Last Day of School Ice Cream Party

So last Friday was finally the last day of school for my oldest son.  I saw these autograph shirts all over pinterest and liked the idea and made one with just the draw function, you can find out more on how to at Sugar Bee Crafts and Eighteen 25.  He loved his shirt and wore it all weekend.

I started a tradition with my kids that we have some sort of ice cream celebration when they finish school.  This year I thought it might be fun for the kids to invite some friends over for a very chill ice cream and water balloon party.  We had an Ice Cream Sundae Bar with tons of toppings and played a few water balloon games.  I decorated these scoops with washi tape for the toppings.

We had hot fudge, caramel, chocolate, and butterscotch syrups.  I crushed up oreos, butterfingers, kit kats, reeses, and snickers.  We also had sprinkles and gummi bears, whipped cream and a cherry to go on top.  Each child was given a bowl of vanilla ice cream and then put on whatever toppings they wanted.  We did ice cream first and then went on to the water balloons.

My five year old helped me draw targets on our sidewalk and we had everyone take turns throwing two water balloons and seeing how far they could get.

Then we tried the tossing game where everyone gets a partner and you pass the balloon back and forth and each time you toss the balloon you both take a step back and see how far apart you can get.  By this time the kids were ready to get really wet so they had a water balloon fight until all the balloons were gone.  The last balloon game was whoever can pick up the most water balloon pieces gets a prize.  (This game makes clean up quick and easy because all the kids rush to pick up the most and have the biggest pile.)  For the rest of the time the kids played on the slip and slide or in the yard until their parents came to pick them up.

 Some tips for future water balloon, ice cream parties:  Chocolate melts too fast in the mid afternoon to be outside.  Maybe try different fruits as well as all the junk that kids love.   Make sure that the water balloons are covered.  There was no shade when I started filling up about 500 water balloons and several started to pop in the water filled swimming pools, my problem was with all the blue ones.  The few games we played were fun, maybe do one or two more.  Also a super big thanks to my sister who stopped by to help me scoop the ice cream for 15 crazy and fun kids.  ( I wasn't sure if everyone would come, there were a lot of things going on this weekend, but everyone came and had fun-I hope.)

Linking here.