I’m currently on summer break (woot! woot!), which means I am at home with three little ones every day. We’ve been keeping ourselves occupied by going to the library for story time, reading our favorite summer books at home, and going to the pool. It’s been fun, but I’ve missed hanging out with people my own age. That’s why I decided to set up a Mommy and Me Playdate at the park. Here’s what I did:

Planning a Mommy and Me Playdate

Get the Word Out to Moms

I made these flyers using a free website called Canva. You can download and print one of your own if you like. I handed mine out at church because I see these moms in passing all the time, but I wanted a chance to get to know them better. You could even give out flyers at the park or post them in the community center.

Gather Some Supplies

For my playdate, I had advertised that there would be snacks and an activity (oh yeah, heads up – the flyer promises those too ;). I went to my nearest dollar store and got party stuff like tablecloths, crackers, water bottles, and a few items for my crafts which I’ll explain next.

Prep the Activities

Moms want to chat with other moms, but they also want to do something fun with their kids. My party had 2 crafts/activities that moms could help their child with: Cereal necklaces and galaxy bottles.

Cereal Necklace

Materials: Fruit ring cereal (dollar store) and string cereal necklaces craft activity for a mommy and me playdate

**Hot tip** Use string. In my picture you may see that we used wrapping ribbon, I thought it would be cute, and plus it’s what I had on hand but Johnny (my 2-year-old) couldn’t thread the ribbon. The girls could, as you can see, but string would have been better.

Madeline

Emily

Galaxy Bottles

The girls had made something similar at preschool but couldn’t tell me how they made theirs. It’s the reddish one pictured below. I think it’s just water, glitter, and a little bit of soap. Emily loves how hers gets pink bubbles when you shake it, and the galaxy bottles I made don’t do that. easy galaxy bottle made with water, glitter, and a little bit of soap My playdate craft shown with the directions was adapted from this Pinterest pin. I used smaller bottles and filled them about ? with water and the rest with baby oil. park playdate for preschoolers activity: make a galaxy bottle

Materials: Small plastic bottles from water or juice containers, glitter, dollar store funnel, baby oil, dollar store confetti

Directions: For these 12-ounce bottles I used about 8 ounces of baby oil and 4 ounces of water. I added 12 drops of food coloring, a lot of glitter, and some confetti. The end result kind of reminded me of these glitter wand toys we had when I was growing up!

Logistics and Setup

Make sure the park or place where you have the playdate is shade and cool. Some moms may be nursing, so keep in mind there needs to be places to sit.
You don’t need fancy decorations if you meet at the park because they might blow away!
Display your craft directions in the front of a binder with a clear front cover so they don’t blow away!
Set out nametags and markers. I used these mailing labels because they were cheaper than name tags, and I have this set of Sharpie markers that I’ve used for a bunch of crafts so far. 🙂
Set out a sheet of paper for moms to write their phone number or email on, so they can get an easy invite to the next playdate!

The day of this mommy and me playdate was smack dab in the middle of summer, and even though it was hotter than hades the kids and moms still had a lot of fun!

Help a girl out – can you think of any planning tips I forgot to include?

0 Shares