A Messy After School Bash: Our HappiMess Party

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Delta via Mode Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Delta.

Fall is out favorite time to host play dates at our house. We love having friends come play in our back yard after school, and the fall weather is perfect for running around outside. Usually we just let the kids run around and play on the swing set, but every now and then, I like to make it more like a little afternoon party for the kids. When Delta Faucet asked us to have a HappiMess party, I had plenty of ways to make an after school party pretty messy. Since our guests always range from 2-5, having a messy party isn’t very hard. Preschool age kids are practically professional mess makers. 

So, last week we hosted a Messy After School Bash. This included “make your own ice cream sundaes” and arts and crafts for kids. We let the kids make the sundaes all on their own, including scooping the ice cream themselves. They had a blast filling their bowls with ice cream and tons of messy, gooey toppings. Then the real fun: eating the ice cream at a picnic table packed with friends. 

After their big ole’ bowl of sugar, they ran around the yard together. They eventually visited the tables of crafts: beads and paint/markers. As kids usually do, they managed to make an even bigger mess than I expected. They all decided to dig giant rocks out of yard and use the paints and markers to decorate their rocks. This turned their little hands into a mix of colorful paint and dirt! 

As always, I tried to make my kids a part of the set up and clean up. They love having their friends come to play, but I want them to know they have to help out hosting. While Maggie was at school, Alex helped me set up the ice cream sundae bar. Since I knew it was necessary for her to touch most of the toppings to get them in the bowl, I wanted her to keep washing her hands. We also have some friends with food allergies, so if i’m going to let the kids help with setup, it’s very important they keep washing their hands in between tasks Having the Delta 2.0 Touch faucet really helps with this. Alex is not quite tall enough to turn on the kitchen sink herself, but she can tap on the Delta 2.0 Touch faucet with ease. This helps me, so I don’t have to continuously stop what I am doing to help her wash hands. 

The Delta 2.0 Touch faucet helps with clean up in the same way: the kids are now tall enough to help clean, because they can just tap the faucet on. It’s also great that when their hands are covered in ice cream, dirt and paint, they don’t have to actually grab the faucet handle to turn on the water. Maggie even knows to tap it on with the back of her hand, because she sees me do that while I cook! 

With two active little kids, I’ve learned to embrace messiness. Our house is rarely clean and our most fun days are usually the messiest. Our hands and house were far from clean after our Messy After School Bash, but we had a blast with our friends! 

“Why do people treat mess like it’s a bad thing? It’s actually the evidence of a life well lived. When you’re out there making, creating, doing and playing, embrace your #HappiMess and let Delta kitchen and bath innovations help clean up so you can do it all again tomorrow.”