Birthday Party Ideas

Smurfs Party Ideas

2011-11-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

Our little blue buddies are back! With their Big Screen release this past summer they are just as popular as they were in the 80's. Here you will find tons of party ideas like how to make homemade invitations, decorations, party games and even some Smurfalicious menu ideas. These fantastic tips and tricks will help you throw the most Smurftastic Birthday Party ever!

Invitations: Looking for a unique Smurf themed party invitation? You can make your own using white card stock cut in the shape of a Smurf hat. They can be one sided or folded in half with the party details written inside. You can also cut the shape of a mushroom cap out of red construction paper. Paste on a white stem and add white circles to the red mushroom cap. The last step is to draw a small door on the stem - just like the little Smurf houses!

Decorations: Decorate the room with a Smurf-theme. There are Smurf plates, cups, napkins, tablecovers and centerpieces available online or in stores to decorate your table. A few licensed items will go a long way if you match it with a blue and white color scheme. For example, solid blue plates, balloons and streamers with a simple white tablecloth gives you a good base to build on with licensed Smurf items. Visit a Dollar Store for some serious cost savings! You can adorn the walls with construction paper cutouts from the Smurf village. Make some daisy flowers, mushroom houses, birds, butterflies, grass, clouds a rainbow and a great big sun. Don't forget to put out all your Smurf themed toys as the work great as centerpieces and helium balloon weightsor just plain activities for the kids!.

Costumes: Outfit all of your party guests by making them a Smurf hat in advance. These can be super easy to make. All you need is some white felt from a fabric store, scissors, and some felt glue. Create a pattern on card stock, cut out the felt to shape and then glue along the edges or use a simple stitch leaving an opening at the bottom. For Smurfettes glue on some yellow yarn to the inside of the hat! You can also have the kids participate in this craft by making it a party activity. Either way, the kids will love wearing their hats. Blue face paint anyone?

Games: 'Pop A Smurf' – Blow up a bunch of blue and white balloons prior to the party, at least 2 or 3 per child. Divide the guests randomly into team white and team blue. On "GO" they must work as a team to pop the balloons by sitting on them until all of their teams colours are gone. 'Smurf Charades' - the kids must act out which Smurf they are and see if the guests can guess. Some Smurfs include: Papa Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Clumsy Smurf, Farmer Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Baker Smurf, Smurfette, Greedy Smurf, Baby Smurf, and Grandpa Smurf. 'Smurfette’s Dress Up' – For this game you can use theme costumes or just some fun clothing you have in your own closets - the funnier the better. Hats, shoes, nylons, costume jewelery - you name it! Have the same amount of items that can make up two piles. Break up the guests into two teams. Place all the clothing on the ground in front of each team and set up an area across the way they must race to – maybe a cone of obstacle they must go around while all dressed up. On “Go” the first person must put on all the clothing in the pile and they race around the obstacle and back again. They must then take off all the clothing and tag the next person in line who must then do the same.

Crafts/Activities: 'Smurf Sculpting' - Set up a table with blue Play-Doh. You can easily make your own Dough by mixing together simple ingredients. Those ingredients are: 2 cups flour, 2 cups warm water, 1 cup salt, 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity) and food colouring to reach desired colour. You can double that recipe to make a larger batch. Everyone loves playing with Play-Doh! Add smaller tubs of white, yellow and red so the kids can make Smurfs, Smurfette and Papa Smurf! The guests will be very happy to bring home their creations!

Food: Everything blue of course! Using a mushroom shaped cookie cutter (or any Smurfy shape) cut out sandwiches filled with cream cheese and blueberry jam. Serve a fuit tray with an array of yummy seasonal fruit with a blue fruit dip - the sweeter the better! Fruit Pizza - Use a regular pizza crust with marshmellow puff as the sauce and top it off with fresh blueberries, banana slices and strawberries. Blue Drinks (Smurf Juice) – Cool Aid, Blue Gatorade, Blue Milk or any beverage that can be coloured blue. Some great dessert ideas would be Blueberry Pie, Blue Jell-O topped with Cool Whip. How about a cake (cupcakes) covered with blue icing and Smurf candles on top? Try this yourself or have your local bakery make up a Smurf Cake or Smurfette Cake. Or a really simple idea is to take a regular store bought cake and place plastic Smurf figures on top for decoration. You get the idea - Blue, blue and more blue!

Lootbags: Some great party favors can be found super cheap on Ebay. Favors like buttons, personalized candy wrappers, stickers, figurines, tattoos, candy and much, much more. Its definately worth taking a look! Instead of handing out the lootbags at the end of the party you can play a game of 'Gargamel’s Hide n Seek.' Gargamel is always trying to find those Smurfs so why not play a little game of Hide N Seek. Hide the kids lootbag around your Yard or Home and all the guests can pretend to be Gargamel as they search to find them. Remind each guest to find only one! Don't make the gift bags too easy to find - make the them work a little for their prizes!

Super Mario Party Plan!

2011-07-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Mario Brothers are a huge hit with both kids and adults of all ages! Their many popular video games have created a huge fan base - So don’t be surprised if your child wants a Mario birthday party!

Invitations: Make invitations look like brick blocks or how about yellow cards with a white question mark on the front to look like the ? blocks in the game. On the inside write the party information and enclose a chocolate gold coin or star confetti in the invitations. If time is of the essence, which it usually is, you could you some generic invites decorated with Super Mario stickers or simply create a simple invitation on your computer and decorate with clip art. There is also the option to purchase the licensed invites, they are pretty fantastic and do set the tone for the party!

Decorations: Choose red, green, blue and yellow as the colours for streamers, balloons, curling ribbon and table covers. Definitely mix and match all the colours. Throw in a few licensed items like plates, napkins, centerpieces and mylar balloons to accentuate the theme. If your going all out you can purchase the Super Mario Brothers stand-up figures and the Super Mario Brothers removable wall decorations. These 2 things are a bit pricey but can be reused to decorate your child's bedroom afterwards - they will love it! Another way you can decorate the party walls is to cut out large shapes like mushrooms, gold coins and bricks out of craft paper. Google images is full of free Mario and characters clip art so all you have to do is simply blow them up to the maximum size and print them out on on a decent printer. Instant Decorations! Another cool idea is to cut out a ton of yellow stars from craft paper and hang them from the ceiling with the multi colors of curling ribbon. Watch some game play and use your imagination - you will be surprised with what you come up with!

Games: Make a crazy obstacle course - Every Super Mario Bros. game is in someway about overcoming obstacles, so let the kids go through their very own Super Mario themed obstacle course. This can be played in teams relay style or individually with a stop watch. My best advice when coming to teams at a party is to keep it totally random by picking out names out of a hat. Maybe have "Team Luigi" and "Team Mario" written out on the pieces of paper. After they choose, then each kid on the Mario team will get a red hat or t-shirt, while each kid on the Luigi team will get a green hat or t-shirt. Set up mazes with large boxes (with a brick pattern) where players have to go around and through them. Tie several large paper gold coins hanging from a tree with breakaway string (or somewhere high) and place a small trampoline under them so they have to jump and grab coins. Play tunnels, egg races (yoshi), bean bag throws(fireballs), large plank boards(balancing) and kiddy pools or sprinklers (to jump over) are all great ideas to set up the course. Anything you have in your space can be turned into an obstacle! At the end of the race have Peach doll that they must rescue! The prizes could be a small trophy for the team with the best time a medal for the runner's up. Everyone's a winner, now a round of Popsicles for everyone!

Activities: Mario Kart Competition - If your party is indoors or space is an issue, have a video game party! Host your very own Super Mario Kart Competition! Borrow extra controllers so that four kids can race together at a time and make a chart to keep track of the winners. Award different points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. Have all the 1st place drivers compete against each other for the final race, and have all the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place drivers do the same. This will make sure that everyone gets to race but in the end only one racer will be left standing. He definitely deserves a Super Mario Cup or Trophy! A really unique and crazy one, homemade of course using Styrofoam, glitter, buttons and feathers. Pretty much use any craft item you can find!

Party Food: Mario and Luigi are Italian, so serve pizza, pasta, bread sticks and string cheese sticks. I also think of a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs with a serving of garlic bread. Yum! You can never go wrong with that menu for kids. For dessert you can serve some Mario Mushroom Cupcakes – Use a white cake mix to bake the cupcakes. Then cover with red (or green) frosting and top with upside down white chocolate chips for the spots. A really neat party snack or a loot bag treat are sugar cookies shaped like stars and frosted with yellow icing to look like Invincible Stars.

Party Favors: Chocolate coins and Glow Stars no doubt! Ebay is great for finding Mario themed party favors. I did a quick search and found pencils, figures, labels, candy wrappers, tattoos etc etc. Some really fantastic favors, not to mention invites and cake decorating supplies too! Don't forget the licensed favors and all the usual suspects like stickers, candy, gum, glow sticks, bubbles and all that fun dollar store stuff!

JUSTIN BIEBER Birthday Party Ideas

2011-05-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

Justin is everywhere right now, and we’ll bet your little girl loves him. So why not make her day with a Justin Bieber theme party? Her friends will love it, too. Here are some awesome ways to be the best parent on the block by throwing a Justin Bieber birthday!

Invitations: You can purchase ready made invites at a reasonable cost from sites like mine or you can choose to make your own. If you choose the store bought invites you can personalize them by writing on the envelope "Rock Stars Only" and filling the invite with silver and purple star confetti. Another cool idea is to purchase a pack of blank Cd's. They come in packs of 12 for about $10. With your guidance, have your child design their own CD cover using rock and roll clip art, pictures of the Justin and a phrases like "One Night Only" and "Rock the Stage at ___'s House Party." Write the party details on the backside and replace the generic insert with your personalized cover. Burn their 3 favourite Justin Bieber songs onto the blank discs - no worries, its totally legal as it is for personal use and not for resale. It's super easy too!

Decorations: Go for colors like silver and gold with a dash of Justin's favourite colour purple! Use lots of balloons and streamers with posters of Pop Stars and Rock bands all around the room. Write each of your guests name on gold stars and hang them from the ceiling. Do not forget the Justin Bieber licensed tableware and decorations - they are fantastic! Request that your guests come dressed as their favourite musical celebrity but still provide a "dressing table" filled with everything needed to glam up - glitter, tattoos, hair colour, makeup, hats and glasses. Create a stage area with plenty of blowup guitars and microphones available where your guests can showcase their talents! You know the boys will be playing Air Guitar! To make a stage simply hang a few ropes in a corner of a room from one side to the other and hang sheets. Voila - A Stage! Decorate your stage area with blinking Christmas lights - as many as you can find!
Party Games: Play "Pass the Mic" - pass a blowup microphone around in a circle with the guests seated. Play Justin Bieber music mixed in with some popular top 40. When the music stops, the child with the Mic in hand must sing the next line. If not, they are eliminated. Play “Plant a Kiss on Justin.” This is SURE to get plenty of giggles. Buy a poster and tape it to the wall. Each guest in turn is blindfolded; then you put red
lipstick on her lips. Spin her around three times (a la “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”) and head her toward the poster. See who lands the closest to Justin’s lips.

Activities: Make a Music Video - If by chance you have a creative bunch, divide the guest into 2 teams and have them make a 30 second music video. Give each team a Cd player with a few Cd's and 20 minutes to create. Then record their performances and playback their "music videos." Hilarious! What a keepsake that will be! What about doing a Craft: Purchase 1 plain t-shirt for every guest attending the party. Beforehand, using those iron on letters, write "Rock Star" on each shirt. At the party the kids can decorate them using fabric paint, stamps, glue on jewels or any fabric adornments you can find Here is a chance to set up the X-Box, Wii or other game console and play games like Rockband and Sing It. Rent or buy a karaoke machine (a great gift!) and have a karaoke contest. The Karaoke machine will be perfect in the stage area! All the while playing Bieber Music and playing his movie "Never Say Never".

Menu: Concert Food - Chicken Fingers and Fries served out of large plastic stadium cups. Hot dogs served in tinfoil and nachos and cheese served out of folded brown bags. For a sit down meal you could serve one of his favourite meals - Spaghetti! If you want to cater it out go for McDonald's - his favourite fast food restaurant! For dessert you can have a heart shaped cake with Justin's picture on it or a guitar shaped cake with purple icing.

Loot Bags: Everyone loves their loot bag at the end of the party. You could throw in some licensed Justin

Bieber favors, inflatable microphones, hipster sunglasses and the traditional candy and gum. You could also try something a little different because this crowd is a little older and more mature. What about a mixed CD? If your not already doing the CD invitation, this would be a great idea for a party favor. Using your child's favourite top 40 songs make your version of a mixed tape. Design your cover as you would with the invitations and simply burn the music from your computer onto blank Cd's! It is so simple, it only takes a few minutes! My 9 year old son has been doing it for a few years now! Wrap your CD creation with a bow and handout. Your guests will love it!

Justin Bieber party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off all orders . Please see "SITE-WIDE SALE" for details. Check us out Online!

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Monkeyin' Around Party Ideas

2011-01-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

Lets go bananas with this adorable Monkeyin' Around Birthday Party theme. This is a perfect party theme for little boys and girls of all ages - who doesn't love Monkeys? I'm sure your little Monkey will!

Invitations: You can always go with the premade monkey invitations available online or in stores - they are pretty darn cute! Or what about cutting out banana shapes or monkey head shapes from brightly coloured card stock. Another really neat idea is to purchase a whole bunch of small bananas (green ones so they do not ripen to quickly) and attach a homemade invite. Use some monkey clip art like the image on the right to add some pizazz to regular white computer paper. Use wording like "Lets go Bananas" or "Lets have some fun Monkeyin' Around" and do not forget to end with a P.S like "Here is a little Monkey treat to get you ready for the party!" Wrap your invite around the banana and tie with a beautiful ribbon. That's an invite nobody will soon forget!

Decorations: Turn the party room into a jungle! The best colors for a monkey birthday party are green, tan, and brown. Decorate ceilings with twisted streamers and clusters of balloons with curling ribbons in your party colors. Hang vines of greenery around the room and from any ceiling chandeliers or light fixtures. Float green helium balloons with long brown ribbons all around the room. Decorate doorways with hanging streamers in various lengths for your little monkeys to walk through. A neat touch is to use a bunch of bananas with helium balloons tied to it as a table centerpiece. The table can also be adorned with other jungle fruits like coconuts and pineapples. Make silly signs out of poster paper and paint that says "Monkeys at Play", "Caution! Monkey Crossing" and "Enter At Your Own Risk! Monkey Business Going On". Decorate walls with cut outs of oversized bananas, coconuts, pineapples, vines, monkeys, and trees to create a jungle atmosphere.

Crafts: Upon guest arrival, have a craft area set up for making monkey ears and monkey tails. This is a great icebreaker for kids and even the parents too! Its pretty simple to whip up some monkey parts. Have all the ingredients cut, sized and ready to go. You can make the ears with craft foam glued to a head band. Use 2 colours of craft foam - dark brown for the ears and a lighter tan shade for the inner ear. The tails can be made of brown fabric or felt strips tied around the waist with a long piece dangling behind. You can also safety pin the tail to the inside of a shirt or belt loop. Save some of the tan foam to add a little tip to the tail. Be sure you don't make the tail so long that it gets in the way when playing games.

Games: This is probably a younger age group so its best to keep the games simple. Play "Hot Banana" - Hot Banana is simply hot potato with a banana. Play using some jungle sounds or jungle music. Another fun game is "Monkey, Monkey, where's your treat." Have the kids sitting around in a large circle with a chair in the middle. Place a banana under the chair, choose one guest to be the monkey and have him sit in the chair with eyes covered. Choose another child to steal the banana and hide it somewhere on his body while everyone else sings loudly "Monkey, Monkey, where's your treat? Somebody stole it from under your seat!" Sing it at least 3 times over. He has just 1 chances to guess who "stole" it and if he does, he gets to be the monkey again! Have a banana Treasure Hunt - Indoors or out, hide some treat filled bananas. Using yellow construction paper, cut out several 6 inch matching banana shapes, fill with a small trinket/candy and then staple edges of 2 cutouts together. Designate a search area and send the kids out on their hunt. When each child finds a banana treat, have them sit down and open their banana for a wonderful surprize!

Menu: For a fun themed meal why not try a Monkey Sandwich! A monkey sandwich is a peeled banana inside of a hot dog with honey and peanut butter for condiments. You could also serve Monkey Tails which are just regular hot dogs - a sure fire hit! Along side the sandwiches, prepare Banana Kabobs - bananas, watermelon and grapes on a stick. Have plenty of bowls of Monkey Chow ready for snacking. Monkey Chow is a mixture of banana chips, chocolate chips, nuts, raisins and pretzel sticks. If there are nut allergies, you can replace nuts with a dry cereal like corn pops. To top it all off, how about chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and a candy banana for decoration. Do not forget the banana split sundae bar!

Monkeyin' Around party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

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Barbie Themed Party Ideas

2010-10-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Do you have a little girl who loves Barbie? Girls of all ages love the fashion doll and would have tons of fun at a Barbie birthday party! Planning a themed birthday party like this is quite easy to do and can be a very affordable party plan option with these great tips and tricks.

Invitations: Choose die cut paper that look like clothes Barbie would wear, such as a fancy dress or fun purse. Glue these on the front of blank note cards or card stock and decorate with glittery gel pens and glitter glue. You can even use cutouts from a fashion magazine or even attach the invite to a bottle of nail polish or a pair of fashion sunglasses. Remind party guests to wear their prettiest pink clothes and bring their favorite Barbie doll. This is a really cute invitation idea - take a photo of the birthday child dressed up all dirty and with ugly clothes, hair all messed up. This will be the BEFORE picture. Then, clean them up and dress them up with nice clothes, hair and make-up and take an AFTER picture. Glue the before and after on the front of the card and on the inside use the caption in bold letters "Join us for a Barbie Makeover!"

Decorations: Pink and very fashionable of course! Create the interior of a Barbie dream house with girlie touches everywhere. Bows, sparkles, flowers and candles should do the trick. Decorate your tables with pink tablecloths, white doilies and sprinkle with sequins and pink candies. Add bouquets of pink and white balloons around the party room with bunches of twisted matching streamers. Hang Barbie Posters around the area and do not forget to bring out all your childs barbie dolls, accessories and toys.

Activities: Have a Barbie Makeover. Allow all of the girls to dress up when they arrive. Pull out old dresses, shoes, hats, scarves and accessories from your closet (friends and family too) for dress-up time. Second Hand and Salvation Army stores can be a great spot to visit for these type of finds. Have an area set aside for a quick kid-friendly makeover, complete with lip gloss, hand mirrors, simple makeup and a full-length mirror to admire the results. After the girls get glamorous, have a space for Barbie's makeover as well. Have brushes and ribbon on hand for a quick Barbie hair makeover. What's the highlight of fashionable child parties? A fashion show of course! You'll want to assign an area to be the walkway. You can use a long piece of fabric or carpet to be the walkway. To create the effect of a real fashion show you'll want to make curtains in a door way so that the kids can stand behind them and come out one by one. You can even just hang sheets from the ceiling on both sides of the long walkway. Blinking strings of Christmas lights also create a wonderful effect! Make sure to record the moment and take plenty of pictures!

Games: Play Hot Purse, which is traditional Hot Potato but with a twist! The winner of each round wears a special Barbie tiara for the next round. The children sit in a circle and pass around a purse while the music plays. In Hot Purse the person holding the purse is considered the winner of the round and gets to open the purse and choose a small, wrapped prize. The last player standing can win the purse! Play Barbie Relay. This is a race to see who can dress her Barbie the fastest. Give all players similar clothing, including pants, shirt and shoes. You can make this game a bit harder by adding a blindfold or a pair of gloves.

Crafts: Give the kids a creative opportunity to be young designers. What you'll need is pre-cut pieces of card stock paper in a shape of a body or mannequin form. Provide the guests with each crayons, markers, glue, gems, buttons, scissors, scrap fabric, etc. to decorate and make up their own unique fashions - much like paper dolls. Other popular activities include bracelet making, frame decorating or t-shirt designing.

Party Food: Keep it Pink! - everything really is prettier in pink! Serve heart shaped sandwiches filled with strawberry jam and marshmallow fluff or open faced mini croissants covered in raspberry cream cheese with fresh raspberries on top. How about an array of fresh fruit with pink Cool Whip for dipping or strawberries dipped in white chocolate that has been died pink. Snacks could be pink popcorn and pink sugar cookies. The possibilities are endless with just a few drops of red food colouring - anything from whips, chocolates, cheeses and dips can be made pink! A fun beverage could be pink lemonade served with ice cubes that have cherries frozen into them. There are several options for fun and beautiful Barbie cakes that you can make. One of the most impressive cakes is to build the cake around an actual Barbie doll. This is actually fairly easy to make on your own and it is sure to delight the birthday girl and her guests. All you need to make this cake is a glass baking bowl, cake mix and frosting of your choice, and a Barbie doll. Simply prepare the cake in the glass bowl – this will serve as the skirt of Barbie’s dress. Let it cool and remove from the bowl, then take an unclothed Barbie and insert her in the middle of the cake, up to her waist (it is easiest to make a small hole for her first). Next, you make Barbie’s dress by applying frosting to the cake, which soon starts to be recognizable as the skirt of her dress. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you wish. Complete directions for this type of cake can be found on the Internet. Another option is simply to make or buy a regular sheet cake and decorate it with a picture of Barbie, candles and a birthday message. You can ask to have the colors of the cake be the same as the decorations that you have used so it will all tie together nicely. Pink icing, white polka dots and some fabric bows might be nice!

Party Favors: You can fill jewelry boxes or small purses with all kinds of accessories such as nail polish, lip-gloss, pink bubble gum, tiaras, dolls,hair clips, sunglasses, rings, bracelets, necklaces, doll clothes - anything Girlie! Another great idea for party favors (if you've got a digital camera and color printer) is to take "before" and "after" pictures of the girls and give them a copy along with their other favors.

Barbie party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

https://www.partydepot.ca/barbie.php

Iron Man 2 Birthday Party Ideas

2010-08-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Tony Stark is back to save the world with the much anticipated release of this summers' hottest sequel, Iron Man 2. Now you can join in the fun and excitement of hosting your very own Iron Man themed birthday with these fantastic party ideas!
Invitations: Take a picture of your child wearing their favourite Iron Man costume and attach to card stock with the caption "Calling All Superhero's", "You are Invited to BLAST OFF at___'s Birthday Party!" Another unique idea is to use a page from an Iron Man comic book. First, white out (liquid paper) the text in the speech bubbles and blowing up the sizing with your computer or a copier. Then write the party details into the empty speech bubbles, copy as many as you require in color or black and white and attach to card stock.

Costumes: We first must decorate our guests. You can request the kids come dressed as their favourite superhero or you can "make your own" gear at the party. For Iron Man you would need a mask and an Arc Reactor (heart thingy). You can give them a party mask from the party ware line and simply have them tin foil a round piece of cardboard for the arc reactor. For a more general super hero costume the guests will need capes, gloves and masks - especially if the birthday child wants to be the only one dressed as Iron Man. They are the guest of honour after all! The capes can made of felt or any fabric that does not fray and the gloves made from mini stretch loves with the fingers cut off. Masks can be easily made with a pre-cut template, craft foam and stretchy string. You can have all the items ready to go or have the kids assist in the creation of their very own costumes. The key is to have plenty of colours and textures available. Do not forget pink and yellow if there are Super Girls attending!

Decorations: Concentrate on the Iron Man theme colours of red and gold. Use lots of balloons, streamers, tablecovers, tableware and curling ribbon. Hang Iron Man Posters around the party area. Posters work great as decorations, are very inexpensive and are popular game prizes. Do not forget the licensed Iron Man tableware and decorations! Even a little goes a long way - you certainly do not have to break the bank! You can even incorporate other Marvel comic book heroes into your party plan like Superman, Super Women, Spider Man, Batman, or even Wonder Women because one thing is the same - SUPER POWERS! Pull out you poster paper and paint and create some retro signs using popular superhero words like "POW", "ZOOM", "ZAP", "KABLAM", "BOOM" and "ZOWIE" to hang around. Superhero comic books are not only great for making posters, but also look really neat when used to decorate a table. Separate the comic pages and place randomly under a clear plastic cover - voila, your own custom tablecover! No party like this would be complete without the Iron Man 2 soundtrack blasting in the background! No soundtrack - no problem. Any AC/DC greatest hits album will do!

Party Games: Host a Marvel comic book hero Olympics. Some of these ideas are meant for outdoors but can very easily be accomplished on a smaller scale indoors. Prepare a series of challenging feats to test strength and agility. Test their "strength" in the Long Jump, 20 Yard Dash, Javelin Throw, Balance Beam and Shot Put. Test their "super senses" - For this activity you need a blind fold, pair if thicker gloves, and household items like a fork or a hairbrush. To play, simply blindfold the player and hand them an item. It is up to them to figure out what they are holding. It is not that easy wearing gloves! "Super Hearing" - have one guest blindfolded and another unknown guest speak the child's name or any superhero statement through a cardboard tube in their most superhero voice. The Blindfolded child must figure out which one of the guests spoke. To test their sense of " Super Smell and Taste" have a guest blindfolded and put a small piece of food in front of their nose to smell. Use simple fooed like raisins, cheese and pickles. If they cannot guess the item by smell alone give them the option of tasting it. I say option because some kids may not want to do it. This Olympics may be difficult but It will sure tire out the little superheroes and definitely get some big laughs!

Menu: Superhero Subs - You can use whole sub buns or make larger sandwiches using French Bread Sticks. Have a few meat selections available for the little disconcerning tastes. Sometimes a simple peaunut butter and jam works best! Muscle Burgers - Burgers filled with huge hamburger patties served with all the fixings. Carrot Sticks with Power Dip - carrot/celery cut up into sticks and served with your child's favourite dip. A great beverage is Super Hero juice - ice cubes coloured with food colour and frozen ahead of time. Fill clear cups of lemonade with the brightly coloured ice cubes. Whether you purchase a cake decorating set or have it profesionally made - the Cake should have Iron Man on top. Colour co-ordinate the icing and create a scene with a few other action hero's on top.

The Grand Finale is a having Iron Man make a surprise visit to deliver presents, take action shots with all the kids and handing out the loot bags! You may have to bribe a family member or friend to do this but it is so very much worth it!

Iron Man party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

https://www.partydepot.ca/ironman.php

Wizards of Waverly Place Party Ideas

2010-04-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

Wizards of Waverly Place is the most popular Disney show to date! Give your child the most 'magical' party ever with this 'wicked' birthday party plan!

Invitations: Turn your invitations into a contest. Lets see who can come up with the most creative and fantastic looking wand! All you need for this is some fancy ribbon, wooden dowels (cut to wand size) and your computer and paper. You can even find some aged or scroll paper at your local store. Using your computer and preferred paper, write all the party details like the who, when and where. Perhaps title the page with something in bold letters like "You are invited to ___'s Wicked __th Birthday Party!" When the details are out of the way, explain the wand contest. Explain that you have supplied them with the base for their creation but is up to them to make it magical by painting, glittering and gluing - whatever they like. To get them excited and motivated also tell them there are special prizes for the most creative, colorful and unique wands. Roll the invite paper up with the wooden dowel inside and tie tightly with your fancy ribbon. Your invitations are ready to hand out!

Decorations: The traditional balloons and streamers in colours like purple, fuchsia and lime green would be great to match with all the WOWP tableware and decorations readily available online and stores. For an absolutely fantastic idea why don't you decorate the party area as the popular 'Lair' which as you know is located in the sub shop behind the large refrigerator door! The lair is is a kinda spooky but super fun place for the kids to hang out and learn magic spells. To create this look, bring in everything antique and old looking. Put tons of old books and encyclopedias around. Use dim lighting with a of lamps. Use lots of printed fabrics and display different spells that the kids have learned in old frames. Use lots of sun, star and moon decor even if you have to make them yourself out of construction paper. Dried flowers, plants and herbs are scattered throughout the lair in vases, pots and jars. Pull out your Halloween decorations and look for items like skulls, rats, witches and spiders - pretty much anything spooky. Watch a few episodes or go to the Disney website to get a look at the 'Lair' and get a real feel for decorating like it.

Party Games: Play your own version of Wizards of Waverly Place 'Scene It'. Watch a recorded or a DVD episode of WOWP and then break the guests into 2 groups. Ask really obscure questions like "What colour hat was Alex wearing" or "What was Max eating". Have at least 25 questions prepared and allow 30 seconds for the team to answer. One answer is allowed only so they must confer as a group before blurting out answers. The team with the most answered questions wins! If you have just two groups, you can play the rule that the other team can steal if answered incorrectly. If the birthday child is involved in the prep for this game, suggest that they become the host and ask the questions.

Crafts: Make your own potions table. Well, maybe not potions but wouldn't it be fun for the guests to make their own lotion or bubble bath. A simple recipe for homemade bubble bath is as follows. Pour unscented and clear dish soap into a fancy glass or plastic bottle 3/4 of the way full. You can use any type of container or bottle you wish as long as it is clear and has a lid. Scan your local dollar store, you will be amazed at what you can find! Offer a selection of different essential oils for aroma and food colourings for a range of shades. It is important to remind your guests that less is more, only a few drops are needed. Feel free to mix and match but never shake your creation, use a stir stick to gently stir. The last step is optional. You can add some body glitter sparkles, soap confetti or even dried flowers to jazz up your bubble bath. That would definitely make it a bubble bath potion!

Menu: Subs of course! The characters all work in their Dad's sub shop so Submarine sandwiches are the perfect choice. You can either purchase a long party sub or have a 'make your own' station set up. You could lay out differ kinds of breads, cheeses, meats, veggies and dressings for the guests to make their own creations. A nice touch would be to also serve can pop and bagged chips of different flavors just like what they have available in the shop. A really inexpensive way to create a Wizards of Waverly Place theme cake is to simply download and print your favourite logo or picture of the wizards from google images. Once printed and cut to size you simply laminate it. Place it on your cake and pipe you child's favourite colour of icing around the image. Keep the icing bright, add a wand, candles and some stars and your done. Your effort and imagination will be much appreciated. Just don't forget to remove the laminated image before eating!

Wizards of Waverly party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

https://www.partydepot.ca/wizards.php

Construction Themed Parties

2010-02-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

Is your little one obsessed with all things construction? Then this is the perfect party plan for you! Let me guess, when he grows up he is going to drive a Digger...
Invitations: A fun and easy way to create a construction themed invitation is to cut poster board into shapes of tools like saws, hammers or safety hats. On the front of the invitation you could write something like "Caution! Construction Party Ahead!" You can make the invite more interesting by visiting your local dollar store and purchasing some construction pencils, rulers, safety goggles, measuring tapes or work gloves and attaching the invitation to it. There are tons of items that you can grab, often priced at 2 for $1.00 so just use your imagination. The little themed gift will definitely get the excitement brewing for the upcoming party.
Decorations: A must have is yellow and black caution tape which can be found at any hardware store. A neat idea is to use orange construction cones all around the party area with yellow and black helium balloons tied to them. A cool do-it-yourself idea is to make several diamond shaped "Caution, Birthday Zone, Men at Work & Kids at Play" signs out of yellow poster board and hang them around the area. Traffic signs are also excellent decorations. Old blueprints look great hanging on walls or on a table underneath a clear plastic tablecloth. Here's a great opportunity to clear out your garage by pulling out some ladders, saw horses or any building decorations to use as construction party decorations.
Games : Some simple games are "Pass the Tool Box" and "Skyscraper" that will work well for the under 4 crowd. In Pass the Tool Box you simply sit the kids in a circle and pass around a box to music. When the music stops, the child holding the tool box gets to open it and choose a candy! In skyscraper the object is to build the highest tower of blocks possible within a designated period of time. For guests a little older than 4 perhaps you can try games like"Dirt Mover" or "Wheelbarrow" as these require a bit more instructions. In wheelbarrow you set up an obstacle course using orange cones. Each player must push a child sized barrel around the course without spilling the contents (stuffed animals, crumpled paper etc.) If you spill you must start again and the best time wins! In dirt mover, separate the kids into 2 teams and provide each team with a kid safe shovel. Place 2 empty pails a reasonable distance apart from a pile of dirt and have the kids shovel from the pile and run back to fill their teams bucket one at a time. When one teams bucket is full the relay race is over.
Activities: A really neat idea to add to this type of themed party is to give the little workers a chance to see a backhoe or any small machine in action! Perhaps you do that yourself or know someone who does? Perhaps hiring someone as you would hire a clown or a magician. The idea is kind of out there but could you imagine how excited the little one's would be! Its amazing what the driver's can do - just set up a small area and let them do their thing. The kids can even st in the machine and have their pictures taken!Cake Ideas: Make a simple sheet cake of your favourite flavor. Ice it with green icing and make 2 or 3 "dirt mounds" with crumbled up chocolate cookie crumbles. Top with toy dump trucks and bulldozers to create a construction yard scene. Another neat idea for a cake is to use a large dump truck toy with a large and very clean box. Fill the box with layers of chocolate pound cake, vanilla pound cake, crumbled up Skor chocolate bars, crumbled up Oreo cookies and scoops of ice cream. Top with plenty of whipped topping, and sprinkles. Add your birthday candles and voila, a perfect "dirt" cake.
Loot Bags: Pass on the traditional and use a small plastic tool box, a plastic hard hat wrapped in cellophane, a sand pail with shovel or even a tool pouch. Fill the item of your choice with simple things like toy construction vehicles, plastic toy tools, notepads and pencils, paints and paint brushes, mini tool sets, bubble gum tape and plenty of candy treats! Just walk the aisles of your local dollar store - you will be amazed at all the trinkets you will find!

Construction party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

https://www.partydepot.ca/construction.php

iCarly Birthday Party Ideas

2009-11-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

This handful of quirky tweens and 1 older brother have taken the youth world by storm! Its no wonder kids and tweens are asking for an iCarly birthday party! No worries, all you need is some information on the show and a boat load of imagination!

Invitations: Send out an email invitation! Its very innovative and computer savvy just like Carly! To spice up the email you can add a voice recording or a short web cam message inviting your friends over to party! As well as being super hip its Eco-friendly and it will not cost you a dime since you already have a computer!

Decorations: Set the party atmosphere with vibrant colors. Go for the dramatic with sparkly stars covering the walls, latex & helium balloons floating around, streamers hanging from corner to corner and curly cues hanging from the ceiling. Use bold hues like fuchsia, purple and teal. Make it feel like Carly's apartment by decorating with lots of paper lanterns and strings of lights! Make some homemade posters with saying like "You're a Star", "I Heart iCarly" and "Welcome to the Web Show!" Have loads of 'after school snacks' set out for munching when the kids arrive and music playing for them to listen to or wildly dance about to - I believe they call that Random Dancing! The key is to provide a cool area where all the kids can chill out. Wouldn't this work great as an after school party since the gang always heads over to Carly's after school or even as a sleepover since Sam is always sleeping over at Carly's?

Activities: Create your own Web Show. Hook up your computer to a web cam or simply pull out your video camera and tripod. Lay out some furniture similar to the iCarly set and have the party guests figure out their own show. You can have props ready like guitars, microphones, funny hats and clothes. Keep the mugs of water and tissue close in case anyone gets too emotional! The guests can perform a dance, sing a song, tell a joke, perform a stunt or tell a story. Check out the web casts on iCarly.com for inspiration. If coming up with ideas is difficult, you have the option to put several 'idea cards' in a hat and have each guest pick one before their camera time. Topics and Ideas like "What is your favourite Food and Why", a Silly String fight, a Yo Yo competition or something crazy like bobbing for apples or a pie eating contest. Encourage the kids to be Creative and Funny! To make sure everyone has a good time, you should rotate roles of host(Carly), producer(Freddie) and co-host(Sam). Remember to record every moment! When everyone has had their moment in the spotlight, be sure to save the episode so you can make copies for everyone to take home and show their parents. If your doing a web cam simply email out a copy to everyone, upload a copy to You Tube for everyone to view or provide a link were the video can be played. No worries, the kids can probably show you how to do it all if your unsure. Be sure to play back the recording at the party so everyone can see how they look on camera!

Menu: A lot of eating fills iCarly airtime: Chili, Spaghetti Tacos, Smoothies and Pie. Lots of Pie. Why not go with this menu, its a little unconventional but definitely fun! Add a veggie tray and an array of chips and tacos and call it a smorgeshborg! The cast is always munching on something new so keep your eyes and ears open for new ideas. Perhaps at dessert time you can serve a selection of pies instead of the traditional birthday cake. Your very own Pie Shop! If you do go with a cake for dessert, an inexpensive way to create an themed cake is to download and print out the iCarly logo. You can easily find one by using Google images and then adjusting to your size requirements. Laminate the logo and cut the plastic to shape. Using a cake of any size or flavor, simply place the laminated logo onto the cake with plenty of candles and a Happy Birthday message. Be sure to use some bright colored icing for decorating - Carly does nothing white or bland!

Loot Bags: Here are some crazy options - so have fun with it! ~Funky Notepads & Pens (between school and the show Carly is always working on something) ~Crazy Socks (is it just me or is Spencer always wearing weird socks?), Yo Yo's (these gadgets are always showing up in sculptures and in the shows yoyoathons), Junk food (Sam loves her chips and chocolate bars but Freddie's Mom would defiantly disapprove), a homemade mix CD (we know how the gang loves their music & dancing), a Magic Ball toy or key chain (always consulting the ball, Magic Meatball that is) ~Silly Putty egg or container of Play dough (you never know when the urge to make a unique sculpture like Spencer will hit you!) I hope these ideas help and just remember to think outside the box for an iCarly party! The kids will love all the effort you put in!
iCarly party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!
https://www.partydepot.ca/icarly.php

Transformers 2 Birthday Party Ideas

2009-10-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

Featured Party Plan November 2009

Invitations: Take a picture of your child in his/her Transformers costume and attach to card stock with the caption "Calling All Tranformers", "The time has come for ____'s Birthday Celebration!" Use red or blue card stock and shape it into an Autobot or Decepticon logo. Another neat idea is to turn the invitation into a colouring contest! An amazing colouring page site is http://www.coloring-book.info/coloring/coloring_page.php?id=138 and its 100% free to use. Using full sized envelopes, place 2 or 3 printed off pages inside with a note describing the colouring contest and party details. Let the kids know that all pictures may be coloured for display, but only 1 can be entered into the contest. Do not forget to write "TOP SECRET" in bold, red letters on the front of the envelope and then seal with a Transformers sticker.
Decorations: Everything Red and Blue. For a splash of pizazz throw in some metallic silver! Balloons, Streamers, Tableware and Confetti of all kinds! To give it a real theme look, use some of the fantastic Transformers party supplies readily available in stores and online. Use one focal wall for the Birthday Banner. You can purchase one pre-made or go ahead and make your own using a large roll of paper and some craft paint. Use bold wording like "Happy Birthday" , "Autobots vs. Decepticons" and "Welcome to planet Earth" for your banner. Another great homemade decoration would be to make 2 large symbols of the Autobots and Decepticons logo out of poster paper to display on your wall. The focal wall is a the perfect place to display all of the contest entries! It will look fantastic as decoration as well! If you did not choose that invitation option, be sure to have a colouring center set up for the kids and let them know their masterpieces will be put on display when they are complete. There is nothing a kid loves more than putting their work on display!
Games: Transformers Balloon Blast - Blow up several small balloons and tie them to ribbons before the party. At game time, tie the ribbon with a balloon to each and every player's left ankle. The idea is to pop the other balloons without getting your own balloon popped. The rules are: No pushing or shoving, you can only step on balloons (no hands) and once your balloon is popped, you must sit out. Once the number of kids gets down to 5 or 6, make the playing area smaller by half. When the final 2 players are left, use a large area rug for the inbound area. The last one with their balloon intact wins! Sonar Hearing - Have one guest blindfolded and sitting alone in front of the group of guests. Keep the player and the group at least 6 feet apart. Have an unknown guest in the group speak the child's name or any Transformers statement like "Autobots, Roll Out!" in their most Optimus Prime like voice. The twist to make it more fun and challenging is to use one of those voice changers. You can buy them in dollar stores, they come inside of a lot of costume helmets and it even comes as an app of most cell phones! The Blindfolded child must figure out which one of the guests spoke. Its not as easy as you might think!
Pinata & Hunt for the Matrix: Whats a party without a Pinata!?! Let's combine an already super fun activity with a Treasure Hunt of sorts. The best time to bring out the Transformers Pinata is after food or snack and just before the guests are about to leave. Inside the Pinata along with the candy and favors have about 10 clues written on slips of paper. Along with gathering their treats they are going to find the paper clues. After everything has been picked up, tell the kids that there has been 10 clues hidden in the loot. Their mission is to find the clues and work together to solve the mystery and therefore find the Matrix. When they find the Matrix, they will also find some Transformer treasure! The treasure will be their loot bags but you don't have to tell them that! Choose an area in you house away from the party area. Lets us a drawer in your daughter's room for example. Clues can be "Rectangle Shape", "Girl Uses this", "White(whatever)", "Made of Wood","Larger than a T.V", Smaller than... You get the idea! Do not make it obvious because those little ones are pretty darn smart! This will be the perfect end to a perfect party!

GI Joe Birthday Party Ideas

2009-09-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Featured Party Plan October 2009

GI Joe blasted into theaters with The Rise of Cobra. With its loyal followers and new legion of young admirers this is sure to be a huge hit with birthday celebrations for many more years to come! Go JOE!
Invitations: A neat idea for a GI Joe themed Party Invitation is to fashion it in the form of a draft recruitment letter. Print your invitations using your computer and with some really cool font like "Impact" or "Fighter Pilot" on regular white printing paper. Use wording like: ATTENTION! You have been drafted! Your mission should you choose to accept is to attend (child's name) __th Birthday Party! Follow with the time they need to report for duty, dismissal time, training camp location and the name & number of the recruitment officer. Search Google Images for some realistic army logo clip art to make your recruitment letter look very official! Place invitation into a plain manila envelop and seal. Write "Top Secret" and "GI Joe Training Camp"on the front with red marker. Your invitations are ready to deliver!
Decorations: Whether the party is inside or out, use lots of camouflage print, green and black decorations like balloons, tablecloths, posters and streamers. On a focal wall place a large banner with the words "Welcome to GI Joe Training Camp" beside your Country's National Flag. Hang camouflage tarps and black netting all around to give it an authentic training camp feel. If your child is a huge fan of the GI Joe, Rise of Cobra movie, be sure to incorporate some of the licensed supplies and decorations - they are really fantastic looking! If you are lucky enough to have an Army Surplus store in your area make sure to visit. You will find loads of authentic items at rock bottom prices for game prizes, decorations and even the loot bags!
Guest Arrival: Now that the party area is done, we need to decorate our guests. They will need to sign in as they arrive at camp. Set up a table with chairs where they can sign in, listen to camp Rules & Regulations and be issued their training gear. The training gear can include items like headbands (armband) made out of roughly cut camouflage material, black or green warpaint for their cheeks, plastic gun, tattoos, canteens, binoculars and of course their Dog Tags. Hint- if you are giving out items beforehand, be sure to write the names or initials on them so they go home with their gifts. Since the guests are getting all their party favors at the beginning of the party, have "Training Camp Completion" certificates ready for the little soldiers as they leave. Let them know they are no longer Cadets, they are officially ranked as Soldiers!
Boot Camp Drills: Shooting Range - Set up some plastic army men or empty pop bottles and practice target skills with a Nerf or water gun. Bombs Away- place a round target on the ground about 15 feet away from soldier and have him toss water balloons at the target. Make sure to rig the target with some sharp tacks so the explosion is big! Tug of War - A round of tug of war can be made interesting with a blowup pool filled with water in the middle. Having it indoors? No problem, simply fill a kiddie pool with green "grenade" balloons for effect. Landing Strip - This involves 2 steps. First teach the kids how to make their own paper airplanes and then see who can fly their airplane with the most accuracy onto a designated landing strip. Marine Field Training - Set up an obstacle course made of boxes, ropes, cones and other items that kids can run, jump, crawl and climb through. For example your course can have barbwire (twine) to crawl under, a balance beam (2x4's) to cross, tire run (hula hoops) and a minefield (water balloons) to cross. It is fun to make the "Winner" of each game the Sergeant for the duration and allow him to order the cadets to perform 10 push-ups, sit-ups or jumping jacks. Training Camp is not for the faint of heart!
Menu: Field Rations - Serve Field Rations out of tin cans. Save up all your cans (soup etc.) making sure there are no sharp edges. Serve the guests foods like macaroni & cheese or beans & wieners in the tin cans. Offer foods like beef jerky and dried fruits. Its not my favourite but its what soldiers eat! I would definitely have on the side some regular party food like chicken nuggets or personal pizzas just in case! The cake can be a regular round or rectangle shape - 2 layers or 1. Your choice. Simply add some food colouring to dye the icing army green and cover the entire cake. To give the cake a "rough terrain look", crush up some dark chocolate cookies and apply to top of cake. Finish off with a few plastic Army vehicles. Another dessert option is cupcakes with chocolate icing and a plastic soldier on top. They are certainly quick, easy and can be eaten on the go!

Jonas Brothers Party Ideas

2009-09-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

Featured Party Plan for Sept 2009

The Jonas brothers are Unstoppable! Joe, Nick or Kevin - its almost impossible to choose your favourite! With a full party supplies line now available and this amazing party plan, your tween's next Birthday Bash is sure to be a huge hit!

Invitations: You can purchase ready made invites at a reasonable cost from sites like mine or you can choose to make your own. If you choose the store bought invites you can personalize them by writing on the envelope "Rock Stars Only" and filling the invite with gold star confetti. Another cool idea is to purchase a pack of blank Cd's. They come in packs of 12 for about $10. With your guidance, have your child design their own CD cover using rock and roll clip art, pictures of the Jo Bros and a phrases like "One Night Only" and "Rock the Stage at ___'s House Party." Write the party details on the backside and replace the generic insert with your personalized cover. Burn their 3 favourite Jonas Brothers songs onto the blank discs - no worries, its totally legal as it is for personal use and not for resale.

Decorations: Go for for metallic colors like silver and gold balloons & streamers with posters of Pop Stars and Rock bands all around the room. Write each of your guests name on yellow or gold stars and hang them from the ceiling. Request that your guests come dressed as their favourite musical celebrity but still provide a "dressing table" filled with everything needed to glam up - glitter, tattoos, hair colour, makeup, hats, glasses, and stick on jewels. Create a stage area with plenty of blowup guitars and microphones available where your guests can sing, karaoke or play "Air Guitar." You know the boys will be playing Air Guitar! To make a stage simply hang a few ropes in a corner of a room from one side to the other and hang sheets. Voila - A Stage! Decorate your stage area with blinking Christmas lights - as many as you can find!

Crafts: Purchase 1 plain t-shirt for every guest attending the party. Beforehand, using those iron on letters, write "Rock Star" on each shirt. At the party the kids can decorate them using fabric paint, stamps, glue on jewels or any fabric adornments you can find.

Party Games: Play "Pass the Mic" - pass a blowup microphone around in a circle with the guests seated. Play Jonas Brothers music mixed in with some popular top 40. When the music stops, the child with the Mic in hand must sing the next line. If not, they are eliminated. This is also a great chance to play the video game Rockband. Make a Music Video - If by chance you have a creative bunch, divide the guest into 2 teams and have them make a 30 second music video. Give each team a Cd player with a few Cd's and 20 minutes to create. Then record their performances and playback their "music videos." Hilarious! What a keepsake that will be!

Menu: Concert Food - Chicken Fingers and Fries served out of large plastic stadium cups. Hot dogs served in tin foil. Popcorn ad Nachos served in individual brown lunch bags and plenty of sodas.

Loot Bags: Everyone loves their loot bag at the end of the party. You could throw in some licensed Jonas Brothers favors, inflatable microphones, hipster sunglasses, bandannas and the traditional candy and gum. You could also try something a little different because this crowd is a little older and more mature. What about a mixed CD? If your not already doing the CD invitation, this would be a great idea for a party favor. Using your child's favourite top 40 songs make your version of a mixed tape. Design your cover as you would with the invitations and simply burn the music from your computer onto blank Cd's! It is so simple, it only takes a few minutes! My 9 year old son has been doing it for a few years now! Wrap your CD creation with a bow and handout. Your guests will love it!

Fairytale Princess Birthday Parties

2009-07-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Give your little Princess the Royal Birthday Party of her dreams! A Fairytale Princess Party is a timeless classic and with these amazing ideas it will be easier than waving a magic wand!

Invitations: Use parchment paper or any paper with an aged appearance and cut to a rectangular shape of approximately 7 x 9 inches. You can age regular computer paper by using a teabag. Have all your invitation details printed out in a royal script and cut to size. With a teabag and cup of warm water simply wet the bag and gently dab it all over the paper. Not to much water as the ink may run! Set aside to dry. The method is up to you - have a practise round first. Then you can lightly burn edges to give an older appearance. Once dry, roll up the invitation. After a few rolls throw in a small amount glitter towards the middle and continue rolling. Tie with a ribbon and seal with a sticker if desired. You can use a script like this - "Here Ye, Here Ye", "Her Royal Highness, Princess____, requests your presence at a royal ball given in honor of her __th birthday."
Decorations: Pink and Lavender everything and don't forget the Fairytale Princess tableware and supplies to really set the theme! Use helium balloons on the mailbox, in doorways, on chairs, as centerpieces, on vases, floating freely and pretty much anywhere you can tie a balloon. Decorate your ceiling with a streamer tent. Find the center point or a light fixture and attaching 12-14 twisted lavender and pink streamer lengths to it. Floating them out a good 2 feet apart and attach them to the corner edges of the ceiling. Decorate your walls with enlarged images or posters of the classic Fairytale Princesses - Snow White, Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. The table setting must be worthy of a Royal Princess! Start with a pink tablecover and spread white or opalescent sparkles or gems on the table to look like diamonds. Use a centerpiece of white roses (fake or real) in a clear vase filled with sparkly gems or beads. Finish off by tying a pink or lavender tulle fabric bow onto each chair. Decorate the Birthday Princesses chair as her royal thrown. Cover her chair with tulle, and attach flowers, gems and balloons all over. For some added Fairytale flair, use props from your favorite stories. For example -A large mirror with a poster beside it written "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall," Who's the Fairest of Them All?" How about a bowl full of red apples with a "POISON" sign on it. What about a frog (stuffed or garden decoration) wearing a gold crown holding a sign that said - Kiss Me. A poster of a glass slipper or perhaps and ladies dress shoe decorated with the saying "Have You Seen this Slipper?" Garden Gnomes really look like the 12 dwarfs!

Activities: Enchanted Makeover - You can transform a playroom or your daughters bedroom into the Princess Salon. Have in your Salon an assortment of wigs, hair bow, clips combs and glitter spray to decorate each others hair. In the makeup area, set a table with eye shadow, lip-gloss, nail stickers and body & face glitter. Have each girl do each others makeup in beautiful princess style. If this is for a younger group a few extra hands will be needed. Have plenty of chairs and mirrors available so the little ones can admire their new look.

Crafts: Make you very own Princess Hat using plain cone party hats in pastel colours. Using pink and purple tulle or ribbons, simply push through the top point of the hat 12 inch pieces of the ribbon with a handy item like a knitting needle. Pull all the way through and tie off on the inside of the cone hat. Around the bottom glue colored lace, fur, ribbon or pom poms. This would be great if done beforehand so the guests could receive one to wear during their makeover! Make your very own Princess Wand with wooden steak skewers or wood dowels for the handle. Prepare star shapes out of any thick paper or craft foam. Pink, purple or chartreuse colours are perfect! Using wood glue or hot glue, have the kids glue on a star to the tip of the wooden skewer, and then glue another one, to the back of the first star, so that the wooden skewer isn't seen. Once the glue is dry, having the kids decorate it by covering the star with a thin layer of glue and sprinkle different color fairy dust (glitter) over their wands to make them truly magical.

Games: The Frog Prince - Pin the Tail on the Donkey with a twist! The players must try to plant a kiss on the frogs lips using their very own lips and a tube of red lipstick! This game is so much fun! You will probably have to make your own frog poster. You can draw it freehand or enlarge and print one off the Internet. It should be as large as possible. Line the girls up, blindfold them, apply a thin layer of lipstick, spin them around 3 times and see who can plant a kiss closest to the Frog's kisser! Princess and The Pea - Read the girls the story of the Princess and The Pea to set the mood and have them understand the premise. Then pull out four small throw pillows and a small bouncy ball. Ask the first player to turn around while you hide the ball under one of the pillows. The player sits on each of the pillows and tries to guess under which pillow the ball is hidden. Repeat. Snow White's Mirror, Mirror on the Wall - Choose the first player. She is taken to a chair about 6 ft in front of the group of guests. She looks into a hand mirror, closes her eyes and says "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" One of the guests in the group disguises her voice and says "You are." The player opens her eyes, looks into the mirror and tries to guess the voice. If she gets it correct, she remains princess. If she doesn't, the girl that disguised her voice becomes princess. Repeat.
Enchanted Edibles: Open faced sandwiches cut into shape with heart and star shaped cookie cutter. Once shape is cut from bread, spread a thin layer of cream cheese topped with a layer of strawberry jam. Sprinkle with iridescent edible sparkles or sugar crystals. Offer a selection of jams - peach is also very yummy! A healthy option is to have an assortment of vegetables and fresh fruit with dips served on fancy silver dinnerware. Princess Punch - Before the party, freeze red juice in ice cube trays. Tropical fruit punch works well. On party day serve lemon-lime soda with the red cubes topped with frozen blueberries. Serve out of fancy goblets or tea cups. Make wand cookies! Simply prepare star shaped sugar cookies and slide a wooden Popsicle stick under each cookie before baking. Bake as usual, and frost as desired. Wooden craft sticks are sold at most craft stores. Try your own favorite recipe or ready-made cookie dough from the grocery store. The cake can be a round or heart shaped cake. Frost it with pink icing and place a fancy silver tiara (plastic) in the middle. Around the tiara spell out in lavender icing - HAPPY BIRTHDAY _____. Top the cake off with a good sprinkling of sugar crystals to give it a sparkly and glowing effect.

Fairytale Princess party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!
https://www.partydepot.ca/fairytale.php

Star Wars Birthday Party Plan

2009-07-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

A Star Wars party is a classic - it keeps getting bigger and better with age! From age 5 - 50 every little boy wants to have a Star Wars party at some time! So roll up your sleeves and Let the force be with you...

Invitations: You can make your own invitations on black card stock paper. Write with a white gel pen or use your computer to help you using this script - "A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR AWAY A BOY OF DESTINY WAS BORN" "THIS YOUNG JEDI WILL CELEBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY IN A GALAXY NEAR YOU..." A really cool site that has a free download of the the font used in the introduction of the Star Wars movies is galaxyfaraway.com. This site also has free Star Wars music and movie audio clips. Another great site is the official Star Wars website http://www.starwars.com which leads to my next invitation idea. Go to the "Kids" section and then type in the search box "Halloween Masks." What you will find is a variety of printable character masks. Choose one or several of the masks to use as your base for the invitation. Follow the printing instructions and assemble as required. Attach the party details with a request to wear the mask attached to the string or place the 2 items in a large envelop. Mark the envelope TOP SECRET and seal with a Star Wars sticker. You can choose to print the full coloured masks or opt to use black and white and have the kids colour them in for the party - a colouring contest of sorts. Either way - Very Cool!

Decorations: The party table can be adorned with licensed Star Wars tableware and decorations. Other tables like the food table and gift table can be dressed up with black tablecovers, lime green moon rocks(to follow) and those plastic glow in the dark stars that can be found at any dollar store. Put out your child's Star Wars toys and figures around the room for both decoration and play. Give your area an Outer Space feel. Cut out stars from heavy stock tin foil and hang from ceiling with fishing wire. Decorate your walls with funky looking planets made from coloured construction paper with silver & gold glitter to make them look out of this world! Hang posters and pictures of your childs favourite characters. Gather a bunch of ordinary rocks of all shapes and sizes, paint them lime green and place all around party area to resemble moon rocks. And Finally, you can't forget the asteroids. Asteroids can made with pieces of styrofoam cut to shape and painted or by hanging brown, tan or gold balloons from the ceiling with fishing wire. Be sure to draw lots of cracks and crevices on the balloons with a black sharpie before blowing up. In keeping with the licensed partyware, stick with colours like red, orange, black and metallics for the balloons, streamers and any additional decorations.

Crafts: Make your own Light Saber. This is a pretty easy craft if you do not mind some pre-party planning. All you need are pool noodles believe it or not. Cut a full length in half giving you 2 Sabers. Because they are so wide you will need to carve in a handle with an exacto knife. Make T shaped cuts 4 inches in and 1 inch deep all around one end and then very carefully remove the pieces. The handle does not have to be perfectly smooth because on party day it will be up to the kids to choose their colour, decorates the shaft with multi coloured markers and wrap their handles with coloured electrical or hockey tape to give their Light Saber a good grip. Make sure their names are written on their creation! If you have a crafty bunch, set up a table where they can build their very own planet. The supplies needed are Styrofoam balls, paint and brushes, glue and some decorations like glitter, beads and sequins. First have them paint their planets. During drying time have them name their planets by taking the first 4 letters of their first name and the last 4 letters of their last name and placing them together. What would yours be? My son's would be Sethbald! Have them write their planets name on small pieces of paper and then staple on to a toothpick. Now its time to embellish the planets with decorations of their choice. When all is dry and they are off to the next adventure, be sure to push the toothpick into the Styrofoam and attach a piece of fishing wire with a thumbtack so the guests can hang their very own planet in their very own room!

Games: Now that each child has their very own light saber, play "Keep Up The Meteor." Tell guests that the evil Darth Vador has set off a meteor shower to destroy planet earth and it is their duty to to prevent the meteors from hitting earth. The prep for this is simple; blow up a bunch of balloons, turn on the Star Wars soundtrack and have the kids form a circle. Start with one balloon, and then another and another until you have thrown in 1 balloon for each kid. If they can keep up just 1 balloon for the length of a song or a timer set to 3 minutes - they will save the Earth! A really fun thing to do is have an adult dress up as Vader with a mask, cape and light saber. Have the young Jedi Knights battle Darth Vador with their very own light sabers. It may get a little rowdy but the kids will love it! If you have an older group, Star Wars trivia is always a big hit but if the group is a bit younger try playing "Shapeshifting." Shapeshifters are dark side creatures that can change into different forms or characters. You will need - Star Wars music and 2 large bag filled with funny clothes, costumes and accessories. Gather the guests around in a circle, turn on the music and ask the kids to pass the bags around. The players holding the bags when the music stops must reach in, pull out an item and put it on. Game ends when all items are gone. Very silly and very funny!

Activities: "Galaxy Hunt" - The villanous Darth Vador has stolen all the Galaxies treasure and hidden them within Star Clusters scattered around the Galaxy. It is up to each young Jedi to search and find 5 star clusters and report back to mission central. If even 1 Jedi is unable to complete his mission it is up to all young Jedi's to help out their fellow trainee. When all missions are complete the Star Clusters may be opened to reveal their treasure. The Prep for this game is to wrap different pieces of candy with tin foil making odd shaped balls. Hide around the "hunt area" only 5 clusters for every player. Make it a little difficult - you want the young Jedi's to have to work for their treasure! A good idea is to give each child a loot bag with their name on it to hold their treasures when they return to mission central.

Lootbags: If you have played the Galaxy Hunt its likely you already have a bag filled with candy. Complete the guest loot bags by throwing in some Glow Sticks, Pop Rocks, Silly Putty, Glow in the Dark Stars and some Star Wars favors. Ebay is a great place to find large lots of Star Wars favors and trinkets at really reasonable prices. Finish off the loot bags with a Jedi Knight certificate letting the guests know the have passed their training and completed all their missions. A free printable certificate like the one shown on the left can be found at the website 123certficates.com in the "sci-fi" section. You can easily dress it up by printing it on blue paper and filling in the symbol with colour and silver glitter.

Star Wars party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

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Retro Groovy Party Ideas - The 60's

2009-06-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hippies, peace signs, lava lamps, pet rocks, mood rings, VW Bugs, tube tops, platform shoes . . . the 60’s and 70’s were funkadelic and groovy. With the return of all things retro, this theme is sure to be a huge hit at your next party!

Invitations: Use a large, rounded letters and bright psychedelic colours when making the party invitations to offer a 60’s feel. Use the smiley faces, peace symbols, mod flowers and tie dye designs that have made that era so popular and recognizable. Free clip art is readily available all over the web to make your own invitation paper. You can also visit your local craft store and purchase some retro feeling printed paper. Use wording like "Feelin' Groovy", "Lets Get Funky" and "Cool, Man" when constructing the wording of your invite. You can inform your guests about the party theme through the invitation and ask them to come dressed as the part. It can be as simple as wearing a headband, a tie dye t-shirt, some beads or a peace symbol drawn on their cheek.
Decorations: Decorate the party area with plenty of balloons and streamers in neon colours like pink, orange and lime green. Hang bead curtains in all the doorways the party guests will pass through. Place colored light bulbs in all lamps and sockets. Using large banner paper and neon paints, construct poster that proclaim "Peace", "Love not War" and "Power to the People." Make cut outs of Smiley faces, Mod Flowers, Yin and Yang symbols and Peace Signs out of construction paper. Hang Christmas lights around the room. Make use of any bean bag chairs, flower pillows and 60's memorabilia to decorate the room. To set the mood play some popular 60's music from bands like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Add a real funky groove by Tie Dying 3 or 4 old bedsheets with bright neon colours. Use 1 as a groovy tablecover and the rest as some furniture throws.

Crafts: Friendship Bracelets - Visit your local craft store for some premade kits or just simply purchase a roll of bracelet cord leather, a pack of clasps and a bag of stringing beads. The guests can come up with their own pattern, or use letter beads to spell their name or spell "Best Friends"," Friends Forever." Tie Dying - A must have at any 60's party! You could tie dye a t-shirt, a headband, canvass bag or even a pair of socks! Simple tie dying instructions can found easily on the web or even by visiting your local library. You can even purchase all in one kits that come with all supplies and detailed information. Pet Rocks - Make your very own Pet to take home and love. Find rocks that are round and have a smooth texture. Soak the rocks in a soapy bath of water and give them a good scrub. This can be done prior to the party to allow plenty of drying time. Decorate it! Choose a colour and paint your rock with a very thin layer. One dab should do it! When dry, glue on some googly eyes. With a black felt tipped marker you can draw on a smile and some eyebrows. You can stop now or be creative by adding some yarn hair or a mini pom pom tail! Let it dry and voila - you've got a new friend! Now its time to name him or her.
Games: Set up a retro game room with hula hoops, tidily winks, pick up sticks and twister. How fun is that! Have a 60's Game Night! Perhaps set it up as an obstacle course and see who can get through it the fastest. Funky Dress Up - Before the party, gather a garbage bag full of clothes. Funny, old, retro clothes, bandanna's, beads, hats shoes and accessories. The Hippier the better! Visit your local thrift shop, salvation army and the closets of family and friends. Gather the guests in a circle, play some 60's music land pass around an item. Any item with a Funkadelic Feel will do! Whoever is holding the item when the music stops (your controlling the music) must reach in and pull out 1 article of clothing and put it on. Continue on until every girl has at least 4 items on. Its hilarious and not to mention a great photo opportunity.

Menu: Food in the Hippie Era was all about healthy eating - granola, grains and garden fruits and vegetables. Give it a modern twist by having bowls of trail mix and 12 grain sun chips for snacking. Fruit Trays and Vegetable Trays would also work great for this theme. A big fad during the 60's and 70's was fondue - both cheese and chocolate. Other food fads, although not as healthy were pigs in a blanket(cocktail wieners baked inside a flaky crust) and macaroni and cheese with a crushed potato chip crust. For beverages you must serve Coke in a can and Tang of course. You can make a Tang punch by simply adding a bottle of 7-up and frozen fruit for garnish. This era introduced the style of Buffet eating. Put out the food, plates & utensils and have everyone help themselves! For dessert serve a large round cake decorated as a Smiley Face or a Peace symbol. All you need is some food colouring to dye the icing and a steady hand to draw the smiley face or the the peace symbol. You can also give your cake a tie dyed look by dropping food coloring on it and then running a toothpick through it in a circular motion, giving it that tie effect. Righteous. Can you dig it?

Groovy 60's party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

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Bakugan Brawlers Birthday Party!

2009-05-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

In an alternate dimension of Earth, an evil, power-hungry, and greedy Bakugan called Naga decides to take a powerful core called the Infinity Core. Taking it into himself causes it to explode, sending 2 parts, the infinity core and silent core to to earth. Both parts must be found and brought back together in order to restore balance and allow the Bakugan to once again live in peace. ~ O.K - What?!?! ~ Whether or not we get it our kids certainly are going crazy for it! This is sure to be the party theme hit of the season!
Invitations: This is a super cool idea your kids will love taking part in crafting! For a really unique invite, purchase some medium sized styrofoam balls from your local dollar store or department store craft isle. Cut the styrofoam balls completely in half and then core out a bit of each halves center. Keep the matching halves together for a perfect fit later. Be sure to use a very sharp tool to avoid shredding. Have your kids paint the stryromfoam pieces in their favourite Bakugan colours. With your computer, print out the Party details several times on one sheet of paper. Its important to use the least paper possible because we are going to now fold it 4X square to fit inside the cored out ball. When the paint is dry, poke 2 toothpicks (shorten if needed) into the bottom half and place your folded paper inside. Close the ball by gently pushing together the 2 halves together forming a circle again. Decorate the balls with lines and symbols to resemble your favourite Bakugan. Your child will have so much fun handing out these unique invites - almost as much fun as the kids will opening them!
Decorations: Make a Bakugan Character Wall. This will be a wonderful conversation piece for the guests and will also look great as decoration. Choose at least 10 Bakugan and download their enlarged images right from bakugan.com- the official website. Print out as large as possible using coloured ink. Using details found online or right on their card, write out each biography. Their health, powers, their weaknesses etc. on a separate sheet of paper in a large print. What you should end up with is 10(or so) large coloured photos and 10 corresponding bios. Display all pictures with bios beside or underneath on one central wall. Use licensed Bakugan party decorations and coordinating yellow, red and black balloons and streamers to accent the Character wall and make it the focal point of the party room. Themed posters and toys would also be a great addition to the party room.

Games: Bakugan Launch - Test you launching skills. Every Brawler must have accuracy and skill to open and activate their Bakugan. On a flat surface place 4 cards about 2 inches apart. About 5 feet back, mark a launch line with a piece of masking tape. If you have plenty of Bakugan, place them in a bag and have each child randomly pick one from the bag as it becomes their turn. You can also request that each child bring their favourite Bakugan to the party. The Birthday child should always go first! Each child gets 3 launches. If you can get your bakugan to open, you advance to the next round. If not, your sent to the Doom Dimension. Keep going until their is only 1 Ultimate Brawler left! Bakugan Ball Toss - This is a fun challenge, and a challenging it is! Use 6 of those super bouncy balls. Set up a series of 6 pails or boxes of some sort. It is your choice whether to have them horizontally, diagonally, in 2 rows of 3 or clustered together. Whichever you choose, just make sure the pails are close together, about 2-3 centimetres apart. Purchase some Bakugan trading cards, enough for each guest to win 2 or 3 each. Mark a line about 5 feet back. Line the bottom of each pail with 1 trading card-make sure they are face down so the players cannot see them. With the birthday child going first, have him attempt to land the balls into the buckets. The balls must land in the bucket and not bounce out! When all 6 balls are thrown, the player may then collect his winning cards from the buckets where he landed the balls. Finding out which cards they won will be very exciting! Replace the cards, gather the balls and have the next child in line have a go! Keep playing until the cards run out or everyone has their equal share. Its not as easy as you might think! This may take 2 or 3 rounds - those balls are hard to tame!

Bakugan Pinata: Since they have not come out with any Bakugan themed Pinata lets make our own. A really simple way is to purchase a round beach ball pinata or even a sports ball shaped pinata and spray paint it to match your child's favourite Bakugan Ball. Another option is to make your own. To do this you can paper mache a beach ball. Make sure to cover the beach ball with a thin coat of Vaseline so it is easy to separate and remove. Another option is to use a punch balloon. That way, you have a built in hanger with the elastic handle - just make sure to blow the punch ball up until its completely round. The key is to use several layers of newspaper and glue to make the pinata very sturdy and give yourself several days of drying time. A good glue ratio is 1 part water to 3 parts white glue. The newspaper strips should be about 2 inches wide and about 9 inches long. When the ball is absolutely dry, use an exacto knife and cut a flap about 4 inches x 4 inches. Just enough room to pull out the beach ball or pop the balloon. Paint and decorate your Pinata , fill with candy and treats and reseal.

Activities: "Are You Smarter then a Battle Brawler?" Play a Trivia game based on the both the cartoon series and the card game. Prepare 5 questions ranking from easiest to hardest for each quiz player. Write the set of 5 questions on individual index cards and have the players choose their own set of questions out of a hat. Each question should get progressively a little harder so inform the players that they can stop at any time. Questions like "Who is Green?", "Who has Wings?" and "Who has Pink Hair?". Everyone gets a prize for playing of course, but the prizes you can win with each question gets progressively a little better too! If you get an answer correct you advance, if you get it wrong you loose it all! Well, maybe not all, have a basic prize that everyone wins with question 1. Make sure to offer 3 possible answers to help the kids and gear the difficulty of the questions to the age group attending.

Menu: So much work is involved with the setup of this party, go for the favourite food of Battle Brawlers - Pizza of course! Its simple and easy - especially if you order out. A fun idea for the snack table is serve all the food in ball shapes. You can have Meatballs, Cheesy Puff Balls, Gum Balls, Melon Balls - you name it! Let you imagination go wild and see if you can up with 6 foods to correspond with the 6 types of Bakugan. Your kids can tell you what those types are! A really neat drink idea is to make a Bakugan Battle Punch. The Brawlers get pretty worn out after a Brawl and this is the perfect pick me up! All you need is a punch bowl filled with Mountain Dew and some Strawberry or Raspberry Sorbet. Just before you are about to serve, add the sorbet and the kids can watch it fizz and froth. It tastes amazing too! For dessert you can make Bakugan Ball cupcakes. Use a your child favourite colour for the main icing. Have an icing pipe on hand to add some lines and symbols to resemble the Bakugan Ball. If you prefer a cake, use the same idea as the cupcake just on a larger scale. Use themed figurines to create a scene just like the expensive decopac sets sold in specialty stores. Now go and conquer!

Bakugan party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!
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Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Party Ideas

2009-03-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

M-I-C....K-E-Y.... M-O-U-S-E! Who doesn't love that famous mouse and all of his friends??? Here are some great ideas for a fun Mickey Mouse party! Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is all about solving puzzles that are essential to accomplishing the day's goal, so throw your child a birthday party where she and her friends can get swept up in the fun and excitement of learning new things while getting things done.Invitations: Print theme coloring pages off the Disney Mickey's Clubhouse official website. They are really cute and there is a bunch to choose from. On a separate piece of brightly coloured red, blue or yellow paper, write or print out the party details - the who, when and where. "Mickey and his friends are having a Birthday Party and want you to join the gang!" would be the perfect wording for the Invite. You can even cut the invitation paper in the shape of Mickey's Head and Ears. For added flair you could throw in a few crayons or even a small box of 8. Request that each guests colour in their picture for display at the party. Place both papers into an envelop, seal with Mickey sticker and deliver. This idea works especially well for a toddler partyDecorations: For Mickey Mouse party decorations use lots of red, yellow and blue streamers and balloons. Have bunches of helium filled balloons as well as plenty of air filled balloons floating around the party floor. Cut out a large Mickey's head shape out of black poster board with a very large sign that says "Welcome to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!" and and stuffed animals around the scene. Put up posters of Mickey and friends on the wall. Have a designated spot for the guests to display their art work that was sent with the invitation! Using red, yellow and blue construction paper, cut out several different shapes like circles, squares, squiggles and triangles. Hang the shapes with fishing wire from the ceiling all around the party area or above the party table. Use different lengths of wire so it looks really neat! You can even do the same with numbers! Cut out numbers from 1-9 and place all around the walls. Mickey is all about learning!Crafts: Make your own Mickey Ears. Purchase some black Headbands and black foam craft paper. Before the party pre-cut the Ear shapes so all you have to do with the little ones is glue on the ears! Hot glue the ears on so the guests can wear them right away. You could even pre-make them and just present them to the guests as they arrive. Have some pink bows for the little Minnie's attending! Make your own Mouskespotter - A mousekespotter helps Mickey find things he needs so when you are done you could play a little game of "Eye Spy" of items around the party area. All you need is paper towel cardboard tubes and things to decorate with such as markers, yarn, crayons, stickers, foamies and glitter. Lay out the decorating materials on the designated craft table and give each child a cardboard tube. Ask the children to create and decorate their own mousekespotter!
Games: I Spot...Play Mickey's favorite game using shapes, numbers and colors. Before the party, make several large, coloured paper shapes or numbers. You could even use the ones you have already created and hung for decoration around the party area! Then, make sure you have a duplicate of each shape you cut. When it's time to play you hold up a shape, a purple flower for instance and say " I spot a purple flower...do you?" The kids will run to the image that matches the one you are holding or identify the shape by remaining seated and using their newly crafted Mouskespotter. You can play this several times, getting slightly more challenging as you go. Musical Chairs - With a twist of course! Instead of chairs use a flat floor space. Use a variety of large shapes of various colours and tape them very securely to the floor in a circle. At game time, have the guests walk around the outside of the circle and when the music stops, they must quickly and carefully sit down on one of the shapes. Each round, remove one of the shapes or place a Disney stuffed toy on the place to let the kids know that seat is already taken! It would be best to have more shape seats than kids at first so they can all play for a bit before being eliminated. Set up for round 2!Menu: What is Mickeys favourite song? The "Hot Dog Song" of course! What a perfect food to serve for meal time! If your little one is not a fan of hot dogs, try serving up Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes and syrup just like they do at Disney World. Since Mice love cheese, have an array of cubed cheeses and crackers for the little Mickey and Minnie Mice to munch on before lunch! Aother option is to serve "Mic-Aroni" and cheese. You can even buy macaroni in the shape of Mickey's head! Bake your very own Mickey Mouse Cake. Bake one 9" round cake and two 6" round cakes. Position the cakes so the bigger cake is the face, and two smaller cakes are the ears of Mickey. Frost the face with white frosting. Frost the Ears with chocolate icing. Pipe on your Happy Birthday Wish, some candles and a small Mickey Figurine. Voila! A Mickey Mouse masterpiece!

Mickey Mouse party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!
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Ben 10 Party Plan - Alien Smashdown!

2009-01-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

During a summer camping trip, Ben Tennyson finds an alien pod on the ground. Upon examination he finds a mysterious, watch-like device, called the Omnitrix, stored inside. The device attaches permanently to his wrist and gives him the ability to transform into a variety of alien life-forms, each with their own unique powers. Although Ben realizes that he has a responsibility to help others with these new abilities, he is not above a little super powered mischief now and then. With the popularity of this series, this is guaranteed to be on your child's Birthday Party wish list!

Decorations: Use the Ben 10 licensed party supplies and decorations. For cost savings substitute and add a lot of lime green and black decorations like tablecovers, streamers and helium filled balloons. Make a Ben 10 character wall. Download images of the Ben 10 aliens and enlarge them as much as possible. Type out each alien's bio - their strengths and weaknesses etc. Choose a focal wall and display your aliens. This will be quite a conversation piece and will definitely add to the Ben 10 decor.
Crafts/Activities: Everyone knows that Ben's Omnitrix watch was found at an alien crash site. So why not have your guests build an alien spacecraft. Divide the guests into groups of 3 or 4 and provide them with a table space filled with tinfoil plates, string, toilet paper rolls, construction paper, clay, pipe cleaners, scissors and glue. Put 15 minutes on the clock. Have creative titles to award each creation like 'The Wackiest' or 'The Most Realistic.' That way everyone's a winner! "The Alien in the Lineup" - Download pictures of Ben 10 Aliens and keep them hidden from the kids until game time. Break the kids up into different groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a pencil and paper and have them write down every detail they remember about the alien's appearance. Allow them 1 minute to examine the picture and 3 minutes to write down the details down. Show the picture of the alien again and see which group came up withe the most accurate details. The group with the best description wins that round.
Games: "Four arms Relay" - You will need two very large, oversized T-shirts -one for each team to wear. On each T-shirt, cut two additional holes just beneath the real arm holes. Children will need to pair up for this event. Both children fit into one T-shirt, with heads through the neck (cut away a portion of the neck if necessary to make this possible.) Have one child extend his arms through the real sleeves, while the second child makes use of the arm holes you've cut. Now each T-shirt has four arms. Do an old fashioned spoon race. Give each pair a spoon with an asteroid rock (small balloon, ping pong etc) perched on top of the spoon and have them walk from one end the room to the other without dropping. If they drop, they must pick up the object and start again. Have each team go one at a time to avoid collisions and time it with a stopwatch. The best time wins. Have your camera ready because this is going to be Hilarious! Jello Eating Contest - Of course you will call it an Alien Slime eating contest! Make the gloppiest, grossest green jello filled with raisins and have the kids race to eat their bowl up first. The twist is to have them blindfolded with their hands behind their backs! Don't tell them whats on the Menu - just tell them its alien slime! Ben 10 meets Fear Factor! The winner of this contest should really win a prize! They earned it!

Loot Bags: The possibilities are endless here. You can use a few Ben 10 licensed party favors and then throw in some space or alien related items. Pretty much anything that glows, looks alienish or is gooey! Use glow sticks and necklaces, super bounce balls, pop rocks candy, martian matter slime, green play dough, plastic glow in the dark stars , green licorish string and silly putty eggs. Hit up your local dollar store and have some fun!
Menu: Extraterrestrial Tacos. Tacos with a twist! Have an array of soft tacos, hard tacos, beef or chicken, lettuce, tomato and cheese available for the hungry little monsters to build their own tacos. The twist? Add a few bowls of 'Out of this World' taco ingredients like gummy worms and green candy sprinkles! If your child is not a fan of tacos, what about Paranormal Pizzas. The same idea - have all the regular ingredients like sauce, cheese and pepperoni. Also have a few "extras" available to make their very own 'Out of this World' pizza! The drink can be "Alien Juice" which is simply green koolaid with black ice cubes. Dye your water black with food colouring and freeze in trays overnight. Another neat drink is "Martian Milkshakes" which are simply vanilla milkshakes dyes green with a little food colouring. The cake can be made with bright green icing and some Ben 10 figures. Another option is a round cake decorated to look like the face of the Omnitrix watch. With some coloured icing and an icing pipe, this can be done quite easily! If I can do it, anyone can! Go for it!

BEN 10 party supplies are available at Canada's Favourite Online party store - PARTY DEPOT!!! Save 5% off orders over $80 or 10% off orders over $100. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

https://www.partydepot.ca/ben10.php

Strawberry Shortcake Party Ideas

2009-01-26T07:02:00.000-08:00

Strawberry Shortcake is the sweetest theme for a little girl’s party. Not only popular today, but Strawberry Shortcake has proven to be a timeless classic. Moms may remember their own fondness of Strawberry and friends.
Invitations: Make your Strawberry Shortcake birthday party invitations in strawberry shapes. Cut the shapes out of red construction paper. Decorate one side with black oval shaped dots (seeds) and the text - "Your invited to a Berry Special Birthday Party!" Write all the party details on the other side. Fill a clear cellophane bag with green paper shreds or Easter basket fill and strawberry flavoured wrapped candies. Put the strawberry shaped invite inside the bag. Tie each bag with a pink ribbon, and then attach a name tag to the ribbon.
Decorations: Decorate your Strawberry Shortcake birthday party area in red, pink, and lime green colors. Have lots of balloons and paper streamers throughout the area. Put dots on red balloons with black markers and attach green streamers for vines. You can helium fill them and have them floating around the ceiling or tape them to a focal wall or party area. Make strawberries out of construction paper and tape them to the walls of the party area. Bring out all your SSC dolls and toys for decoration and play. Light strawberry scented candles around the room to give it that familiar Strawberryland smell. Hang Strawberry Shortcake posters on the wall and fill a few vases or clear bottles with red and pink flowers. A neat centerpiece idea is to simply blow up a red balloon, add some strawberry seeds with black marker and cut out 2 or 3 large strawberry leaves out of craft felt or foam. Attach the leaves to the top of the balloon. Place into a wicker basket or decorative bowl and Voila - Your very own strawberry centerpiece!
Crafts: Make Strawberryland Caps -All of the characters in Strawberryland have their own special and unique hats. The children at your party can make their own hats to take home. Use craft foam visors, solid coloured baseball caps or straw hats as a base. Use stick on jewels, shapes, feathers, gel pens etc. to decorate their special and unique caps. Plant a Berry Plant - If the season allows, plant your very own strawberry plant or seed in a small planting pot for the guests to take home and nurture and watch grow.
Games: "Berry Mash" - Blow up red (strawberry), blue (blueberry) and magenta (raspberry) latex balloons. Place some small slips of paper with a prize written on it in some of the balloons. Small trinkets like 'candy' or 'sticker.' On the command "Go," have the kids stomp or sit on the balloons to make them pop and get their prizes. Before the game, explain to the kids that if they get more prizes than some other players, it would be great to do as Strawberry Shortcake would do - Share! Or perhaps once they find 3 slips of paper they are done and can collect their prizes. Berry Patch Hunt- Before the birthday party, string a ball of green yarn (strawberry vines) around the yard or a specific area indoors. Make sure to go around, through, under, and over as many objects as possible. The better the maze, the more fun the children will have unraveling the vines. Remember: If the vines go under and around - the kids do to! Begin stringing the vine at convenient spot to hide the final prize like a treasure box filled with loot bags! Work your way backwards, hiding favors, fun messages, or hints about the prize along the vine's path. Remember that the place where you finish stringing is the spot where the children will begin.
Menu: Have a Strawberry Social! Strawberry Rolls: Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on several soft tortillas. Top with a layer of strawberry jam and roll up each one. Cut each tortilla roll in 3 sections. Spear with frilly toothpicks to hold the rolls together. You can even make a blueberry or raspberry version. Chocolate Covered Strawberries - Dip fresh Strawberries into hot milk chocolate or white chocolate and gently place onto a platter covered with wax paper. Let set overnight in refrigerator. The dessert can be a traditional strawberry flavoured cake with strawberry ice cream or for something different try serving individual strawberry shortcake Dessert. A berry punch is the perfect addition to this menu. A simple recipe is: 1 litre 7-Up or Sprite, 1 can of frozen tropical punch juice and 1.5 cans of water. Top with frozen blueberries right before.

Disney Fairies Party Ideas

2009-01-26T06:51:00.000-08:00

A Tinkerbell themed Birthday is the perfect idea for your little girl's next Birthday Party. You won't need magic fairy dust to host a magical fairy birthday party with these Tinkerbell birthday party ideas, party games, crafts and fun party activities.
Guest Arrival: As each guest arrives, Tinker Bell should wave her magic wand and lead them to her makeover table for a magical Pixie Makeover. Enlist a teenager or another Mom (or two)to play Tinkerbell and turn each guest into a little Pixie. Each guest can receive a dab of glitter blush, eye shadow and lip gloss to brighten her face. Polish each guest nails with a clear glitter/sparkle polish for a quick and error free manicure. The special moment is when you present each girl with her very own flower headband wreath. These can be made quite easily beforehand by using craft wire, green craft tape and fabric flowers. Twist your choice of greenery around the wire - ivy is a perfect choice. Leave about 3 inches of wire exposed at either end to make a hook and eye to connect the ends of the head wreath. Bend wire into a circular shape and twist together 2 ends. Secure the ivy to the wire with florist tape. Using green craft tape or hot glue, attach the flowers of choice all around the circle. Be sure to leave no gaps, showing the wire. At the back of the wreath, attach a long cascade of curling ribbon in iridescent pastel colours.
Decorations: Create your very own Pixie Hollow. Choose soft colors like pale green, pink, lavender and white for the decorations. Hang colored streamers and balloons from tree branches in the yard. They will float in the breeze and add to the magical fairy atmosphere. If indoors, form a canopy over the party table using pink and lavender streamers. The streamers should cascade from a bow in the middle (attached to the chandelier or the ceiling) out to the sides of the room. Fill the party area with huge tissue paper flowers. Adorn the walls with beautiful pastel coloured butterflies made out of construction paper and decorated with glitter glue. Arrange groups of flowers and greenery on tables, floors, hanging from the ceiling with fishing wire, or tied to chairs. Cut large leaf shapes out of green poster paper and use as placements. Make each table setting special with Fairy Goblets. Purchase plastic wine or champagne glasses from your local dollar store and decorate them by applying a thin coat of glue stick on the outside only and sprinkling the still wet glue with glitter or sparkles. Then simply hot glue some fabric flowers around the stem. Turn on a bubble making machine to add to the magical fairy atmosphere. Combine clear mini lights with tulle netting and drape around the party space. Another option for creating a canopy is to hang yards of tulle netting from the ceiling. This can be done above the food table, or in another location such as a tree branch, to create a play area for your little fairies. Attach some butterflies and flowers from the craft store, and drape the netting outwards into a circular shape. Layer the end of the netting over chairs spread in a circle (if creating a play area), or the chairs around the food table. Spread fabric petals and glitter along the center of the main table. Make cardboard stars, cover in aluminum foil, and hang them from the ceiling.
Games: The Magic Ring - Sit all the guests in a circle. With a ball of string or yarn, string one piece around the entire circle so they are all holding onto the yarn with both hands. Slide a ring onto the yarn and tie the yarn in a knot. Explain to the girls that fairies love playing games and are quite the tricksters! Someone has hidden Tink's magical ring! Start with the birthday girl and have her stand in the middle and be Tink. Tink closes her eyes for 10 seconds while music plays or while guests jingle bells. While Tink's eyes are closed the girls slide the ring around the yarn from person to person holding the ring hidden clenched in their hands. Tink opens her eyes and tries to guess which fairy has her ring. After three wrong guesses, she has to close her eyes again; if she gets it right, the ring thief gets to be in the middle to play Tink.
Crafts: Make your very own Fairy Wand with wooden steak skewers or wood dowels for the handle. Prepare star shapes out of any thick paper or craft foam. Pink, purple or chartreuse colours are perfect! Using wood glue or hot glue, have the kids glue on a star to the tip of the wooden skewer, and then glue another one, to the back of the first star, so that the wooden skewer isn't seen. Once the glue is dry, having the kids decorate it by covering the star with a thin layer of glue and sprinkle different color fairy dust (glitter) over their wands to make them truly magical. The last step is to tie several pieces of sparkly ribbon to the wood dowel right under the star.
Enchanted Edibles: Open faced sandwiches cut into shape with a butterfly cookie cutter. The butterfly shape looks exactly like fairy wings! Once shape is cut from bread, spread a thin layer of cream cheese topped with a layer of strawberry jam. Sprinkle with iridescent edible sparkles or sugar crystals. Offer a selection of jams - peach is also very yummy! A healthy option is to have an assortment of vegetables around a veggie dip served in a hollowed out purple cabbage. You can do the same with fresh fruit - serve dip out of a hollowed out melon. Pixie Punch - Before the party, freeze red juice in ice cube trays. Tropical fruit punch works well. On party day serve lemon-lime soda with the red cubes topped with frozen blueberries. Serve out of fancy goblets or tea cups. Make fairy wand cookies! Simply prepare star shaped sugar cookies and slide a wooden popsicle stick under each cookie before baking. Bake as usual, and frost as desired. Wooden craft sticks are sold at most craft stores. Try your own favorite recipe or ready-made cookie dough from the grocery store. These work great prepared beforehand and covered in cellophane for a take-home favor. The options for the cake are endless! You can purchase a cake topper or candle or use a Tinkerbell or Disney fairy doll and perch her on top. Sit her on a bed of silk flowers or petals. Visit your local craft section and purchase some fabric butterflies and ivy for around the cakes bottom edge around platter. Choose your child's favourite cake flavour and favourite colour for the icing. Whether its round, rectangle, heart shaped, butterfly shaped or even cupcakes - if it tastes good it will be a big hit! Just don't forget the ice cream!

NHL Hockey Party Plan - FACE OFF!

2008-12-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

NHL hockey is back! With the new season comes a really cool new party supplies line that will make throwing the perfect hockey party seem like a breeze. I also have some great ideas to throw the ultimate street hockey birthday party regardless of the season! Winter or Summer, on snow or on pavement - a hockey fan is a hockey fan!
Invitations: Take a picture of the birthday child in their hockey gear for the front of the invitation. Make it a really cool pose with a hockey stick or in front of a net because this is going to made into a trading card invitation! Using card stock paper, trace out the accurate size of a trading card and then glue the pic onto it. On the back of the card instead of the stats, write the party information. Use your computer and some really cool black font for this. The last step would be to laminate or "mac tack" the card. You could hand them out as is or take it one step further. Along with the card, you could send a letter from the Hockey League stating that they have been drafted by the NHL and they are required to report for practise along with their teammates from all across the country. Be sure to include the date, time and request that they come prepared with stick & jersey. Sign it by the president of the NHL or the head coach of your child's favourite team place in an envelope and seal. Don't forget the clip art logos to make it look super official!
Activities: A street hockey game of course! When all of the guests arrive, have a meeting in the locker room and tell them what they will be doing for their first day of practise. Take a moment to explain the rules of a street hockey game and the importance of good sportsmanship. Then surprise them with their very own jersey name plates. Before the party, use your computer to write out each child's last name in bold print and laminate. As you call out names, pin each name tag to the back of the child's jersey and assign them a team by pulling names or colours out of a hat. Have a few jerseys on hand in case some come without. Once everyone is geared, up, it is time to head out. The prep for the playing field would be 2 nets on opposite ends with the center line and the goalie crease lines marked out. On dry pavement this can be done with chalk and on snow this can be done with watered done poster paint. Face Off! Have some referees with whistles and cheerleaders with Pom Poms. Make sure to have plenty of water and sports drinks available. Have a fire blazing in a portable fire pit to warm up on a cold Winters day and a Sprinkler set up for the kids to run through on the hottest summer day. You really can have a hockey party all year round! If weather does not allow you to be outside or if you simply prefer the party to be indoors try these fun games and activities. Have an indoor hockey tournament using an air hockey table or a rod hockey table. If you don't already have a table, chances are you know someone who does. Play "slapshot" using a goal, a stick but instead of a puck or ball, use a beach ball. It won't hurt even if it does hit something or someone! Keep the net empty and the shooter about 15 feet back. Its harder than you might think! Be sure to have a hockey game playing on TV and a separate area set up with a gaming system like Wii or PlayStation where they can play their favourite hockey game.
Decorations: Even though the premise of this plan is to be outdoors most of the time, it still is fun to decorate one area of your house that may be used like the kitchen, where the food and cake are served, or the living room where the presents are opened. Decorate with the NHL licensed tableware and decorations. Decorate your walls with hockey memorabilia like posters, pictures and pennants. Place around old pucks, helmets, skates, jersey's or sticks that are not in use to give it that real locker room feel. Finish the decorations off with balloons and streamers in your child's favourite teams colours.
Menu: Go with stadium food. Serve hot dogs in foil , nachos in take out boxes and french fries out of paper cups. Keep it simple. This way the guests can eat indoors, outdoors or on the go. You might just have to drag them in for cake and presents though!
Loot Bags: Throw a twist into the regular tradition of the loot bag. Have an auction of sorts. Have a table full of items that the kids can purchase with their hockey money. Purchase a variety of favors like candy, pucks, hockey trinkets and even a few bigger ticket items. The idea would be for every kid to have around the same amount of money at auction time - $2000. The first time they receive money is when they arrive - Their $500 signing bonus. Throughout the game give $100 bonuses for sportsmanship, good manners and teamwork. Monopoly money works great. The actual cost of the items can rage from .99 to $5.00. For example, the .99 items should cost $100 in hockey money and the $5.00 items costing the whole $2000 in hockey money. Some kids may go all in for 1 item, and some may choose several small. The key is to have a wide variety of all price ranges. Pick names out of a hat to see who goes first and in what order. To be fair, have them choose only 1 item, whether its big or small. Keep going in order until everyone is out of money. Last of all, make sure to explain the auction well beforehand to avoid any confusion. The excitement level will be unbelievable as everyone is going home a winner!

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BACKYARDIGANS Party Plan

2008-12-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

The Backyardigans is an animated musical-adventure series for children ages 2 to 5. In each episode, the show's five high-spirited preschool friends--Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, and Austin--rely on their vivid imaginations to transform their backyard into a fantastical 3-D landscape, and together they embark on amazing epic journeys. The Backyardigans are loved by both children and parent's alike making this the perfect party theme for both boys and girls. Whether you incorporate a pirate theme with a treasure hunt and a 'walking the plank' game or have a beach party making sandcastles and holding a limbo contest, the possibilities are endless. Be sure to use your child's favourite episode as a guide.

Decorations: If weather permits, host your birthday party outdoors, in the backyard of course. Your backyard will provide the perfect backdrop for a Backyardigans Birthday Party. Swings, Sandboxes, Play Houses, Picnic Tables, Kiddie Pools and play centers are the perfect addition. If the party is not during the warm seasonal months that O.K too. You will just have to bring the Backyard Indoors! Create an open indoor space where children will have plenty of room to roam. Cover 1 or 2 walls with butcher paper or rolled paper. Outline with paint a few trees, some grass, a sun and maybe some friendly bugs and butterflies before the party. Provide crayons to the kids and let them go! Ask them to draw their favourite character, colour in the objects or draw anything else they wish. Gather 2 or 3 large appliance boxes and cut a few holes to fashion doors and windows. Then allow the kids to colour and decorate their Backyardigans play house.

Craft Center: Have a craft table set-up. Have available supplies like Backyardigans colouring sheets, construction paper, stickers, scissors (kid friendly), glue sticks, Popsicle sticks, Pom Poms etc. so the kids can use their imaginations and create their very own backyard adventure. Bubble Bottles and Playdough are also a great addition.

Activities: 'Let’s Try This' is a rendition of Simon Says. Turn on some playful music like one of the Backyardigans CD's. Once the dancing begins, invite kids to take turns calling, “Let’s try this!” while showing a special stretch or dance move. Everyone is to follow. When it feels like a good time to switch players, ring a bell or make some other special sign. 'Silly Uniqua' is a game where the object is to make another player laugh. Uniqua loves to be silly and make others laugh, so in this game, kids try get each other laughing by making a funny face or movement. With everyone in a circle, the birthday child kneels in front of someone, and tries to make him or her laugh with a funny face or movement. If “Uniqua” needs help, the others can join in and try to make the child laugh too. (No tickling!) After laughing, child becomes the next Uniqua and selects someone else to kneel in front of.

Party Games: Chances are the age group for this party will be quite young so it would be best to keep the games very simple. Try traditional games like "Hot Potato" - Change it to Hot Tyrone or any character that is your child's favourite or they have a stuffed toy of. Players form a circle. A bean bag or stuffed toy is passed from player to player while music is played. When the music stops, the player who has the bean bag is out and sits in the center. The last one out wins. Stops should be made frequently so the game moves quickly and players will not be out for a long period. Duck, Duck, Goose - Change it to Uniqua, Uniqua, PABLO! All of the children except one sit in a circle facing each other. The remaining person goes around the circle, tapping each child gently on the head and saying "duck."2. When the tapper says "goose," the child whose head was just touched jumps up and chases the tapper around the circle. 3. The tapper in turn tries to get all the way back to the goose's spot without getting tagged by the goose. If the tapper succeeds, the goose becomes the new tapper and the game continues. But if the goose catches the tapper, the tapper continues his or her walk around the circle.

Food: At the end of every episode, one of the friends invites the others over for a snack, so finger foods are a great choice when trying to decide what kind of food to serve. Throughout the party have a few bowls of snack food like Goldfish Crackers, Pretzels and Animal Crackers available for snacking. When you announce lunch time be prepared for some hungry little guests. Have Grilled Cheese Bites and French Fries for lunch. That is the Backyardigans favourite Meal! Serve the grilled cheese with the crusts cut off and slices into 3 strips. Also have lots of cut up fruit with a sweet yogurt dip for dipping. Kids love to dip. Do not forget the juice boxes! Lots of juice boxes in all flavors.

~Just remember that it doesn't need to be terribly complicated for the young children to have a good time. Most young children are just thrilled to spend time with their friends doing just about anything~

Polly Pocket Party Ideas

2008-12-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

Every little girl loves her Polly Pockets! There is a Polly Pocket themed toy for everything! So why not surprise your little one with this Groovy Party Plan.

Invitations: Make your own Polly Pocket Invitations using the daisy in the logo. Using thick cardboard, cut out a template of a daisy. Use the template to trace and cut out the flower shapes onto brightly coloured orange or pink construction paper. Write all the party details right on the backside or use your computer to type the script and then paste. Use the script "Please come to my Totally Cool and Fab-Tastic Birthday Party!" If you do not plan to enclose in an envelope, you can use a large pom pom as the flower center. For some added flair, attach the flower invite with a piece of ribbon to a lip gloss ring, bottle of nail polish or a piece of fun costume jewelery. If you prefer to have the invite in an envelope, use a glitter or puff paint pen to trace the edges and to make the flower center. When dry, place in an envelope and seal with a Polly Pocket sticker.

Decorations: Create a festive mood using "Polly World" as your inspiration. Re-create Club Groove. Decorate with plenty of balloons and streamers in neon pink, green, orange and purple. Use large construction paper flowers that imitate the invitation to decorate the wall. Hang Christmas lights around the room. Make use of any bean bag chairs, flower pillows and Polly Pocket toys and figures around the room. Decorate the entrance with a brightly coloured poster sign that say "Club Groove" and a tinsel or bead curtain. Add a real funky groove by Tie Dying 3 or 4 old bedsheets with the Mod neon colours. Use 1 as a tablecover and the rest as some retro furniture covers. The final piece would be a disco ball or some kind of disco light.

Craft Activities: Make your own Best Friends Bracelets. You can visit your local craft store for some pre-made kits or just simply purchase a roll of bracelet cord leather, a pack of clasps and a bag of stringing beads. The guests can come up with their own pattern, use letter beads to spell their name or spell "Best Friends"," Friends Forever" or just "BFF." Another neat craft would be for them to tie dye a t-shirt or canvass bag. You should be an expert by now because of all those sheets. Here are some simple tie dying instructions ~ What You Need: various colors of fabric dye (Rit), rubber bands, rubber gloves, marbles, tap water, garments such as t-shirts, cotton shorts, old jeans, etc. What You Do: Begin by rubberbanding your garment according to the design you wish to achieve. Prepare dye according to package directions. Be sure to wear rubber gloves to protect your hands! Please take the proper safety precautions recommended. Once your garment is ready, place in the dye for at least 15-20 minutes. The longer the garment remains in the dye, the darker and deeper the color will become. Remove from the dye and rinse according to package directions, usually in cold running water. Ring out garment until water runs clear. Carefully remove rubber bands and marbles to reveal your new design! Please visit for full details and some amazing pics -http://www.kinderart.com/textiles/easytiedye.shtml
Games: Funky Dress Up - Before the party, gather a garbage bag full of clothes. Funny, old, retro clothes, hats shoes and accessories. The wackier the better! Gather the girls in a circle, play some disco music and pass around a Polly Doll. Whoever is holding the Polly Doll when the music stops (your controlling the music) must reach in and pull out 1 article of clothing and put it on. Continue on until every girl has at least 4 items on. Its hilarious and not to mention a great photo opportunity. Polly Truth or Consequence - Have your Polly party pals confess to a secret! Prepare about 2 or 3 silly and innocent questions per guest on slips of paper before the party. Questions like "Have you ever failed a test?" or "Have you ever eaten a piece of food that fell on the ground?" will keep the guests laughing. Those who don't fess up must face the consequences and do such things as "dance the twist" or "put their pants on backwards." Have them choose their instructions from slips of paper in a hat or some kind of container.

Menu: Have lots of chips, pretzels and tacos in bowls spread out around "Club Groove." Dinner time should be something simple. Whatever is the Birthday girls favorite. Perhaps Mini Pizza or chicken nuggets & fries served out of stadium cups. One thing that is a must is a smoothie bar. Polly and their friends love smoothies! A simple smoothie recipe is 1 cup orange juice, 1 Scoop frozen vanilla yogurt, 3 frozen strawberries and half of a frozen banana. Double as necessary. Play with the fruit combinations or give the guests a choice. Frozen blueberries are a great option. Cupcakes are a nice choice for this party. Let your child choose the flavor and the icing colours. More than one icing really makes a cool display. You can decorate the cupcakes with a Polly Pocket cupcake ring or place a Gerbera Daisy on each cupcake. You can buy bunches of them at any craft store or dollar store and they come in a range of bright colours.

Most Importantly: Make sure leave some time for the guests to just relax by listening to disco music, playing with the Polly toys, dancing if they wish or just watching the "Polly World" movie. They will think they are so cool being able to groove out in the very own Retro Lounge!

Teddy Bears Picnic Party Plan

2008-11-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

A Teddy Bears Picnic is the perfect party theme for both boys and girls! It can be held indoors or out, in a park or in your very own backyard. The best of all it is simple and very cost effective. Decorations: If your having the party outdoors, use the natural setting as your decoration. Set up beside a big tree for shade, cover picnic tables with gingham tablecovers and have large picnic blankets for the kids and their special friends to sit on. If you choose to have the party indoors, decorate the main party room like a forest. Cover 1 or 2 walls with butcher paper and paint on simple trees, flowers, grass, sky, clouds and some friendly birds and insects flying by. Use gingham fabric to decorate tables and lay out picnic blankets for sitting. Gather all the Teddy Bears you can find through friends and family and place them all around room. Indoors or out, helium filled balloons are always an important part of this theme. Don't forget the giant homemade "Teddy Bears Picnic" party banner!
Invitations: Find cute teddy bear scrap booking paper or use brown construction paper cut into the shape of a Teddy Bear. A cookie Cutter works great for this! Put the teddy bear picnic rhyme on the front of the invite. The teddy bear picnic rhyme goes like this..."If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise, If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise, For ev'ry bear that ever there was will gather there for certain, because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic." On the inside of the invite, using your computer, print out the party information. Cut and paste if your not printing right on to the invitation. Use some cute clipart to dress up the inside party information. Be sure to request that every child bring their favourite teddy bear.

Craft: Before the party, make each child a set of Furry Bear Ears. The ears can be made with a brown furry material or brown felt. Make a template of an oval approximately 6" long by 3 1/2 inches wide. You need 2 ovals per set. Trace onto material and cut out oval shapes. Fold the ovals in half lengthwise around an inexpensive hair band and affix with a hot glue gun. Voila! Fuzzy Bear Ears!

Guest arrival: When the guests arrive, paint on them a perfect little black bear nose and give them their very own Fuzzy Bear Ears to wear. Adorable! While waiting for everyone to arrive, have a small activity set up like teddy bear colouring pages. When all guests are accounted for, start out the days activities by sitting on the picnic blanket and have everyone introduce their Bear. Then read the classic children's book "Teddy Bears Picnic" to get everyone in the mood.

Lunch: Make Picnic Baskets for the guests attending. Purchase inexpensive wicker baskets at your local dollar store or craft store. Dress up the baskets by hot gluing red & white gingham fabric to the inside of basket. Lunch is to be served in the baskets including a plate, napkin and utensils. The kids will feel so special when the receive their special pre-packed lunch in their own beautiful basket. After lunch, their basket doubles as their "loot bag" for all the items they will collect on their "Bear Hunt." The lunch baskets can consist of Honey and Peanut Butter Sandwiches cut with a teddy bear shaped cookie cutter, a juice box, a fruit cup and of course a pack of teddy graham cookies. A neat idea for dessert is to make paw print cupcakes. Using your favourite cake flavor and your child's favourite colour for icing, make little paw prints using 1 junior mint and 4 upside down chocolate chips. To cute!

Games: Bear Hunt - Proceed just like you would on an Easter Egg Hunt. Even use those plastic eggs and fill with candy and trinkets. To make it more Teddy Bear like, decorate the Eggs with a Bear sticker or draw on a Bear paw print with a black sharpie. You can let them go and find anything or you could colour co-ordinate so every child gets the same amount. For example, Sally finds and gathers the pink eggs, John finds and gathers the blue..so on. You can also use shapes coloured on the eggs for definition. Squares, triangles, hearts, stars - anything a toddler can recognize. With help of course! Another fun game to play just before the party winds down is "Is that your Bear?" Have the kids sit in a circle with all their Bears piled in the middle. The birthday child will go first. They are to put on a blindfold and when they are ready, they are presented with 3 bears, one of which is their own. Through touch they are challenged to figure out which Bear belongs to them. Perfect for toddlers!

Welcome to the Big Top! Circus Party Planning & Ideas

2008-10-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

The Circus has come to Town! What an amazing party idea for both girls and boys of all ages! Indoors or Outdoors, In a rented Hall or your very own Backyard! The ideas are endless so lets get started.
Invitations: A big red ticket stub that reads "ADMIT ONE" to our "Big Top Birthday Party." To make the card use red (yellow) paper cut into a rectangle shape. The ticket should be sized to fit into a small envelope. Use a round 1" paper punch at each corner to give it the rounded detail. Practise a bit on scrap paper first! On the backside of the ticket write out the party details like time, place and date. Seal the Invitation with a circus themed sticker and deliver.
Decorations: Balloons, balloons & more balloons! You cannot have too many red, yellow and blue helium filled balloons. They are also a great take home gift for the guests. Decorate your ceiling with red & white streamers to give it that Big Top tent feel. Tape alternating red & white streamers from a center point of your room and drape all the way across the ceiling to the corner of the wall. You can use balloons to cover any tape marks that are showing. Make 2 carnival booths with a large refrigerator box cut in half. Use 3 sides of the box and cut out a service window. Paint your booth with brightly coloured stripes or circles and place upon sturdy table. If the party is outdoors, be sure to pitch a carnival tent for shade on a hot day. A regular dining tent will do - just decorate it as you would indoors. Hang dozens of feet of multi coloured plastic pennant banners all around party area. Get out the poster paint and make a huge "Welcome to the Carnival" poster. Cover all tables with red, yellow and blue tablecovers. Gather up all your child's (friends, families) stuffed animals and place around space for both play and decoration.

Games: Here are my top five pics for carnival party games. (1) Duck Pond - Use a permanent marker to write the numbers 1,2,3 on the underside of several small rubber ducks. Float the ducks in a large container or small kiddie pool. Each child picks a duck and receives a prize from the box matching their number. The duck is placed back in the water. (2) Mouse Holes - Using a large cardboard box cut 3 "mouse holes" onto the bottom edge of box. The holes should be 3 sizes-small, medium and large. Mark the smallest hole with a #3, the medium whole with a #2 and the largest whole with a #1. Use a golf club or simply roll the golf balls in attempt to get them through the holes. Each player receives 3 chances and receives a prize that corresponds with best hole they made. (3) Lollipop Tree - Using a large Styrofoam ball and several lollipops. With 3 coloured markers, place a coloured dot on the end of each lollipop stick and insert into the Styrofoam. The 3 colours will correspond with the 3 numbers. For example, red is 1, blue is 2 and yellow is 3. Each guest receives the lollipop plus the prize that corresponds with the number. (4) Bucket Toss - You need 3 buckets decorated with colourful wrapping paper and placed at 3 distances about a foot apart. Mark the closest bucket with a #1, the second with a #2 and the farthest with a #3. You can use 3 balls, pennies or bean bags. Each player receives 3 chances and receives a prize that corresponds with the farthest bucket shot made. (5) Balloon Darts - Use a thick piece of cardboard attached to a piece of plywood. Blow up small balloons in 3 separate colours and thumbtack them into the cardboard. Using a black marker write numbers from 1 to 3 on the balloons. For example, red is 1, blue is 2 and yellow is 3. Attach at least 20 balloons to the board to make sure everyone can pop at least one. It might be best to have a few extra balloons ready to go just in case the board gets low. Each player gets 3 darts to pop balloons. Give younger guests a push pin and help them pop a balloon of their choice if safety is an issue. A lot of fun! Each game has a point system. You can either place the 3 prize boxes (#1, #2, #3) in a central area where the kids can immediately collect their prize or hand out numbered tickets and they can collect their prizes all at once when the have completed all the games. Box 1 should include the smallest (inexpensive) prizes, box#2 the medium prizes and the #3 box should contain the larger prizes as they are the hardest to achieve. Every child should get at least a small prize (#1) for playing each game. Make sure each child plays every game 1 time before "closing the midway." The kids can of course still play the games, but the prize and ticket portion is over. Some other popular games are Pop Bottle Ring Toss and Bottle Bowling.
Activities: Face Painting - Kids love to have their faces painted! Enlist some extra hands to help out at the face painting table. You can paint simple things like big red clown noses, big curly mustaches like lion tamers, ruby red cheeks like female trapeze artists or whiskers like the ferocious lions & tigers. It wouldn't be a carnival without a clown walking around for entertainment! Get family and friends involved to help out - I'm sure someone owes you favor! A good investment for the party is to rent one of those big jumpy inflatables like a Moonwalk. The inflatables are always a huge hit with guests. A neat idea is to gather up a bunch of kooky clothes, big sunglasses, funny hats and colourful clown wigs into a big dress up box beside a photo booth. Have each child dress up in a crazy clown outfit and take their picture with a digital camera. The pictures are great in a thank you note! Lastly, you must have a Balloon Animal table. They are quite easy to master if you learn only 2 or 3 designs. Balloon animal kits and instructions can be purchased everywhere and are quite inexpensive. Sounds like a good job for Dad!
Loot Bags & Favors: Use all the prizes the kids won throughout the day as their party favors. When the kids arrive or start playing the games, make sure to give them a small gift bag so they may collect their prizes as they go. Having their names on the bags would be a good idea! Some ideas for prizes are noisemakers, blowouts, stickers, tattoos, bubbles, pinwheels, clown noses, lollipops, foam airplanes, rubber balls and any little trinkets that can be bought in bulk.

Menu: Carnival Food of course! Here are some delicious old fashioned favourites - Hot Dogs, Corn Dogs (Pogo's), Cotton Candy, Caramel Apples(apple slices with caramel dip) & Sno-Cones. Have small bags of animal crackers and popcorn ready in your concession stand for pre lunch snacking. The guests will be building up quite an appetite with all those games and activities! For a real carnival feel, you can rent popcorn machines, cotton candy machines and sno-cone makers from your local rental supply store. If not, no worries, items like cotton candy & even caramel apples can be purchase pre-made. Now go and plan the Biggest & Best party ever!