Fun and Frugal Birthday Party Ideas – Snack Mix Bar!

I am always on the lookout for fun, unique and frugal ways to enjoy birthday parties and playdates with my kids. I recently had a Busytown themed birthday party for my 3 year old and was looking for a little activity that would keep the interest of a small child. I find that organized games at this age just never work. I came up with the idea of a snack mix bar, customized to our Busytown theme and it was such a hit that I thought I would share it with you! This activity literally took me minutes to put together and cost almost nothing.   SUPPLIES: 4 Large Canisters 4 Scooops from the dollar store (Dollar Tree had some really cute and colorful scoops for $1 in the cooking area) Snack mix ingredients for canisters ( I used goldfish crackers, peanuts, m & m’s and dried banana chips) Contruction paper for

making tags Twine for tying tags to jars Hole Punch   First I decided which ingredients I would like to include in my snack mix canisters. I tried to stick to the Busytown Theme as closely as possible. My ideas were: 1. Easter M & M’s for “Mr. Bunny’s Snack Mix” 2. Peanuts for “Mr. Fox’s Flight Snacks” 3. Banana Chips for “Bananas Gorilla’s Chips” 4. Goldfish Crackers for “Busytown Lake Monsters”

I just filled up each canister with the individual ingredients, and placed my dollar store scoop inside. I then searched the internet for busytown images to correspond with each snack mix. I just copied and pasted the photos into powerpoint, added my wording and printed/cut out my tags. Use a hole punch to punch a hole at the end of the tag, thread with twine and tie around the top of the canister. You can be creative and use supplies you have around the house. This would be cute with large mason jars too. At the end of the party each child chose a snack mix bag (please refer to this tutorial on how I made my Busytown reusable snack bags, but you could also use plain paper bags too) and put together their own special mix. The kids just loved individualizing their mix and were thrilled that they were able to take a treat home with them! This party idea was a huge hit with the kids AND the parents! Not only did the kids get a fun snack, but the parents were happy not to bring home the typical “party bag”. Each child now has a snack bag that they can use over and over again! Try it out at your next party!