Earth Day Playdate

Happy 40th Anniversary of Earth Day!  Now, before you go thinking that I'm super Eco-friendly, I'm not...well, not extreme that is.  Yes, we recycle and try to turn off electricity and reduce water use, but I do not drive a hybrid, I do not grow my own organic foods, I don't compost and I LOVE paper plates and disposable diapers! :)  With that said, I still enjoy celebrating this holiday and doing the best that I can to bring awareness to my kids about how precious our Earth is.

One of the first things I did was cut up all my paper grocery bags and use as table covers.  I also cut the bottom of the bags into circles and made my Earth Day banner out of that.  I also used scrapbooking paper, ribbon and tacks that I already had.

So with this holiday, I did try to use most of my own stuff (not buying new things) and reusing/re-purposing things.  I used baskets, bamboo placemats, faux grass and earth balls (I did buy those) and made a quick centerpiece.

Outdoors, I did the same...used grocery bags as the tablecover, bamboo placemat, faux grass, a hurricane, river rocks I had and moss I had from Easter, then I just threw in some $1 butterfly catchers and stuck on some butterfly stickers to give the effect.  I even already owned the green paper lanterns that I hung from the umbrella.

So the food, well, we didn't score high on the healthy food this time.  How many kids will eat a plate full of vegetables?  So we had some chicken nuggets, carrots, watermelon, quiche, potato and macaroni salad, muffins, ect.  I also failed miserably on the plastic ware...I just couldn't see going out and buying reusable plates, cups, utensils...then I would be using more "green" and would be using more water to wash them with...so that's my justification for using disposable plasticware :)

You know how I love my signature drinks...so I had "Liquid Sunshine" which was just Crystal Light lemonade and orange slices.  Then I had "World Water" which was just that...plain old water.

Probably my favorite thing I planned for this party was the dirt cake.  Usually I put it in a big pot and throw in some fake flowers and a trowel, but this year I wanted to do something different.  So I put them in individual disposable cups, decorated each spoon to look like a flower and added the traditional gummy worm.  It was delicious by the way!

The first activity was coloring.  I printed coloring pages with the map of the world and used them as placemats and each kid got to color these while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Then my girlfriend Lisa Langford brought terra cotta pots for each child and also brought terra cotta painting pens for the kids to use to decorate their pots!  So cute!

We then filled the pots with potting soil and planted a flowering bulb.  We will watch it grow over the summer!

Next it was time for our Nature Walk.  Each kid brought a bucket, some brought magnifying glasses and some butterfly catchers.

I am very fortunate to live in a community where we have paved walking trails and a pond.  So we decided to go around the pond.

We looked through our magnifying glasses to find insects.  We hiked through some woods to collect flowers, bugs, leaves, sticks, ect.

Lastly, we sat on the deck and I read a couple Earth Day books to the kids.  It's hard to compete with nature and keep their attention, but we tried!

So overall it was a great party!  Getting outside and doing the walk was fantastic!  What kid doesn't like playing with dirt...and what kid doesn't like to eat dirt cake?  Yum, Yum!  Happy Earth Day