Robot Party Ideas

Over the years we had several parties with Robot activities, though only one was completely robot themed. 

MAKE A ROBOT

For my oldest's 7th Birthday, I spray-painted a bunch of boxes, lids and other things, silver and gold, and also collected metal parts like springs and bottle caps and then set the kids at them with tape, glue and and Velcro strips to make their own robots.  Styrofoam works well too:  just leave it white--don't spray paint it, because some paints can cause it to corrode and omit fumes.  You can also do a smaller take home version with nuts, bolts, springs and other junk (be careful for sharp edges).

For my middle son's 8th birthday we did something similar for a Transformers Theme...only in stead of odds and ends we used legos.  The original plan was to have each child make a car or plane, and then re-use the same pieces to "transform" it into a Robot.  Because of time we just let them make a robot or a car or plane.

Robot Favors

CRAYONS

We also made robot shaped crayons for party favors at my son's Transformers Party.  They were a big hit.

Making crayons is pretty fun.   First, you need a mold.  Any plastic candy mold or silicon mold will do--but for safety reasons you should not make candy in a mold you've used to melt crayons.   You can find an assortment of Robot molds here.   

There's several ways to melt the crayons, but the way I've found works the best is to melt similar colored crayons in each section of a disposable muffin tin in the oven between 200 to 300 degrees.  Start low and raise the temp if they don't seem to be melting fast enough.  They should melt in about 15 minutes.  Then I use a plastic spoon to spoon the different colors where I want.  Make sure to cover the area well with paper to catch drips, because melted crayon is a bear to clean.  You may have to stick the tin back in the oven again if it starts to harden.

I did not use a disposable muffin tin when I did this.  I thought the

muffin cups would protect it.  Alas, it doesn't protect from drips.

If you have a silicon mold, you can just put the crayon chunks straight in the mold and stick them in the oven.  Unfortunately that would not work with the clear plastic mold I used for the Robot Crayons above, because it would melt right with the crayons.

Here in Waco, during a hot summer day, you can also just put broken pieces of crayon into the mold and leave these outside to melt.  100+ degree heat is good for something!

CANDY ROBOT
Several years ago my son came home with this hand-made Robot valentine.  It would also make a fun party favor.  The paper is folded in a triangle (sorry...I don't have a side view with the candy items glues on--Rolos for eyes and hersheys for feet.  They glued a bar-code for the mouth (which would be collected or printed) and made arms out of tin foil (also glued on).

Anyways, there's some ideas to get you started.  Of course there's lots more on pinterest (definitely check out the free Robot Printables There).

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Shared on Throwback Thursday

REVIEW: Custom Kids Shirts by Shugie

I received a product discount in exchange for this review.

Every year I get a  t-shirt for my kiddos with their age on it.  It started with my middle son  as a way to help him learn his age and celebrate turning a year older...and has turned into a yearly tradition.

This year I bought my kiddos shirts from Shugie, an etsy shop run by Jess Galvan .  While there's a lot of shops out there that do initial and age shirts, it can be hard to find fabric that's mature enough for my 9 year old.  Shugie had TONS of great designs that I knew even my older kids would love.  It was hard to decide...

Should I go with this cool Batman design?

 Or maybe Star Wars?

After much consideration I decided on....

TRANSFORMERS!

This is my youngest in his 6 shirt.  He LOVED it.  He was nearly as excited

 over this as the actual transformer toy he got for his birthday!   I got his older 

brother the same design in a 9. 

The quality of the shirts are excellent...they just look very solidly done.   The buying experience was great too.  One reason I love shopping on Etsy, especially for custom items like this, is that I get to order from a real person.  It's not just about "supporting handmade"--it's about the customer service you get.   Though Jess doesn't usually keep larger sizes in stock, she was happy to custom order one for my 9 year old (who also got a transformers shirt).  And she even asked me what my kids favorite transformers were, so she could be sure that the right one showed up in the design.  

I really recommend this shop.  It has a lot of great designs for boys I haven't seen anywhere else, and some great ones for girls too.  If I had a girl, I would totally want to get this one for her....

And, Shugie doesn't just have shirts...check out these cuts jackets!

If you like what you see you can

Shop Shugie Here