How to throw an awesome geology rock birthday party for kids! 

We celebrated my eldest son’s seventh birthday this weekend. He asked for a rock party with some of his favorite people. Specifically, he asked that I hide a bunch of precious gems in the backyard so they could find them.

Unfortunately, a bag of emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds was not in the budget.

Here’s what we did instead…

Keep scrolling for pictures and details…

Our Geology/ Rock Birthday Party

The Set Up

Most of the decorations and party items were set up inside on the buffet which separates my kitchen and dining room. This gave everyone easy access, especially since everyone tends to hang out in these rooms anyway.

I used a wooden crate, jars, and rocks/gems from our collection to create the focal point. I found the small jars in the dollar spot at Target, and they were perfect for displaying some of my kids’ favorite stones. There were also larger rocks, geodes, and jars of sparklers, poppers, and magnifying glasses rounding out the display.

One of the activities for the kids to do was cracking geodes, so I collected the hammers, geodes, and safety goggles in a metal bin.

For party favors, I filled inexpensive treat bags with rock candy, small magnifying glasses, a rock identifying chart, and a piece of rock candy. The kids were also able to take home their cracked geodes, and the candy they collected from the piñata.

The Fun

There were four main activities. The first two, cracking geodes and panning for gold, were activities the kids could come and go, and do while everyone hung out. I ordered a big bag of geodes so there were plenty for the kids to crack.

For the panning for gold, I first spray painted a cheap bag of rocks gold, found some small colored stones, and filled a kiddie pool with play sand, the gold rocks, and the colored stones. Kids used disposable pie pans with holes drilled in them to sift through the sand to find the treasures.

One of the highlights of the party was having our jeweler friend come and talk to the kids about gems and making jewelry. ALL the kids were engaged and very excited that they were each able to pick out their own gemstone and try out some of the tools.

The last “organized” event was cracking the piñata. My kids and I made a geode piñata and filled it with gold wrapped candy and gold filling.

This was my first time making a piñata and at first, my attempt was questionable at best. But after three layers of mache, the “geode” was hard enough to give the kids (even the big ones) multiple turns. It even broke my son’s walking stick and we had to switch to a different hitting tool.

 

The Food

Because we had so many people coming and I planned for an evening party, I told our guests we would grill out and asked everyone to BYOM (bring your own meat). This basically meant that everyone brought packages of hot dogs, which made grilling out super easy.

In addition to the meat, I made crockpot macaroni and cheese, my favorite coleslaw, and had plenty of sliced watermelon. To drink, my kids requested lemonade, I made sweet tea, and of course, water was available too.

I planned for us to have s’mores because I thought they fit in well with the theme of the party (sedimentary s’mores), but really, with the piñata and cake and all the food, making s’mores would have just been excessive. We will plan a s’mores night with friends another time soon.

I found a picture of a geode cake on Pinterest, and decided to try to make my own using my handy cake decorating method. I made a half a geode using different size cake rounds, and then used rock candy and red cake sprinkles to make it look like a geode. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a fun (and tasty) addition to the party.

 

And that was our party! We had a blast! I mentioned on Facebook that every party is my new favorite. It’s so much fun to plan and execute these parties. I hope my kids keep letting me do it for years to come.

Materials List

• rocks & gems :: from our collection
• rock candy
• magnifying glasses :: set of 48  (these were really small, but they worked and were fine for the party and examining rocks)
• break your own geodes :: bag of 40
• kids’ hammers :: leftovers from our tools party
• DIY piñata instructions
• rocks poster // gems poster :: (I REALLY wanted these, but found some in my homeschool stash, so couldn’t justify the expense)

 

More party ideas to check out… 

(Find even more here)

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