Primary Ice Cream Social ("Get the Scoop on your Teacher" Party)

I've been teasing about this event for a couple of months, but I finally got some pictures and can show you the ice cream party we threw for the kids at our church on a teeny-tiny budget, and what possessed me to spray paint a plastic tablecloth.

I currently work as a leader in the Primary (the childrens' organization at church). The kids had earned an ice cream party through their behavior on Sundays, and since it was January--when they move to the next class--we decided to combine the ice cream with activities designed to help them "Get the Scoop" on their new teachers (get it?).

Instead of a free-for-all ice cream party with dozens of children running around the gym on a frenzied sugar-high. I envisioned recreating a visit to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.

We assigned each class an ice cream flavor (based on their teacher's favorites), and used my Silhouette to make the cute ice cream posters that served as their class gathering place, and later as a pin the cherry on the ice cream cone game. Each class had coordinated name tags, with the same flavor of icecream.  

Then we began a rotation, so that we would only have two classes visiting the "ice cream parlour" at a time. The other groups were playing getting to know you games in their classrooms, or fun out-door games. (If you want more details about the games and rotations, let me know. And I can do another post).

(My Kira picks the perfect toppings for her ice cream sundae!)

The three of us in the presidency donned these cute caps I ordered from Bake it Pretty, and took turns serving the ice cream to the kids and their teachers.

It was fun to serve them, and hopefully have them see us in a bit of a different light. The rotation worked really well, and having the kids in their smaller groups helped keep things calm and pleasant for all involved!

 For tutorials and more details about our the ice cream party--including the spray painted tablecloth, click "Read More"

 So how did we make our cute ice cream stand? (And did I mention that we were working off of a TINY budget here?) I did a tutorial about our party backdrops on the UCreate Party blog. We used the same basic materials for this stand...

...Including BSB. Of course, I had to bring him along to figure out how to make my vision come to life. We were fortunate to have found these thin tables in a room at the church. we propped the wood supports in between the tables and placed them in #10 cans filled with rocks for stability. I honestly can't tell you exactly how he made my awning stand out. I know it had to do with wire hangers, but he took it down before I could get a picture of the underneath side.

 I can show you how I made the awning, though!

 It is simply made from two pieces of poster board. I did a little measuring to determine where to fold it and how wide I wanted my scallops. The scallops were made by tracing the bottom half of a bowl along one side of a the board, and cutting them out. I carefully taped my striped using the least sticky painters tape I could find. I did have just a couple of small tears in the paper when I removed the paint, but it actually worked quite well for this project. 

I sprayed the whole thing with Rustoleum aqua spray paint, and when I removed the tape, had my super-cute awning. It's hanging out in my kitchen right now, because who knows when you will need an a candy-colored awning for an event? 

 But that wasn't the only spray painting going on. I told you that we had a tiny budget for this party. Well, I had my heart set on the ice cream parlor feel, and I couldn't find what I was looking for in stores, or even on-line. I just wanted striped plastic tablecloths for the round tables where the teachers and kids sat. I could not find any anywhere, and so I decided I would create my own stripes, although I knew people would say "you are crazy." And they most certainly did! 

It really was a bit of a pain in the behind, if I am being honest, but the stripes added a lot to the atmosphere! So I think it was worth it. It actually wasn't a tablecloth, but technically, a shower curtain liner from the Dollar Store. The shower curtain was square and just the right size to fit over my round tables.

I taped them off, with the kind of painters tape that I used on the awning that doesn't adhere too tightly to the surface. You can probably see how mush the plastic is crinkly. I was a little panicked that it was going to be a disaster, because I couldn't keep all of the lines perfectly straight, but it honestly didn't make a huge difference. The effect was still clear.

I also painted this plastic ice cream cone, also from the dollar store. This table cloth and the cone were painted in Rustoleum's Sweet Pea. Another table cloth was painted in aqua.

Don't love this picture, but it is probably the best one I have of the set-up.

Since we had four groups rotating through each table, they had to be easily wipeable (especially when the 3 year olds got finished), so I just turned the table clothes up-side-down. The material was so flimsy that the paint showed up great on the non-painted side! Another time, I might invest in a better base for the tablecloth if I'm going to go to that much work. Who am I kidding? I don't have plans for spray painting a plastic tablecloth in the near future.

The napkins are all skiwampus in this picture, and the stripes doing show up well, for some reason, but you can see that we had a cute sign on each table and napkin holders and aqua napkins from IKEA. I really wanted to do helium ice cream balloons on each table, but ran out of time and budget.

You can get a better idea about the stripes in this picture (the far table was just plain white. I only had two striped tablecloths in me).

I put cute labels on the toppings, but kept them in their original containers. Hershey's syrup, caramel syrup, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and colorful sprinkles. The tray in front (dollar store) hold tiny spoons (courtesy of our friends at Scooptacular), maraschino cherries, and wafer cookies. My spray painted ice cream cone (originally a dark blue), holds larger spoons, for those who don't like the sample size.

Since we didn't get any close-up shots of the ice cream and toppings, here are some of the labels I created for the occasion.

If you have any questions about anything, let me know. There is probably more to say about this party, but I'm pretty sure the blogging police is going to haul me away if I make this post any longer. 

Have you ever done anything like spray paint a cheap plastic tablecloth? Would you under the right circumstances?  Are you crazy like me?

UPDATE: Just posted all of the ice-cream-themed games and activities we did at this party! Go here to read all about it!