5 Earth Day Activities for Adults

5 Adult Activities for Earth Day

Looking for something to do around the office to celebrate Earth Day? These 5 Earth Day activities for adults will help you have a fun and enriching celebration. When is Earth Day? Earth Day is April 22.

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• In the Fall of every year, Indianapolis, Indiana has a day of community service. Indy Do Day is a mini vacation from the office. We think incorporating something like this into an Earth Day celebration would make an awesome experience. Get the whole office on board. Plant a community garden or better yet, make it personal. Find local senior citizens in need, and do some yard work, gardening, or recycling for them. Find a way to give back to your community that will have an impact on the environment.

Indy Do Day activities are perfect for Earth Day. Photo from Indydoday.com

• Another, simple way for adult co-workers to celebrate Earth Day is to go on hike! Sure, you'll get some complaints. Plan ahead, and make it a field trip of sorts. Make sure everyone comes prepared with water, comfortable shoes, sunscreen, bug spray, and bags to collect any trash you find along your journey. 

Everyone needs the fresh air. It is a great way to bond with your office mates. You'll feel like you are playing hooky, but use the time to brainstorm ideas to make the office more green.

A hike is a simple way for adults to celebrate Earth Day.

• Have you ever been to a recycling plant? We have. It is a very interesting experience. Most people are surprised to discover all of the different things that can be recycled. Find an incentive (maybe a gift card) and then ask your co-workers to bring in some recyclable items- not trash! Think real recyclables like an old, broken, bronze lamp, metal scrap, old appliances... Collect all the aluminum cans from the office and take them with you (rather than letting the recycling truck pick them up as usual).

Now, take a caravan to your local recycling plant! We go on Saturdays and have to wait in a long line. They pay with a receipt that you cash out at an ATM like machine. After you go, you'll understand why so many people offer free pick up of old appliances. You might even want to become a dumpster diver.

Ways to Recycle Plastic Bottles

The cash for junk is pretty impressive, especially when you think about it being trash that you saved from going into a landfill!

Get cash for metal at Ray's Recycling plant.

What about that gift card? Award it to the co-worker whose junk brought the most coin! What? You think they don't deserve it because they already got a big payoff? Use the money you earn from recycling to donate to a save the earth cause.

• Have your own little Earth Day celebration with an organic recipe.

• Get a group of adults involved in Earth Day activities by volunteering in a preschool, shelter, or nursing home. Find some fun Earth Day crafts like the ones below, and take the day off while you educate and enrich the lives of others. 

Help children grow an indoor garden.

Make an Earth Day Pin Craft.

Whatever you choose to do, have fun, and make a difference!

Recommended:

Christmas Games for the Office Party

Ways for Kids to Celebrate Earth Day

Visit a Nature Park

When Rivers Burned: The Earth Day Story 

Earth Day - Go Green Adult Organic T-Shirt

3 Fun Turkey Crafts from Organic items in Nature

Cute, Fun Turkey Crafts for Kids to Make at Home

These 3 adorable turkey crafts are made from things you can find around your house. Each one uses something found in nature. Grab a piece of paper and have your kids make a list (sneaking in some handwriting time) of things they will look for while on a nature hike. Then, grab your craft scraps and sit down to make these little gobblers at home. Gobble. Gobble. Gobble. Enjoy!

Pinecone Turkeys from I Love India blog.

This cute little guy deceived us, we thought it was paper and fall leaves, turns out it is made from craft leaves and felt. Want to use real leaves? Find out how to preserve fall leaves.

Paper Turkey with Leaves as Tail Feathers
from BabyCenter blog.

The little turkey pictured below is made from an orange. He stole our hearts. He is... so cute! What a great way to welcome guests to their place setting.

Orange, Leaves, and Pinecone Turkey from Parenting blog.

Waddle around the blog, and you'll find all sorts of turkey projects, crafts, and games for Thanksgiving. We hope we've helped you to have a Happy Turkey Thursday!


Recommended Reading:

Recycled Paper Turkey Craft

Footprint Native American Feather Hat

Kids Creative Chaos Cooks: Holiday Recipes

How to Make a Paper Turkey Craft with Scrapbook Paper

Scrapbook Paper Turkey Craft

Last year, we were given a few scrapbook paper books. These are amazing things to a crafter. Pages and pages of beautiful, colorful paper with awesome patterns and designs. We guarded it carefully until one day we saw, There's Just One Mommy, make a paper turkey craft. We knew right then, our paper treasure was destined to be a Thanksgiving turkey!  Enjoy.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

My favorite part of creating is how everyone creates differently. I've known many an art teacher and several preschool teachers, who give you a pattern and instructions and get very upset if it isn't a carbon copy of their own.

Mommy cut a pattern. She showed her turkey (that she loves) and told the kids they could use any papers from the recycle bin, including the scrapbook paper. Check it out!

We took it further and used actual scrap paper from our recycle box.

Mayhem turned the tail feathers the opposite direction and used a mix of old cards, coloring pages, and pages from an Oriental Trading Co. flyer. Mommy's turkey head pattern was completely tossed aside for a simple circle.

Look what we did with just a simple sales flyer, you know, trash. We made it pretty.

Jake, Jake, Jake. He likes order. He turned the feathers the right way and made them all match. He didn't use Mommy's turkey head pattern, but he made his own head and body. Still no feet though.

Mommy's scrapbook turkey lost a foot.

Paper plate turkey collage craft from There's Just one Mommy.

Collage paper plate turkey craft for preschoolers from theresjustonemommy.com

Recommended Reading:

10 Fat Turkeys Book

Jake's Stuffed Turkey Recipe

Styrofoam Turkey Craft

How to Make Marshmallow Turkeys

Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

5 Fishing Activities: Aquarium Crafts for Kids: Fun Microbiology Homeschool Lessons

These 5 Fun Fishing Activities and Kids' Aquarium Crafts make nice Companion Projects for Preschool Books or Homeschool Microbiology Lessons

Whether you have preschoolers, elementary students, or teenagers in homeschool, you'll find the perfect aquarium craft here. These easy fishing activities and projects work as companion lessons for microbiology or aquatic science too! Scroll down to find the right activity for your child's age level. Enjoy!

Aquarium ActivitiesL Fishing Crafts for Science Lesson Homeschool.

Paper plate fish aquarium activity.  Visit Make and Takes for details.

These paper plate fish from Make and Takes are great for an elementary or preschool classroom bulletin board. Just cover you board with blue paper, add a strip of black paper across the top, and you've got your own giant aquarium full of fish. 

To make this more than just an art project, use it as a companion activity for a lesson in microbiology or under the sea science. 

Have the students choose a different species of aquatic life to study, write about, and then design their own to display in the aquarium.

Manatee Viewing Center Field Trip

These Mason jar Aquariums by Hello Wonderful are ideal for children of all ages.

The Mason Jar. In Indiana, we are partial to Ball Jars, but either way the jars are so versatile! I recently purchased a set of 1/2 gallon Ball jars*.

Half Gallon Ball jars are perfect for aquarium crafts and mini terrariums.
Get yours here.

This little fishing theme activity from Hello Wonderful is great for a birthday party or a lesson in microbiology. Imagine the possibilities. Use it as an attractive way to display a Beta fish, study snails in the round, or even make a terrarium.

Goldfish Aquarium Craft from In Design Art and Craft.
I suggest filling yours with Goldfish Crackers for an edible snack  craft on the go.

This Goldfish is another recycled bottle craft. This is a fun, easy aquarium craft for preschoolers or after school activities. The children can learn to recycle and reuse too!

Why oh why is this filled with beads? Yeah, you know I like to focus on edible crafts for preschoolers. Let's fill ours with Goldfish Crackers and then the kids can use them as a fun snack on the go.

This is our aquarium craft for kids. Make a pretend aquarium in a Ziploc baggie.

1 Quart Ziploc Bags for Classroom*

Aquarium Crafts for Middle or High Science

Giant Stuffed Paper Activity from Teaching in Room 6.
What, these aren't fish crafts? I know, I know just continue reading.

So many years ago, I was the Program Director of a large (very) before and after school program. We used the giant paper rolls to make and decorate our parade float. We made giant, stuffed paper fish puppets. I took pictures with a film camera. I have no idea what happened to those pictures, but I'd love to share the idea with you.

Teaching in Room 6 is a fantastic blog to get ideas for classroom projects. I found the Colony Lesson (pictured above) which demonstrates the how to make giant fish puppets, plus you could go one step further and have your student detail the life cycle of aquatic life or fun facts about the fish on their fish puppet.

You will need:

Giant Rolls of Paper in various Colors

Heavy Duty Stapler

Markers, Paint, or Crayons

Trash! Use old newspapers or recycle classroom worksheets

Dowel Rod or Stick 2'-4' long

To Make a Giant Fish Aquarium or Sea Life Craft:

Allow 2-3 days to complete the project in a classroom.

Study the type of fish or sea life you want to create. Dolphins, Crabs, and Octopuses make awesome Parade Puppets.

Draw the sea creature on two layers of paper. Get that? You need to cut two of each sea creature. Try to make it life size or oversize. A great way to measure for a fun size puppet is to have a child lay on the paper and then make your fish the same length.

Once the creature is drawn, cut it out and decorate. You can give one side of the puppet the features of the animal (eyes, nose, fins, etc.). On the other side (to make an informative science project) draw the life cycle of the fish or illustrate fun facts about sea life.

After the drawings and decorations are completed, grab your stapler. Staple the edges about 1/4" from the edge of the paper, be sure to leave an opening in the creature's belly.

Now, grab some clean trash (old tests work great). Stuff your fish to desired fatness! Insert the dowel in the center most point of the base of the animal and staple around the dowel to attach. This might require some tape too. Ta Da! You have a giant fish puppet on a stick. Fish Sticks! These are great to carry around the school on a parade walk, enter into your local parade, or go one step further. 

We made lots of these, designed a large piece of cardboard to look like an aquarium and attached several to the cardboard aquarium. Older kids marched in the parade carrying the display while the younger ones danced around them with their fish sticks. Super Fun!

If you aren't feeling so social or industrious, replace the pole in the belly with a string in the back and hang them from the classroom ceiling.

Here's our tiny sample made with regular size construction paper.

Image coming soon.

Recommended Reading:

Pretend to go Fishing Creative Play Activity

Easy Recycled Paper Rainbow Fish Craft

My Visit to the Aquarium Children's Book*

The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums *






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Make a Call of Duty Black Ops Medal Afterschool Activity

 Make your own Black Ops Call of Duty Style Medal

Call of Duty Black Ops and Ghosts are so popular with teens and their gaming Dads too. We've been posting  a ton of Call of Duty birthday party activity themes or after-school boredom busters. Enjoy!

I know, how can you get bored when you have your video games to play?

Well, sometimes you mess up and lose your tech time. Grounded. Don't leave your soldiers all alone. Remember when you used to get dressed up and play make believe? Yep. Now they call it role-playing, and it is cool to be a nerd.

Get your own Official Black Ops Medal

This post contains affiliate links.

We made our look-alike (shh, I know it's a stretch, don't hurt my feelings!) medal with recycled cardboard from a cereal box, blue felt, aluminum foil, some Sharpies, and Tacky Glue.

Official Call of Duty Black Ops Prestige Medal.

How to Make a Call of Duty Medal

We took the image above, printed it out in black and white and then traced it to make a template. It's not an exact match, but it makes a fun Call of Duty activity for kids.

After, we cut out our images, we traced them onto the cardboard. There are 5 separate cardboard pieces making up the medal.

Next, we covered each piece with foil by wrapping the cardboard cut out and rubbing over it with fingers to reveal where to make the cuts. No need to glue the foil down, just wrap the edges so they fold over the back.

Then, we stacked each piece as pictured and glued them down with tacky glue.

Take a break, let it dry. Later, we took the Sharpie and colored the bottom layer. We used brown, but gold looks best. Then, we drew the features of the skull.

Finally, we cut the felt in an odd bow tie, folded it in half, glued it at the top, and then to the wings at the top of our cardboard medal.

If you make a Call of Duty template pattern stencil (see what I did there? That's weird, right?), and cut the pieces out prior to the party, it makes a quick, fun activity for a boys' birthday party.

Need a stencil pattern template - whatever you want to call it, you can find it here as a FREE PRINTABLE CALL OF DUTY pdf on our Mediafire page. If the link isn't clickable, I haven't scanned it in yet. Hold on. I'm getting to it.



Recommended Reading:


Call of Duty: Ghosts Signature Series Strategy Guide 

Free Printable Coloring Pages inspired by Call of Duty

Call of Duty Art Lesson

Army Birthday Party with Call of Duty Theme

15 Slumber Party Games and Activities for Teen Girls: Best Sleepover Ever

15 Fun for Teen Girls Activities: A Sleepover, Slumber Birthday Party

A teenage girl sleepover party with fun games, activities, and swag bags is the best slumber party ever! Don't just read these titles and think, been there done that. We've added a little twist to each birthday party activity.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
UPDATED for 2020 with BONUS BIRTHDAY ACTIVITIES.

Slumber Party Sleepover Games and Activities for Teen Girls.

1. Balloon Charades. Grabs some stationary and write down ideas for Charades. What are charades? How do you play charades? You know, when you act something out, pull on your ear for "sounds like", put two fingers in the air to signify two words, but you never speak. Yeah, that game. So, fold the paper up into skinny rectangles, slide it inside a balloon, blow it up, and use it as a party decoration. When you are ready to play charades give each guest a balloon. Have her pop it - sitting on it is the most fun, read it, and act it out for the other guests to guess. Super Fun!

Yeah, you can do this with "Truth or Dare" too, but oh how I loathe Truth or Dare. Shouldn't it be called "Humiliation or Bullying?"



Bonus Activity: Giant Cupcake Balloon for Party
Want a cool photo op for your social media? Make this Balloon Cupcake with your friends and then use it as a backdrop for your photos! Click here: How to Make Giant Cupcake from Balloons!

2. Sleeping Bag Switch. For this game, each girl brings a sleeping bag or sleeping pad to the party. To start the game, the girls unroll their bags and lay them out on the floor. Then, one girl goes out of the room and the remaining girls pick someone else's bag to hide in. The girl then returns and tries to guess who is who or who is where. You can also have only two girls switch, and see if she can tell who switched. Fun times!

5 Fun Ideas for Teen Birthday Party

3. Crazy Makeovers. Time to pull out the make up, and let the girls give each other makeovers. No peeking until it is done. The beautician can choose to make a crazy makeover or a beautiful, glamorous one. The girl getting the makeup has to guess which type of makeover she got before the big reveal. 

Fun Things to Make at Home

4. Spin the Nail Polish Bottle. Each girl takes a turn picking out a color and spinning the bottle. This works best on a table. Who ever the bottle points to when it finishes spinning paints a nail with that color. Then, she chooses the next color to spin. When everyone has 10 nails painted, take a picture and share them with your friends on Instagram. Make sure you have lots of color choices!

Choose a variety of colors for Nail Polish Spin the Bottle game.

5. Make your Own Glitter Body Scrub. Find small jars that seal tightly, fine glitter, (white is nice) coconut oil, (a wonderful moisturizer for the scrub) scented extract, and sugar or coarse salt. Sugar is best. Salt is great for exfoliating, but bad if it gets in your eyes. Choose an extract: Peppermint, Almond (my favorite) Coconut, or Vanilla. Add a few drops of extract to the sugar and glitter to make a paste. Now you have your own moisturizer and exfoliator. When purchasing coconut oil you want this kind, extra virgin coconut oil.

Coconut Oil for Glitter Scrub.

6. Dress Up Divas. Go to a thrift shop and find evening gowns or formal wear and fancy heels the girls can use to dress up. Place the gowns in a large bag. Before you let the girls see the gowns, have them make blindfolds that double as beauty masks. Once everyone is blindfolded, have them choose a dress by touch alone. After they model the dresses, they can trade and have a fashion show or make up a reality show. Don't forget a full-length mirror.

For a blindfold or sleeping mask tutorial visit Henry Happened blog.

7. Pillowcase Decorating Activity. Purchase pillowcases to decorate. Grab fabric makers, tacky glue, and ribbon. You can also find fun, iron on transfers to embellish. If you plan in advance, you can decorate a large gift bag for each guest. Load it up with all that Birthday Party Swag! 

Birthday Party Activities for Teen Girls

8. Pillow Fight. A classic game. As part of the swag bag items, create mini-pillows. You can often find little pillows at the dollar store or use travel pillows. Decorate them as mentioned above. When it is time for bed, be a cool party host. Tell the girls to grab their mini-pillows. On your mark, set, pillow fight! Just watch out for the lamps! You're going to need a big full-body pillow for this pillow fight!

Bonus Activity: Easy Colorful Cupcake Frosting
Make this easy, colorful cupcake icing and decorate cakes or cookies with your friends! Share on Instagram or other social media with #cupcaketime Get the recipe here: Easy Cupcake Frosting.

9. Flip Flop Decorating Activity. Find out the Flip Flop shoe sizes of each guest before the party. Get some yarn, baubles, Sharpie Markers, and cloth scraps. Decorate to your heart's desire. Toss them in that swag bag to take home.

Printable Dorm Supply Checklist

10. Cup Stacking. When you are buying party supplies, get some extra cups for the party guests to stack. Take turns to see who can get the most cups stacked in a minute or who has the most creative tower. Even better, everyone can start at the same time. This makes it more nerve wracking and chaotic! Hey, don't knock my tower down!

Minute to Win it Games for a Birthday Party.

11. Minute to Win it Games. Imagine the possibilities! Just like cup stacking, come up with several activities that can be completed in one minute. Everyone grab one of those cups. Set it in the middle of a table, grab a Ping Pong ball, and with only one bounce allowed, bounce the ball into the cup. Hurry! The clock is ticking. Tick Tock. You can also use the a cup to fill a bucket with water (use a colorful sand pail). 

Bonus Activity: Toothpaste Slime

Trick your friends with this toothpaste slime. You'll need 1 C. Blue Hair Gel, 1/2 C. Cornstarch, Water, Super Fine White Glitter.

Slowly add water to 1/3 C. Cornstarch by the spoonful, stir until all is mixed well and becomes pour-able. Then, slowly stir cornstarch mixture into the hair gel. When it all has a thick toothpaste consistency, sprinkle in the super fine glitter. Voila! You have fake toothpaste. See if you can trick your parents with it. Of course, this toothpaste slime isn’t edible!! 

Did you know real toothpaste isn’t edible either? You should always spit it out after brushing. Don’t forget to brush your teeth with real toothpaste every morning (even at a slumber party!) 

Parents,  if you’ve got one of those kids, who doesn’t like to go to the dentist, ABC Children’s Dentistry offers more valuable tips to help you and your child when it comes to oral hygiene. Dental hygiene is something that should be taught at an early age. Why not make it fun?  Here’s a neat sensory toothpaste activity for preschoolers by Still Playing School.

12. Dance Off. Time for the girls to get their dance moves on and have fun. This is great to play after the Dress up Diva game. She who dances the longest wins. Ha! You thought it was a game of skill. Nope. It is a game of "get them tired so they don't put your panties in the freezer!"  Sweet Dreams. What's that? You're dreaming of popsicles?

13. Board Games. Don't think "bored" games. These board games are fun because each girl makes her own game to play or collaborate on one super, cool game. Cereal boxes, paper plates, and the white side of the wrapping paper are great ways to make a board. Paper plates make game spinners. Old, recycled business cards make excellent playing cards or game cards. Stickers are fun too. Fold paper and cut it into a cube pattern to make your own dice. Still boring? Take those balloons and fill them with game topics. For example, "Make a game about Rock Stars" or "Make a Mall Shopping Card Game" or "Make a game of questions." Let your imaginations run wild. This can be especially fun for preteens and tweens.

Cool Games for Holiday Parties

14. Classic Board Games. Find out who your moguls are when you pull out the Monopoly game or start up the giggles with Trouble. But that's boring, right? Pass around a basket of accessories. Think grandma glasses, nerd spectacles, giant clip-on earrings, men's ties, satin gloves, and cowboy hats. Now, play those games in character with silly accents.

15. Slurpin' for Worms. Gummy Worm Game Grab a bag of gummi worms or gummi bears and a can of whipped cream. Place the worms on a paper plate and cover them with the cream. It should look like a fake pie, you know, the kind you get in the face? Yeah, you might want to wear a raincoat for this one, and Mom might want to lay down a painting drop cloth. Players must keep their hands behind their backs at all times. Dive in. This is a great game for "Minute to Win It" too. Who can slurp up the most worms? Who can eat the most?

Recommended Reading:

Outdoor Beach Theme Party

Happy Birthday Mad Libs

Group Games for Tweens and Teens

Teen Camp Songs

Balloons for Your Party

Minecraft Birthday Party Activities

Marshmallow Party Games and Activities

Activities: 10 Fun Things to Make at Home with Kids of all Ages

Stuck Inside on a Snowy or Rainy Day? Make staying at Home with the Kids a fun adventure with these Activities

In this list of 10 fun things to make at home, we've included something for boys, girls, preschooler, and teens. Kids of all ages will enjoy these fun activities to do inside on a rainy or snowy day! Best of all, you don't need a lot of fancy supplies or expert crafting skills.

1. Make a homemade lava lamp minus the light - but grab your flashlight to illuminate it. Click the link above to see a YouTube Tutorial. If you aren't so diy-iee or crafty try this kit from ALEX® Toys - Make your own Lava Lamp at Home.

Make a Lava Lamp at home with a few supplies or use this kit from Alex Toys.

2. Make Homemade Rainbow Slushies at home. Slushes, Slush, Slushy, Icee, whatever you call it - you can make a fun party one at home with popsicles!

Make a slush drink at home for a birthday party.

3. This Gift bag purse can be fun for little girls or teens. Do an extra good job, and it makes a great coin purse. So, for a fun teen birthday party activity recycle the gift bags and make purses for kids.

Girls' Birthday Party activity to make at home.

4. Cardboard Play Kitchen - Save Money and Make your own pretend stove at home.

Make a stove at home with a cardboard box and wrapping paper.

5. Make a Homemade sleeping Mask like this one from Henry Happened.

Want to know how to make a homemade sleeping mask? Click the link above. This is a great activity for a pre-teen or teen girl's birthday party.

6. Make an Art Exhibit at Home How about having a an Art Exhibit at home. Have the kids each draw their favorite cartoon characters and place them on display. This is a fun Art Lesson for Kids.

This is from Bunsella.com Use clay or markers to create your own art exhibit at home. Give the kids ribbons to vote for their favorite entry.

7.Make your own Homemade Bath Crayons at home from Teach Beside Me

See the link above to learn how to make these soap bath crayons from Teach Beside Me blog. The kids will love this fun bath time activity.

8. That reminds me of our Fun Shaped Crayons in Soap/Candy Molds. Crayons are a fun thing to make at home.

Make your own fun shaped crayons at home.

9. Make Mini Cheeseburgers at home to eat after you craft up all of these other ideas!

10. You can make metal butterflies at home using Pop cans. butterflies for Mobile. 

Make metal butterflies like these from Gingerbread and Snowflakes.

More fun things you can make at home

Homemade Doughnuts - you can make your own donuts at home. It is easy, fun, and affordable. We have 3 Doughnut Recipe posts.

Recycled Plastic Bottle Crafts

A secret growing, living garden Playhouse

Weaving wall art for Kids

Recommended Reading:

Things to Make at Home for the home and garden

Five easy ways to throw an eco-friendly birthday party for kids

You can have an Eco-friendly, Up-cycled Birthday Party for Kids and save money too!

This guest post is from Kara Carrero at ALLterNATIVElearning. She and her family are passionate about the environment and conservation. In this post, she has ideas on how to throw an eco-friendly birthday party. Enjoy!

The modern birthday has lots of cake, plenty of decorations, and almost always disposable plates and utensils. However, our family strives to find a balance in making birthdays both special and environmentally sustainable. Birthdays don’t have to lose their luster by choosing to not waste or spend a lot of money.

My daughter’s first birthday was this past fall. Like many first time moms, I had anticipated the day it would arrive since she was about 3 months old and planned little bits here and there throughout the year. But my main goal was to throw an exciting and memorable party without trash or excess.

Eco-Friendly  Birthday Party Ideas

1. Use real dishes or compostable paper plates. If you plan it right, it doesn’t have to be a hassle to use real dishes. In fact, having some small Corelle dishes on hand easily pays for itself. They do not break as easily as regular dishes and are easily replaceable or you can add to them. We grew up with them and rarely broke anything and it’s still what my parents use. My 15 month old has thrown one and it didn’t even chip. If you just can’t do that, use real silverware with basic paper plates that break down in the compost or can be recycled. Even here in Oklahoma (not very eco-friendly) we have options for community compost and recycling.

2. Re-use old décor and don’t throw any away. Up-cycle old material for new decorations. We made bunting from old magazines and used paper, and it was really cute! I had a few things from parties from several years ago, so I reused a couple of things. I also had some SOLO cups that I re-wash and use for the kids while adults use our glass cups.

3. Make the birthday about the experience and not the decor Birthdays are about the fun and not about having perfect decorations. We threw a carnival with fun homemade games instead of investing a lot of time and money into party hats, balloons, and streamers. Even growing up, I don’t remember how my parties were decorated, but I definitely remember the fun I had or the silly things that happened. Focus on making the most of the brief time given rather than stressing over the things that won’t be remembered.

4. Make party favors about memories, experiences, and sustainability. We had two different party favors. Her birthday party was specifically a grow theme, we provided small bio-degradable pots to decorate and soil and seeds to grow a small garden. It’s a gift that keeps on giving!

We also had a a photo booth. We asked everyone who attended to make an up-cycle costume and take a picture with the frames we provided. They left us their email address so then we emailed them a picture when we sent them an e-thank you card for coming and for gifts.

5. Make the gifts count. I know this sounds a bit presumptuous, but in reality it doesn't have to be. Be clear with your attendees because I have never met someone who didn't appreciate knowing that their gift was well-received. For us, we put a line on the e-vite that read “no gifts necessary, but if compelled to bring something we needed x,y,z”.

These are five easy ways to throw and eco-friendly birthday party, not break the bank, and still have awesome memories with friends and family. For us, it’s just one more step in doing better in making conscious decisions about what we need vs. what we want which has become increasingly important with kids.

For more from Kara visit her site at ALLterNATIVElearning.com

Recommended Reading:

Your Birthday Book: A Keepsake Journal

Birthday Monsters!

 
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