DIY Minions Halloween Party

Halloween stuff are out in toy stores and this year I'm hoping for a little less stress.  It has quickly become a holiday where  unless your child has two costumes, goes to at least three trick or treats, and gets as much candy as the next child, you have mama-FOMO*. (google it)

Last year my husband, who volunteers as a director in our subdivision, volunteered me to stage our village Halloween festivities.  Good God.  I may like kid's activities, but I actually don't like children's parties.  Nowadays the planning standards are wedding-level!  Totally intimidating to DIY.

With three weeks to go and not a lot of budget, we came up with some super-easy activities around the theme of Minions.  The party had some disaster areas as you'll see below, but the kids had fun.

#1 Turn a (well-lit) corner into a costume photo booth.

The clubhouse is huge but only half-built

Find a wooden frame.  I had one from a cheapo artwork that didn't survive a roof leak. 

Also find a willing helper:

Enlist willing helper to paint the entire thing yellow.  

This is just some poster paint sprinkled with gold glitter (purely for fun):

Find and print some minion goggles on the office laser printer.  Hush.  You do it too, admit it.

Have willing helper paint the top beam black.

Accept there will be mistakes and it's fine.  No one but you will notice.
There's even some red glitter in that yellow paint because she thought it would be fun.

Hang it up with some white shower curtains and you've got a photo booth!

Don't forget to hang it kid-height!  It's the detail most overlooked.

It looks super cool.  Here's her cousin in it:

#Bonus: Enlist willing helper in making the poster signs, too.

This is just paper from her art easel

#2 Make-Your-Own-Minion with a yellow balloon

How to fill that huge dreary space?

With fifty yellow balloons hung from the top!

Our very own minion army in-the-making. 

I put out poster paint but permanent markers may be better.  Especially if you're using another kind of paint in another activity - it prevents mixup.

#3 Kiddie Floor Painting.

Soooo much space!  I meant the floor.

The kids thought the wall.  Horror.

This activity takes the most preparation, more than I had anticipated.  We whizzed up a batch of cornstarch-and-food-coloring "paint" in the kitchen:

We put out lots of minion-yellow

But this goes fast.  I ended up having the kids make their own paint on-the-spot:

 

Win some, lose some.  Might have worked if we had more paint out and it was outside, where clearly "floor painting" meant floor painting.

So all this kept the kids busy until it was time for the program.  This time the willing helpers I enlisted were pros: My Masterpiece Movement.  Their stuff is original, intelligent and really catchy.  

The budget went willingly to them.

Anna and Rayyn Cortez of My Masterpiece Movement.  I like kiddie parties when they're around.

***

I felt like I totally squeaked by that party, but the kids had fun.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that kids can have fun without a lot of fanfare.