By Natalie Gingerich Mackenzie, www.ballooningnesteggs.com
 
A good party can build lasting childhood memories. Of course, aunts want to throw giggle-worthy events, but some parties can also offer a cool new learning experience. Instead of having one at the nearby bounce house or bowling alley, you can throw a lively fiesta at home that can stretch kids’ imaginations. Our home party ideas require some creativity and preparation time, but we think everyone will find them enriching and fun.

The Occasion: Birthday (Ages 4+)
 
Kids can get their “green” on and discover tropical rainforests by making “rainforest terrariums” with eco-friendly plants and faux egg-laid animals. Create a rainforest ambience in your home and serve mouth-watering jungle-themed food. To prep yourself on rainforests—and to ensure the kids don’t outsmart you—check nature.org/rainforests from the Nature Conservancy beforehand. We named this party theme after the Ballooning Nest Eggs mascot, Pixel—a real live Panther Chameleon lizard living in Florida.
 
Décor
 
When guests arrive, hand out tropical fern leis or flowered leis to get everyone in the spirit. At the table, create a centerpiece by arranging flowering plants like African violets (thevioletbarn.com) into a tiered pyramid (or simply get a leafy plant). Add butterflies. Lay a green tablecloth and scatter flat bottom marbles, so it looks like glistening moss. Sprinkle the table with rainforest finger puppets and sticky and stretchable lizards and flying frogs.
 
Fill the air with sounds from a Puerto Rican rainforest or poison dart frog CD. Hang an alligator or toucan piñata. (You can also find these at a local party store.) Get more safari-tastic party ideas here.
 
Activity
 
Create your own tiny terrariums. Each kid will create a miniature ecosystem, or terrarium, to take home where they can care for it (minimally) and watch as water and sunlight work together with the soil to grow greenery inside.
 
You’ll need quart-sized canning jars (from grocery or hardware stores, or give clean, empty tomato sauce jars a second life), pebbles, Sphagnum moss, and soil (at garden stores). Top it off with small terrarium-friendly plants—succulents work especially well—which you can find online at Glasshouseworks.com or Etsy.com.
 
Before you begin, set a large paper tablecloth on the floor or table. Here are the five easy steps:
 
1. Put an inch layer of pebbles in the bottom of the container, allowing for good drainage.
2. Layer Sphagnum moss on top of the pebbles.
3. Add a layer of moist soil on the top. The layer should be at least two or three inches thick.
4. Poke small holes into the soil and transplant the small plants into the container.
5. Finish with kids’ choice of the sticky lizards or frogs and butterflies for decoration.
 
Food: Delicious Dessert Terrarium
 
In a clear glass bowl, layer cubed chocolate cake, pudding, crushed cookies, etc. to mimic the layers in the terrariums that the kids created. Use green-colored frosting (Betty Crocker’s spray cupcake icing in Meadow Green) to top the convection off with “plants.” Older kids can make their own dessert terrariums. Set out the ingredients along with clear plastic or glass cups and they can layer their own eco-globes.
 
Snacks
 
Serve veggies and dip platter and bowls of Terra Chips.
 
Drink: Rainforest Fizz
 
Mix sparkling water with a splash of cranberry or grape juice and raw sugar cubes or agave syrup to taste. Use sticks of sugarcane for stirrers.

Photo: Courtesy of www.zooniversity.org
Published: February 20, 2013