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Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas + Homemade Bubbles Recipe with Laundry Detergent

These Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas and Homemade Bubbles Recipe with Laundry Detergent has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FreeToBe #CollectiveBias

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas

Having a type-a personality I try to plan everything possible. Making kids and planning the timing for their births was no exception. My husband and I share our birthday months with other holidays and other family and friends birthdays, so trying to give them a special part of the year that was theirs alone was important to us both.

Once we studied our calendars it seemed like February and June were pretty ideal times to have babies. We didn’t have any other family or friends birthdays in these months and aside from Valentine’s Day (which we don’t really celebrate because we try to make each day special), there were no major holidays in either month.

With our oldest, we aimed for a February birthday and with an easy pregnancy for the first 30 weeks we thought everything was good to go. After an abruption, subsequent delivery, and unexpected delivery our little February baby was born in December. Just three days before Christmas and exactly a week before her daddy’s 30th birthday.

Well there went that idea.

Being two only children, the decision to have a second child didn’t come easily. It took lots of intense conversations and soul searching. But we finally decided it was time when Brady was 2.5 years old. Once again, the timing was out of our hands and I ended up miscarrying our June baby.

After so many difficulties in having healthy babies, we were just grateful to be pregnant again at the earliest time possible. We already have a small family and this meant a March baby and sharing the month with two other relatives.

We couldn’t be happier to be pregnant again with a viable baby that would stay in place (or so we hoped). My doctor put me on weekly progesterone shots from 16-32 weeks and it worked to keep Colby in until she was 36 weeks. Our little March baby was born in February just three days after her sister’s original due date.

All of that planning for the perfect birthday was time we could have put to better use. With an October birthday, I have a pretty ideal month. Aside from Halloween, I’m not really sharing the month with anyone we’re close to.

It wasn’t until I was in the delivery room with Brady that people started mentioning half-birthdays. Why had no one ever mentioned this before? Why had no one ever brought this up? I didn’t even have any summer half birthday party ideas let alone knowledge these existed!

Apparently this phenomenon is fairly common among those with birthdays near Christmas. In the younger days before she really realized what a party was or before she had her own friends this wasn’t such a priority, but when she started asking for her own party this past year I realized just how tricky it is to successfully orchestrate a party a mere three days before Christmas *and* get people to attend.

This year I resolved to start celebrating those mythical half birthdays. The half birthdays would be the fun ones. The ones that would involve parties and guests and something other than an inside venue because of the cooling weather.

My December born baby and lover of all things water finally got her perfect birthday party…well, summer half birthday party. In all of its watery glory, we had a small but super fun party featuring all the things you can’t enjoy in winter – bubbles, water guns, and water fun!

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas

Summer Half Birthday Ideas Party Favors

Choosing party favors may seem obvious when you have a tight theme with characters but when it’s just summer fun, things can get a little tricky. It’s awesome to have such an open interpretation of the theme but a little tricky when deciding the perfect items to place in each person’s basket…er, bucket.

Based on our summer fun water theme, I went with colorful sand buckets as the base for the gift container. Then, I added a white tank or tee in each bucket along with one bottle of fabric paint, a water gun, spray sunscreen, and bubble tools.

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: Homemade Bubbles with Laundry Detergent

All of our activities for the party – blowing homemade bubbles, designing their own water gun painted top, and playing in the new wacky, wavy sprinkler was in the works so everything was practical and fun!

Colby with Homemade Bubbles

Homemade Bubbles Recipe

  • 14 cups warm water
  • 1 cup all® free clear liquid
  • 1 cup dish washing detergent
  1. Fill your container with warm water.
  2. Add all® free clear laundry detergent.
  3. Slowly add dish washing detergent stirring slowly so that it doesn’t bubble excessively.
  4. Have bubble fun!
You'll never guess the SECRET ingredient in this super easy 3 ingredient Homemade Bubbles Recipe!

Brady’s my little artist and what mixes her love of art with all things outdoor and water related? Well…water gun paint shirts!

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: Water Gun Painted Shirts

When I first started thinking about this, it was after a (ahem) failed attempt at creating a DIY patriotic shirt with acrylic craft paints I had laying around. It looked okay to a 7 year old, but even to her it was very stiff and for me it was embarrassing and reminiscent of the puff paint shirts of my day.

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: Water Gun Painted Shirts

With the right ingredients, creating a water gun paint shirt is really easy and the end result is entirely unique and up to the the artist! To make your own water gun paint shirt, all you need is a variety of fabric paints (I have a weakness for bright colors, especially since it’s summer), a white top (tank or tee), and water guns.

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: DIY Water Gun Paint Shirt

Decorating is easy! Just dump the contents of each bottle of fabric paint into individual water guns and squirt away to make your own custom creation. For easy cleanup, I had the girls make their shirts on the driveway with a trash bag underneath to clean up any rogue paint.

With the same tools available, I was so surprised at how unique each girls’ creation turned out!

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: Running Through Sprinklers

After spending a day outside, the girls are I were obviously covered in all sorts of things. With our sensitive skin we obviously didn’t want the allergens, paints, and other things lingering on our skin. My go to detergent since I was an early teen is all® free clear. My dermatologist recommended it to me and with good reason. While it’s not designed to treat allergies, it is the number one detergent recommended by dermatologists, allergists, and pediatricians for sensitive skin. When using all® free clear, make sure to follow the directions for use on the packaging exactly.

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: Clean up with all® free clear products

Even when we travel, all® free clear goes with us. We use detergent at home but when we travel, I love the convenience and portability of the all® free clear mighty pacs®. Even in my early 30s, I’m still battling acne and my girls get eczema and dry skin patches if I even think about adding in a scented dryer sheet, so I always stick with all® free clear dryer sheets because I know how irritating and frustrating skin issues from products can be. I feel better knowing I’m choosing the right product for all of my skin issues since all® free clear detergent was awarded the Seal of Acceptance by the National Eczema Association for having no dyes, perfumes, certain chemicals, and irritating residues.

Tip: While the larger size all® free clear is the best deal, to make things easier on your wrist and more convenient, use refill one of the small bottles. You’ll always have all® free clear right when you need it! 

Summer Half Birthday Party Ideas: Clean up with all® free clear products at Target

I picked up my all of my all® free clear products on my last Target run. Make sure to check out the new all® community to find out about their latest products first! For more, follow all® on Twitter and Facebook.

Does your family celebrate half birthdays? Do you have any summer half birthday party ideas?

Let your kids get creative this summer and try out this DIY Water Gun Painted Shirt! The color combinations are endless and the kids will have so much fun creating their own work of art!