended up being able to take a comparison photo of the dirty used balloon, on the left, and the washed and dried balloon, on the right.

My Ravelry project page for these balloons, including any needed links, can be found here while the pattern I used, including a printable tag, can be found at the Left in Knots’ website.

Assembling the Treat Bags

In addition to the water balloons I wanted something that the kids could do before or during the party. I ended up hopping on Amazon and bought a twenty-four pack of AIMIKE Superhero capes, masks, and stickers while Ada, later on, chose to make everyone glittery pipe cleaner hearts. She originally wanted to make four or more pipe cleaner shapes for each person but we ended up putting two in each bag instead.

Overview of the treat bags and all it's contents spread out on the floor. Ada is sitting at the top of the photo, the empty bags to the left, a box with four filled bags to the right, and the water balloons, pipe cleaner shapes, capes, and stickers laid out around her. — We laid out all the items and, one by one, filled up each treat bag with the stuff. I was careful to have the stuff for after the party hidden under the stuff that was more geared for during the party just to make it simpler.

Image showing the contents of the treat bags with two treat bags sitting behind it. One item is a white sheet with comic book Bam, Kaboom, etc stickers. There's also a printed rectangle of paper saying "Reusable — Each person had the two pipe cleaner hearts hidden at the bottom of their bag, followed by the sidewalk chalk and water balloons, the printed label went next flat over top, and then finally the cape, mask, and stickers.

Personal Cupcakes

The last couple years I’ve been making cupcakes or a sheet of brownies for the girls’ personal birthday cakes so they’d blow out the candles on their plate only. I didn’t realize I’d done it so much until Zoey and I made a simple birthday cake back in June and the girls got so excited because it was their first actual birthday cake. Coming up to Ada’s birthday this year she made sure to quickly request her favorite birthday dessert: Ghirardelli brownie mix with a can of pineapple added. I wanted the brownies to be easy to split up among all the treat bags so I decided to make personal cupcakes and, as they’d gotten stuck on paper liners before, I decided to make them using silicone liners so, once they cooled, I could take them out of the liners and package them up for the guests’ treat bag. I kept the packaged brownies in the fridge and whenever someone came by to pick up a treat bag I was able to grab the pre-filled and labeled treat bag, toss their brownie inside, and bring it out for them. The treat bags were, mostly, handed out the day before the party.

The purple stand mixer is currently beating the contents of the bowl. Ada's hand is resting on top of the mixer while I hold the emptied can of crushed pineapple up for the camera. Off to the right, on the counter, sits the two unopened bags of brownie mix. — We wanted to use two bags of brownie mix so we followed the doubled recipe on the back of the box. Since the 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple had about the same amount of liquid as the water the recipe called for we combined the entire can together with the called for eggs and oil, mixed it together, added the brownie mix, and mixed it again before baking it in the silicone cupcake liners. Previously, we’ve used pineapple chunked pineapple.

Image shows two yellow rectangular bins with soapy water in it. Between the bins are two white washcloths and a stack of dirty silicone cupcake liners. The back top of the kids' heads are showing and they're currently putting liners in the soapy water. — I always find it difficult to wash the silicone liners as they always look clean and then dry dirty. I’ve found it so much simpler if the kids do the first wash and I do the second wash later. To set up this fun sensory bin I gave both kids a bin of soapy water (one wanted warm and one wanted cold), a washcloth, and the dirty liners. Ada got bored quickly but Zoey spent a good hour or two on it before she decided she was done.

Night Before the Party

Leading up to the party I also bought comic book themed punching balloons, found our birthday banners, and printed several copies of a Wonder Woman W logo I found online so Ada could decorate the walls (through The Graveyard by The Lair of Gary James). The kids didn’t manage to finish decorating the walls so after they went to bed I laid out the requested special tablecloth and left the coloring pages out for them to finish in the morning.

A wooden table covered in a blue/green table cloth with napkins, glasses, papers, and coloring pencils on it. Around the table sits four chairs and above the table is a Happy Birthday banner on the wall. — The table all ready for the kids in the morning.

The Party!

The morning of the party, after having breakfast and getting in costume, I gave the girls their treat bags and we all decorated our capes. Some of the stickers, that came with the capes, started peeling off almost immediately but the rest have remained stuck, so far, and the capes were fun to decorate. I also made sure to lay out candles for Ada’s cupcake and added cream cheese to a saucer, and put it back in the fridge, so I could make the birthday candle stand up easily. And finally it was time for the party. Wonder Woman lead them in a quick training involving jumping, pushups, and some running before going over her story and leading everyone in singing Happy Birthday to Ada. Ada had a blast and was so happy to see her friends.

View looking down at the floor of three capes: red, silver, and orange. I quickly finished attaching the stickers to the silver cape while the kids are still crouched in front decorating them. — Before the party we decorated our capes with the included stickers.

Image shows the kitchen counter with two birthday candles, a lighter, and a square white saucer with a dollop of cream cheese on the side. — I then added a pile of cream cheese to a saucer, so the number 6 candle had a place to stand, before putting the saucer back in the fridge and laying out the birthday candles and lighter I planned to use.

Wonder Woman Ada and Unicorn Superhero Zoey attempting the two pushups. — Love that Wonder Woman made everyone move their body although I would’ve loved more of the party to be like this.

View of the television screen showing Wonder Woman. — Wonder Woman!

View from above of a brownie cupcake in a red flower silicon liner sitting on a white square plate on the kitchen counter. In front of the brownie sits a number 6 candle, lite, on a pile of cream cheese. — At Zoey’s party I had to make everyone wait while I lite the birthday candles when it came time to sing. This time around I tried to light them when needed, but ended up lighting them way too early and had wax dripping down while I waited.

If you’re interested in a Wonder Wonder costume whether you’re throwing a party or not here’s a link to my daughter’s costume. We ended up making a glowing lasso of truth to go with it.

I wanted to share what we did during Ada’s birthday party in case you’re also looking at what you might be able to do from home while sheltering in place. I would much prefer an in-person party with fun sensory activities but this was a great alternative I found that worked for both Ada and Zoey. What have you done for your kids’ birthday parties? I’d love to hear ideas in the comments below in case we’re still, mostly, sheltering in place next year. I hope your year is going well, considering, and you’re having a good day.

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Craftiness Food & Dessert Birthday Children Crochet Superhero Toddler Screen Time Wonder Woman Sensory Activity Dessert