Slime Fail

I am a procrastinator and I'm sort of cheap.  I knew my kid's birthday was coming up and that she wanted it at an art place where they'd glue gems to a cardboard box and call it a day, but I procrastinated and didn't make the reservation in a timely manner.  Admittedly, I also dragged my feet on that because it cost a buttload to rent the place.  I mean, I know it's a non-profit and they could use the money, but I had procrastinated so I was left scrambling for a last minute home-based birthday party theme.

As if "Birthday Party" were not a theme in and of itself.

Anyway, she'd been pestering me to make homemade slime after she received a small little container of slime on Valentine's Day.  As we had our hands in containers of slime, I asked if she'd like to do this for her birthday party and she got so excited for that.  Perhaps I was high on Elmer's fumes when I made the suggestion.  I mean, seriously, what was I thinking??

 So...we had a Slimey Seventh Soiree.  Oh joy.  With one practice round of slime-making under my belt, I figured I would be ready for such a party.  

I was wrong.

I changed to a different recipe at the last minute (because I'm foolish and addicted to Pinterest) and nothing took.  I was so grateful for the help of another mom who stayed at the party.  She was all hands on with me and a real champ about it.  In the end, thankfully, all of the kids took away containers of glittery slime.  Yay for them.  My apologies went out to the parents because that stuff stains - we used food coloring and I did not police the amounts.  Yikes.  Sorry!

So here are some photos from the event.  Mostly of my decorations, which made me happy and which I have not yet taken down. 

The slime decorations were made with poster board.  I just cut some freehand slime shapes and came away with two pieces of slime that was strung up.  For the gift baggages, I just did the same on a smaller scale.  These two things were my favorite.

(Question, though:  Since when did birthday gift baggage for guests become a thing?  Maybe I wasn't invited to many parties as a kid, but I don't remember getting gift bags for attending parties.  Usually I stuff these baggages full of junk from the Dollar Store, but this time I exercised some restraint and only did a sheet of stickers and a ring pop.  The take-home slime was the real gift, don't ya think?)

An example of slime that did not take:

I thought if I had one hand in each bowl it would make the slime work faster.  Again, I could not have been more wrong.

Oh, and then there was the slime cake.  What a nasty mess that did not at all resemble its tidy inspiration on Pinterest.

The inspiration cake base was black with neon green slime.  I couldn't bring myself to use that much black food coloring.  I was afraid of sending children home with oddly colored mouths (from cake) AND hands (from slime).  I also feared that my child would cry if she didn't have pink somewhere on the cake and I'd already committed to the green pudding slime.  

I don't think we'll do this again.

But a Mad Scientist party would be really cool. I mean, I could reuse the bowls...and get some beakers...and eye goggles.  

Again...why can't I just do a "Birthday Party" theme??