Does your son love making messes? Does your daughter add Play-Doh to her dolls’ noses to make them look like boogers? If so, try a grossly fun slime party for your child’s next birthday bash!
Check out these eww-inspiring ideas – and then brainstorm with your child about what he would like to do to make your gross-out bash unique and memorable.
And don’t worry: Even though it sounds like you’ll need to steam the carpet afterwards, this slime party makes for a surprisingly easy cleanup.
Invitations for a slime party
Set the mood for your party by handing out icky pop-out invitations. Print party details on green card stock. Use a regular-sized 8 1/2-by-11-inch piece of paper and fold it over to create a card. Fill the front of the card with warnings to guests that they’re being invited to a slime party.
On the inside, give the specific details, like the party time, date and place. But you’ll also want to include a gross-out image to get your guests excited (or disgusted!).
Use skin-toned colored card stock and cut out a simple circle or oval to use as a face. Glue the face onto the inside of the card. If your child is really getting into making invitations, you can have her color in hair or use yarn and glue the “hairs” into place.
Next, cut noses from the card stock. To keep it simple, you can make triangles or just do your best cutting it without a pattern – remember, the crazier and weirder it looks, the better. Hole-punch the nostrils on the cutout nose. Glue the top of the nose in the center of the face.
Then, the crowning touch: Place a green gummy worm through the nostril holes to – you guessed it – look like boogers. Let your child color in the eyes, mouth and other face details. Invitations won’t lay flat, so you’ll probably want to hand deliver them instead of sending them through the mail.
If you’re running short on time, you can always use regular birthday invitations purchased from the store and glue a gummy worm on the inside to let guests know what to expect.
DIY slime time
There are several different ways to make slime. Depending on the age of the kids at the party and your tolerance for messes, you can decide which method works best. For smaller children, you might want to use Play-Doh or homemade craft dough as your “slime.”
For older children, you can create slime at home with this simple recipe. You’ll need to purchase borax (in the laundry aisle), glue (Elmer’s is recommended), distilled water and food coloring.
While you can mix up the slime before the party, save some time and amaze your guests by making it on the spot. Here’s how. Give each party guest a clear, plastic cup and a sealable sandwich bag. In a large jug, mix a solution of half distilled water and half glue. (You can add-in food coloring at this point or pass out drops to each person.)
In each bag, drop in two tablespoons of the glue-water solution. Seal the bag. Next, give each guest two heaping tablespoons of borax and have them add water until the borax becomes more solid.
Add two teaspoons of the borax solution to the glue-water mixture in the bag. Have guests mush the two mixtures together in the bag. If the slime is too stiff, add more of the glue-water mixture. Too runny? Add more of the borax solution.
One word of caution: Do try to make the slime mix before the party to ensure you understand how it works. After all, you’ll be mixing under pressure at the event – you’ll have a dozen or so kids jumping up and down, asking, “Can I see?”
Slime party activities
Once your guests have mixed up their slime, you can play games and have contests with it. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of mixing and measuring, you can buy slime kits at craft stores or online at Steve Spangler Science. Slime is inexpensive.
Now, let the slime games begin! With your camera ready, have guests stretch their slime out to see who can make the longest snake. Then, measure the slime by having each guest attach it to the end of his or her nose (make sure to snap some pictures!). The person with the longest slime “booger” wins.
You can also do silly contests – like, how long will the slime stay on the end of your nose? Or do relays where guests have to pass their slime on to the next person as a sort of “baton” toss.
‘Disgusting’ refreshments
Try some weird recipes – or compile a simple icky smorgasbord for your guests using everyday ingredients. To create “eyeball” pizzas, purchase bite-sized pitas, pizza sauce, grated mozzarella cheese and sliced olives at the grocery store.
Smooth a small amount of sauce, sprinkle with cheese and add a sliced olive in the center for the “eye.” Bake in the oven at 375 degrees F just until the cheese melts.
Leave out bowls of various foods and label each with appropriately gross names. For example, dub a bowl of spaghetti “worms” and raisins “bugs.” Once your child gets the idea that everyday foods can become gross party food simply with a new name, he’ll probably have all sorts of ideas, too!
Make sure your guests get in on the joke by serving them as they go through the buffet line. Ask them, “Would you like worms and bugs? Or just eyeballs today?”
The ultimate slime party cake
For the cake, come up with your own gross-out idea or try this: Bake a chocolate cake in a Bundt pan according to the package directions.
Once the cake has cooled, add “disgusting” ingredients in the middle. Fill the center halfway with chocolate pudding, for instance, and the rest of the way with crushed Oreos (which will look like potting soil).
Add a plastic flower into the “soil” and gummy worms along the edges. Or use a yellow cake mix (again made in a Bundt) and drizzle green frosting along the edges once the cake has cooled.
To make an easy frosting, mix powdered sugar, a small amount of milk and green food coloring until you get the right consistency. To give this cake even more goo, mix up green Jell-O. Once that’s set, add it in globs into the center of the frosted Bundt cake.
For more adventurous bakers, whip up a yellow cake in a 9-by-13-inch pan. After the cake has cooled, turn it out onto a cutting board. Cut the cake into the shape of a nose. Frost with vanilla frosting tinted skin-toned with food coloring. Then add globs of green Jell-O coming out of the nostril for a truly gross, kid-pleasing cake. (Candles will, of course, be the zits!)
Favors prime for a slime party
Let your guests take home their baggies of slime as favors. Or, you can create slime beforehand and send them home with a bigger batch. For sweets, fill baggies with gummy worms or gummy bugs.
After the party, send guests thank yous for attending by attaching a photo printout of the slime-stretching contest along with the note.
This post was originally published in 2012 and is updated regularly.
