Birthday Party Ideas

Candy Themed Party Plan

2015-03-31T13:44:00.002-07:00

How about a twist on the classic sleepover? Every girl at least once in their lives must host a sleepover for their BFF's!

The Venue: With a smaller guest list you can very easily hold the event in your own home. If a sleepover is not ideal, have the party during the day with the girls wearing their favourite PJ's to the party. Do all the activities that you would do during a sleepover except the girls return home when the parties over. Call it a Pyjama Party Instead! To make the event unique and special you can rent a hotel room for the night - one with a pool area preferably!

Set Up: First designate 3 Separate Areas - the Spa area, the Sleepover area and most certainly the Candy area! The Spa area can be decorated with candles, burning incense and soft music playing in the background - very serene and calming. The Sleepover are should be ready for dancing, pillow fights and lots of boy talk and giggling! Clear out a large enough space for your guests to lay out their sleeping bags, pillows and overnight bags. The candy area is a buffet table full of candies and sweets for the kids to enjoy! Everything thing from gummy bears and lolipops to gum balls and candy sticks! Fill the concession stand with an assortment of sodas, chips, popcorn and other tasty treats so the girls may help themselves.

Decorations: Have plenty of latex and helium balloons, hanging fans and lanterns, curling ribbon, streamers, tablecovers and tableware in your child's favourite colors. The brighter the better! To show off your candy colours on the candy buffet, mix and match giant margarita glasses, flared bowls and trifle containers with champagne flutes, mini bowls and vases. The possibilities are endless!

Activities: Set up Beauty Stations. Have a Manicure & Polish Station where the girls can soak, file, massage their hands and then choose from an assortment of the season's hottest nail polish. Have a Facial/Mask Station where the guests can revive their skin with a beauty mud mask or even try experimenting with their own homemade mixtures made from fruits and oats. Set up a Makeup station where the girls can experiment with different shades of blush, glitter, eye shadow and lipstick.

Games: Gummy Bear Pie Contest - Put five gummies at the bottom of every pie tin (or paper plate) and cover with whip cream. Each player takes their place in front of a pie. At the start of go everyone places their hands behind their back and dives face first into their pie. The first player to retrieve and eat all five gummy bears claims victory! Taste the Rainbow - Arm everyone playing with a drinking straw and a plastic cup. Pour a big bag of skittles (or more) onto a clean table. Write each player’s name on their cup and line the cups up away from the skittles table. On the start of go all the players must rush to suck a skittle onto their straw and race it over to blow it into their cup. They can never touch the candy with their hands. Play time is three minutes, at the end of this time whoever has collected the most skittles wins. Have your camera ready to take loads of hilarious pics! End the night with a game of Twister or Candy Land followed by a classic"Chick Flick".

The Menu: What's a Sleepover with out Pizza! If your in your own home why not have the girls make their own homemade mini pizzas. Get creative with a candy cake! This cake can be covered with gumballs, sours, smarties/m&m's, rock candy, candy sticks or even kit kat bars! Use all their favourite colours and candy treats! You could also forfeit the traditional cake and go for a 'Make Your Own" sundae bar. Have chocolate, candies, syrups, fruits, marshmallows and cookies on hand to make the ultimate sundae. Don't forget to refill the concession stand!

Loot Bags: You can purchase adorable loot purses, boxes or bags from party stores like mine and

then hit your local Dollar Store for lip gloss, mini soaps, candles, nail polishes, hairbrushes and costume jewelery. Makeup bags, organza bags and small purses also work great as a loot bag - travel size soaps, toothpastes, body wash, lotions and creams fit perfectly! Don't forget the candy!

Candy themed party supplies:
http://partydepot.ca/collections/candy-party

Under the Sea Party Theme

2015-02-27T09:39:00.001-08:00

What better way to celebrate your child's growth and development than to have a party! An 'Under the Sea' themed party no less! We all look forward to our child's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Birthday celebrations. 1st birthday's are really for the parents to celebrate - You made it through the first year! The 2nd and 3rd celebration is definitely a kids birthday! Toddlers do understand whats happening when it comes to their birthday and are able to communicate their excitement. "My Birthday?", "For Me?", "Tomorrow?" is all you will hear for days! Here are some survival tips for throwing a stress free birthday party for toddlers. This day is all about celebrating your little ones special day so keep it super simple and you will be able to do just that!
Decorations: Keep all your decorations such as balloons, streamers and tableware in all shades of blues and greens! Decorate your walls with Sea Life - everything from fish and seaweed to star fish and coral. If your crafty use construction paper and make your own cut outs or you can even download images online and print. Cover your tables and free surfaces with white sand and beach shells. If your worried about the mess you can always use the sand and shells in clear glass jars and vases to make beautiful displays and centerpieces. The invitations could also follow this idea by using plastic bottles filled with sand, small plastic palm trees, mini sea shells and a printed scroll with the party details. Set up a bubble blower on a high surface so bubbles are constantly floating down for the kids to catch and pop. Play some soothing ocean and sea life sounds as background music to add to the ambiance!
Activities: The Golden rule for successful parties for young children is having plenty of fun activities to keep them occupied. Keeping in mind that toddlers do not fully understand rules, have short attention spans, want to constantly move around and definitely do not grasp the concept of waiting their turn, you should simply set up multiple play stations. Some great play station ideas would be a play dough table, bins of duplo lego, blocks, floor puzzles, ride on toys and a crayon colouring easel. Ball Pits are always very exciting for toddlers. If you do not have one or know anyone who might, contact your local toy library and borrow one. You can also easily make your own with a blowup plastic pool and a bag of plastic balls or several small balloons.
Games: Simple games like "I Spy", "Simon Says" and "Follow the Leader" are always a big hit for the younger set. To go with the 'Under the Sea" theme or even a Bubble Guppies themed party, organise a fish pond. You can use a large bucket or a small pool filled with water and have the kids hook (or magnet) a prize with a fishing pole. Safety first - we certainly do not want anything sharp around toddlers! Or, set up the fishing pond behind a blanket curtain and have the kids drop their fishing lines into the ocean. A fishing rod can be made out of a stick, some rope and a clothespin. Have another adult hidden behind the blanket to clip on their prize or loot bag.
Food: Think small, safe and simple. Its impossible for the excited young guest to keep sitting still for any length of time, so non-messy finger foods that can be eaten on the go are always the best for toddlers. Consider things like: Animal Crackers, Goldfish Crackers, Pretzels, Cheese Cubes, Deli Meats, Cut Veggies, Pickles, Grapes, Banana Slices and Apple Wedges. At this younger age, small cupcakes for the young guests is always a little less messy and easier for them to handle on their own. Don't forget the juice boxes!
Time Capsule: Its startling how many details and memories get lost along the way. To mark this special occasion prepare a time capsule to be opened in later years - on the 9th or 10th birthday when they are all grown up! All you need is a shoebox or some kind of container and fill it with memories of the day. A piece of decoration, unused tableware, a copy of the guest list, a party hat - whatever is reminiscent of that day. Have some paper and pens ready for guests to write a special note to your child in the the future. Seal the box securely with packing tape and give the time capsule as a gift to your child on their birthday several years later.

Pokemon Party Ideas

2015-01-27T12:57:00.002-08:00

Pokemon is back with a vengeance! Or did it really ever go away?

Decorations: Make a Pokemon Character Wall. This will be a wonderful conversation piece for the guests and will also look great as decoration. Choose at least 10 pokemon and download their enlarged images right from http://www.pokemon.com - the official Pokemon website. Print out as large as possible using coloured ink. Using details found online or right on their card, write out each pokemon's 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 large coloured photos and 10 corresponding bios. Display all pictures with bios beside or underneath on one central wall. Use licensed Pokemon party decorations or coordinating coloured balloons and streamers to accent the Character wall and make it the focal point of the party room.

Games: Pokemon Toss - This is a fun challenge, and a challenging it is! Turn an average pack of ping pong balls into Pokeballs with a red and a black sharpie marker. Sharpie's are the best as the colour will not rub off. 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 Pokemon trading cards, enough for each guest to win 5 or 6 each. Mark a line about 5 or 6 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, give him 6 balls and challenge him to toss them one by one into the pails. The more balls he lands into different buckets, the more cards he wins. When all 6 balls are thrown, the player may then collect his winning cards. 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 3 or 4 rounds - those Pokeballs are hard to tame!

Pinata Craft: A really simple way is to purchase a Pikachu pinata from great sites like mine! If your feeling crafty, another option is to paper mache a punch balloon. That way, you have a built in hanger with the elastic handle - 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 Pokemon Trainer?" Play a Pokemon Trivia game based on the Pokedex found at Pokemon.com. Break the group into 2 teams as everyone might not be experts and there is always more confidence in the team spirit as opposed to one on one. Prepare a list of questions that get progressively a little harder. Questions like "Who is Green?", "Who has Wings?" and "Who can Shed their Skin?" If one team gives the incorrect answer, the other team may steal!
I found this cool link where you put in your full name and favourite colour and it gives you your official Pokemon name and stats. Mine says that I live in Antarctica and eat Meatballs. The direct link is http://pizza.sandwich.net/poke/pokemon.html - Perhaps you do this for each child as they arrive at the party. Make it into a name tag, placemat, loot bag item,seating card or just for fun. Its quite simple and really quite funny for fans of Pokemon!

Menu: So much work is involved with the setup of this party, go for the favourite food of Pokemon Trainers - Pizza of course! Its simple and easy - especially if you order out. A really neat drink idea is to make a Pokemon Power Punch. 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 cupcakes with red, white and black icing and a white gumball for the center to resemble the Pokeball. If you prefer a cake, use some Pokemon figurines to create a scene just like those expensive decopac sets sold in specialty stores. Now go and conquer!

Pokemon party supplies in Canada

http://www.partydepot.ca

Disney Frozen Party Ideas

2014-09-10T19:11:00.001-07:00

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

the Frozen tableware and supplies to really set the theme! Give your home the Frozen touch by making several paper snowflakes made with Frozen theme colours. Decorate your walls and hang the snow flakes from the ceiling with fishing line. To make snowflakes, you cut paper into circles, then fold in half, quarters and eighths. Cut shapes out from along the edges. When you open it up you'll have a unique snowflake! Pull out all your silver and blue Christmas decorations, icicles and lights. Christmas balls look fantastic in a clear vase with some white twigs as a centerpiece and who doesn't love white twinkling lights! Just use your imagination and have fun! 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. The table setting must be worthy of a Royal Princess! Start with a light blue 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.
Activities: Enchanted Makeover - You can transform a playroom or your daughters bedroom into a 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. If you have any little princes coming, be sure to have some paper crowns available and a little activity like building snowmen out of play-dough or clay while the princesses are primping. So the kids can mingle and share their love of Frozen, a sing-along should top the to-do list - with the popularity of the Frozen soundtrack this should be no problem!

Spread a thin layer of cream cheese topped with a layer of strawberry jam and then cut. Sprinkle with iridescent edible sparkles or sugar crystals. Offer a selection of jams - peach is also very yummy! A healthy addition is to have an assortment of vegetables and fresh fruit with dips served on fancy silver dinnerware. Princess Punch - Before the party, freeze a blue juice in ice cube trays. On party day serve any clear soda with the blue cubes topped with frozen blueberries. Serve out of fancy goblets or plastic wine glasses. 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 blue icing and place a fancy silver tiara (plastic) in the middle. Top the cake off with a good sprinkling of sugar crystals to give it a sparkly and glowing effect.

For Disney Frozen Party Supplies and much, much more please visit my website:

http://www.partydepot.ca

Ladybug Garden Party

2014-07-02T19:12:00.003-07:00

A Garden Party - the perfect theme for Spring & Summer. It would even brighten up a cold winters day in January. This theme works well with Ladybugs, Butterflies or any small Garden creature your little one is fascinated with.

The Invites: For a truly unique invitation, purchase a silk bouquet of your child's favourite flower. Separate the stems and attach with ribbon a note on fancy paper with the caption" Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'm having a party...and Inviting You!" Include your child's name, the date, time and place and any contact information. For ladybug lovers use black and red construction paper, cut out 1 red circle, 2 black circles and a bunch of small black dots. The black circles should be cut a little smaller and then the red. Glue the black head peeking out from underneath and the black "spots" to the red body. Attach antennas made out of pipe cleaner and curled. Google eyes are an adorable option as well. Use the same caption as used with the flower invitation above and glue to the back of ladybug. Another creative idea is to use a template of butterfly wings, brightly coloured paper and lots of glitter glue, you and your child will also produce a brilliant handmade invite.

Venue: The possibilities are endless - in the backyard, at a playground or park, on a picnic or at a local party center. Whichever you decide, indoors or out, the key is too have lots of multi-coloured decorations and flowers in you child's favourite colours to make the atmosphere bright and cheery. You could even go with a red and black polka dotted theme. Nothing says Ladybug like red & black polka dots!

Activities/Crafts: A very popular activity is to decorate clay pots. You can use paint glitter, sparkles, flowers, buttons, foamies and pretty much anything that can be found in a craft or dollar store. Have everyone paint their favorite creature! Rock painting is a great party activity for kids of all ages. Another fun craft for the guests is to make their own flower corsage. They are really quite simple. All you need is a fresh flower like a daisy or a carnation, some floral tape and a pin. Snip off the stem so you only have 2.5 inches of stem left, twist the tape up the stem and back down again, cut off the remaining tape, tighten and smooth the tape where needed and pin on your lapel. Perhaps you can use some wildflowers for cost savings!

Party Favors: While the girls are eating or off playing, why not fill their newly decorated pots with various items and surprise them with it at the end of the party! You can fill it with sead packets, a pair of gardening gloves, a gardening tool and a pair of sunglasses. You can also go the traditional route with a lootbag and an assortment of hair clips & jewelery, candy & gum and lip gloss & nail polish favors.

The Food: When I think of a Garden Party I think of an assortment of crust less finger sandwiches decorated with radish roses, a variety of salads like macaroni, potato and fruit served in tiny terracotta pots. Have a huge bowl of sparkling Punch kept cold cold and garnished with frozen fruit. For dessert, a cake or individual cupcakes covered with red icing and decorated with black fondant dots! Now that's a menu no guest will soon forget!

Ladybug Party Supplies in Canada - http://shop.partydepot.ca/collections/lively-ladybug

Avengers Assemble Party Ideas

2014-04-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

Can the world's most powerful team of Super Heroes put aside their differences and learn to live together under one roof long enough to save the world from ultimate destruction?This is an exciting theme! Whether your child chooses Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, Iron Man or Captain America one thing is the same - SUPER POWERS!
Invitations: Take a picture of your child in his/her favourite super hero costume and attach to card stock with the caption "Calling All Superhero's", "You are Invited to___'s _th Super Cool Birthday Party!" Another unique idea is to use a page from a Marvel comic book by"whiting out" the text in the speech bubbles and blowing up the size. 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" superhero gear at the party. The guests will need Capes, Gloves, Masks or any other discerning wearable object. The capes can made of felt or any fabric that does not fray and the gloves made from mini stretch gloves 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.
Decorations: Concentrate on one theme, for example lets say perhaps your childs favourite is Captain America. Use lots of red & blue balloons, streamers, tablecovers, tableware and curling ribbon. The other option is to go wild with multiple Superhero Coloured decorations and posters everywhere. You can purchase Superhero Posters in your local Department Store, use pages from colouring books or download some clip art and enlarge. Hang Posters of the popular superhero words "POW", "ZOOM", "ZAP", "KABLAM", "BOOM" and "ZOWIE" around the party area. Superhero comic books are great for making posters and using the pages under a clear tablecloth for a table decoration.
Party Games: Host an Action 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 your abilities in the Long Jump, 20 Yard Dash, Javelin Throw, Balance Beam and Shot Put. To wind the party down move on to testing their super senses. For this activity you nee
d a blind fold, pair if thicker gloves, 25 Household Items like a fork or a hairbrush, a paper towel tube and 25 bits of everyday common food like a raisin or a small piece of cheese. To play "Super Hearing" have one guest blindfolded and another unknown guest speak the child's name or any superhero statement through the 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 & Taste" have a guest blindfolded and put a small piece of food in front of their nose to smell. 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. Last of all you can test their sense of "Super Touch." Again use the blindfold and ask the child to put on the pair of gloves. Hand them a random household item and give them a minute to figure out what it is. This is not as easy as you might think! It will sure get some big laughs though!
Menu: Superhero Sub - You can use whole sub buns or make larger sandwiches using French Bread Sticks. Have a few meat selections available. 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. Super hero juice - for a twist make ice cubes coloured with food colour ahead of time. Fill clear cups of lemonade with the brightly coloured ice cubes. The Cake should hero's on top. The Grand Finale is a real live Superhero making 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!
be your child's favourite character. Colour co-ordinate the icing and create a scene with a few action
Avengers Party Supplies - http://shop.partydepot.ca/collections/avengers

One Direction Party Ideas

2013-10-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

The guys from One Direction are Unstoppable! Harry, Liam, Niall, Louis or Zayne - 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 1D 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 1D songs onto the blank discs - no worries, its totally legal as it is for personal use and not for resale.

Decorations: Go for metallic colors like silver and gold balloons & streamers with posters of the One Direction boys as well as other 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 blow-up 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. This is a perfect craft if you are having a slumber party or a pyjama party!

Party Games: Play "Pass the Mic" - pass a blowup microphone around in a circle with the guests seated. Play One Direction 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! the favourite game of the 1D boys is soccer so why not go outside and kick around a soccer ball or have a soccer Foosball competition!

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. You could also serve some English fare - Fish & Chips with a cup of tea on the side!

Loot Bags: Everyone loves their loot bag at the end of the party. You could throw in some licensed 1D favors, inflatable microphones, hipster sunglasses, bandannas and the traditional candy and gum. Smarties candy is the favourite candy among the band! The official 1D store http://www.onedirectionmusic.com has tons of t-shirts, jewellery, posters and all kinds of trinkets available for purchase. 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!

One Direction Party Supplies -
http://shop.partydepot.ca/collections/one-direction

NHL Fans Party Ideas!

2013-10-10T06:30:00.002-07:00

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!

NHL Party Supplies -

http://shop.partydepot.ca/collections/nhl-face-off

2013-09-09T13:29:00.003-07:00

Polka Dot Party

Polka dots are a fantastic theme for kids of all ages and are always in style! Make sure to keep with the dot theme by having everything circles, dots or round - from the decorations to food. Pick one, two or as many colours as you wish - the more the merrier! Colourful polka dots are so much fun they will easily make any party a success. Using dots as inspiration is inexpensive and easy to do. This party plan details some incredibly cool ideas to get you going. If you have a birthday party coming up, this theme is definitely one to consider.

Polka Dot Party Invitations: Cut large polka dots out of construction/poster paper or use polka dot printed paper in your party colours. Type or write with coloured gel pens the party information on them. Use a fun picture of your child and some polka dot stickers or hole punch cut outs to decorate the invites and envelopes. Use the wording to the effect of 'Look Who's turning ___, come join us for some polka dot fun!' Don't forget to invite everyone to dress in polka dots - even offer a prize to the guest wearing the most polka dots!

Decorations: Polka dot patterns are definitely in order for this celebration. Polka Dots everywhere! A quick and easy way to fill your party area with polka dots is to cover the walls with colourful dots. One way to do this is to tape round paper plates or construction paper cut outs in different sizes and colors to the walls. Using double-sided poster tape or painter's tape will allow you to decorate for the party and avoid doing any lasting harm to your walls. Don't forget the outside home too! Cover your pathway and entrance door with polka dots so the party goers know where to go! Write the letters of “Happy Birthday” and "Welcome" on some of the larger dots.

String the messages together with yarn or rope as a birthday greeting and a welcome message to your guests. Don't forget to fill the party room with balloons, tons of balloons! Have floating latex balloons or hang balloons from the ceiling using clear fishing line, so the dots can dangle down into the party space. For a 3D look, cut polystyrene balls in half and paint them. Hang them on the walls and hang them whole from the ceiling. Cover your party table with a polka dot table cover and matching tableware like plates, napkins, cups and so forth. Fill beautiful glass or clear plastic containers with Smarties, Gum Balls, Skittles, Lifesavers or any round candy for that matter and use as table centerpieces. It will look beautiful and colourful, plus you can use them afterwards as party prizes!

Party Activities: Start the party by holding a guessing game. Fill a clear jar (decorative centerpieces) with candy-coated chocolate candies. As the guests arrive, have them guess how many are in the jar. At the end of the party the kid who guesses the closest to the amount, gets to take the jar full of candy home. Hide dots that you have cut out in different colors. Upon entering the party, give each kid a dot name tag with a different color. Later on, during the party, have the kids find the dots in the party room or outside in the yard that match their name tag color. Tell them how many there are to find. Once they have found all of their dots, give them a prize - their loot bag or party favor! Play Musical Dots, similar to Musical Chairs. Use round cut outs of cardboard brightly painted and securely taped to the floor instead of chairs. Younger children love bubbles! You can have a good old bubble chase or have the kids make their own coloured bubbles with dish soap and food colouring. Any game involving balloons like "Keep up the Balloon" or "Balloon Pop" are always a hit!

Crafts: If you have an older group try an old fashioned game of Twister, Bingo, Checkers or any game for that matter that has a "round or circle" theme. Crafts are always popular as well. Have the

kids make their own bracelets. Buy a selection of round, doughnut shaped beads from a craft store. Give the kids lengths of thin elastic cording a little bigger than their wrists. Tie a bead to the end of the elastic to make beading easier. The kids can then string as many beads as they wish. The guests could also decorate picture frames with round circle stickers, beads, sequins or pompom's. You can always look for Craft Kits that have everything you need in one pack. Its normally less expensive and easier than shopping around for your craft supplies.

Menu: Serve small, round food to your guests to keep with the dot theme. Sandwiches cut out as circles with a cookie cutter. Strawberry Jam and Marshmallow Fluff are always a hit! ~ A fruit salad using melon balls and globe grapes ~ Bowls of Cheese Balls ~ Tostitos Rounds with Salsa and nacho cheese dip ~ Mini Pizzas with pepperoni ~A Meat/Cheeses Platter with Ritz Crackers and round meats and cheese cut with a cookie cutter ~ Mini Chocolate Chip Pancakes ~ Mini Hamburgers or Sliders ~

Cakes: A Polka Dot Cake is easy to make. Bake your favorite two layer cake. Ice cake with white fluffy frosting. Add polka dots by applying piped icing polka dots, fondant circles or any round candy like Smarties or Skittles. If you prefer the ease of serving individual cupcakes, try making some Polka Dot cupcakes. Ice your favorite cupcake with pastel coloured icing. A little food colouring will do the trick when added to a plain white icing. Stick white baking chips, flat side up, into frosting on each cupcake to look like polka dots. You could also sprinkle on some pastel candy confetti available at any local grocery store.

Party Favors: Party pictures with frames and the craft bracelets will make excellent favors. If you want to do more, there are many fun party trinkets that will complement the polka dot theme. Fill your loot bag with polka dot socks, yo-yos, Dots candy, Smarties candy, gumballs, super bounce balls, round pots of lip gloss, paint sets, bath beads, life savers, round hair accessories, bubbles, round memo pads, round erasers, etc. Search the aisles at your local Dollar Store - you will be amazed at what you will find!

WWE Birthday Party Ideas

2012-06-21T11:04:00.002-07:00

Are you ready to RUMBLE? Throw a WWE smack down at your next big event! Get ready to throw your child an awesome wrestling party theme birthday bash with these fun party games and ideas.

Invitations: Purchase the matching WWE theme invitations from online stores like mine or you can make your own invitations - ticket style. Simply visit http://www.says-it.com and choose the template for "concert tickets." Its totally free and super easy! Fill out what you want the ticket or pass to say, download, save and then print out as many copies as you need. Simple! I created a pretend invite on the bottom of the page so you can see what they look like. There are several shapes, colours and designs to choose from. All you need is a printer and some coloured ink. To go a step further, you could laminate them, hole punch in the middle of the shorter side and attach a lanyard. Now that's a cool 'wearable' invitation!

Dress: Invite all guests to come dressed as their favorite WWE personas, or wouldn't it be fun if they were to invent their own. When guests arrive give them their wresting names by having them randomly pull a name out of a hat. Have the Birthday Boy make up a bunch of crazy wrestler names beforehand. Then let them go! Use face paint, bandannas they can make into do rags, sweat bands, wigs, hats, glasses .... anything that they could use to make themselves look like a wrestler and develop their new persona. Set up a table with construction paper, foam paper, rhinestones, jewels, glue, markers, foam letters and glitter for the party guests to use to make their own wrestling belts featuring their names. After the guests finish their belts, divide them into teams of three or four. Give the groups 10 minutes to practice a short WWE event of their own, of course with no real contact. Let the guests perform their wrestling acts for party guests. A great picture and video opportunity!

Decorations: Turn the main room of the party into a wrestling ring. Set up cords or ropes to circle the room much like a wrestling ring. Use some pieces of mesh fencing, cloth or netting to transform the room by giving it a cage atmosphere. Purchase some black table covers from your local dollar store and spray paint with WWE logos and graffiti. Use them to cover walls, furniture and as table covers of course! For seating, provide only metal folding chairs, which are typical props of the WWE, often incorporated into matches. Decorate with colours of black, white and red - balloons, streamers, decorations and tableware. Incorporate some of the licensed WWE partyware now readily available in stores and online. Hang large posters and magazine pictures of your child's favorite wrestlers on the walls. Use large toy wrestling characters to hold down bouquets of balloons to create table centerpieces. Place any toy wrestling characters you have around in the party area for decoration, or even hang them upside down from the ceiling!

Indoor Activities: If your party is indoors or space is an issue, have a video game party! Host your very own Wrestlemania! Borrow extra controllers so more guests can play together at the same time. Make a chart to keep track of the winners - perhaps use round robin or simple elimination style. This will make sure that everyone gets to play but in the end only one wrestler will be left standing. He definitely deserves a Wrestling Championship Belt! A really unique and crazy one, homemade of course using Styrofoam, glitter, faux fur, buttons and feathers. Pretty much use any craft item you can find! Another great indoors party idea is to invite your child's friends over to watch a pay-per-view WWE televised event. You can even make it a sleepover!

Outdoor Activities: Set up a trampoline with a net and decorate it like a wresting cage to have mock wrestling matches. Make sure a parent is there to referee! Another fun backyard activity for the kids is to rent a bounce house and let the children practice their wrestling leaps, flips and dives - I have seen bounce houses that come in a wrestling theme. You could also rent those inflatable Sumo wrestling suits and have a mock Sumo wrestling competition! Do not forget to play some classic Heavy Metal in the background - as loud as you can!

Menu: Arena Food - Chicken Fingers and Fries served out of large plastic stadium cups. Hot dogs served in tin foil. Popcorn and Nachos served in individual brown lunch bags and plenty of sodas. These party favorites are perfect when your attempting to recreate the mood of a wrestling event. If you plan on designing the birthday cake on your own, simply use a wrestling ring cake topper. You could also purchase some of your child's favourite wrestling figures and use those as a toppers. To finish off your creation, print out several of the WWE logos and laminate them. You can place them on your cake, around the figurines and candles. Heck, you can even make 1 large decal to cover the whole top of the cake!

Victorious Party Ideas

2012-04-16T09:36:00.004-07:00

Tori Vega unexpectedly finds herself navigating life at the elite Hollywood Arts High School. From her first day at the school, Tori feels out of place among all the amazing, crazy talented students! With the help of her sister, her fantastic new friends and all of their daily wacky screwball situations - Tori realizes that she was born to perform! This hugely popular show is sure to be a hit theme at your child's next Birthday Bash!
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 the shows theme on the envelope "Make it Shine" and filling the invite with gold star confetti. Choose a shape - don't be boring and use a rectangle if you decide to make your own! Make a template of a Microphone or a Guitar shape. Write "Rock the Stage at ___'s House Party" followed by all the details on the flip side. Glitter pens are mandatory for these invites! Another super 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 cover using rock and roll and music themed clip art, pictures of stars and phrases like "VIP Backstage Pass" and "One Night Only." Print as many as you need with the party details on the backside and replace the generic insert with your personalized cover. Burn their 3 Favourite songs from the show onto the blank discs - no worries, its totally legal as it is for personal use and not resale.
Decorations: For decorations hang up posters of the Victorious cast and magazine covers about the show. Later, you can use those as a background for photo shoots. Choose glittery blue, purple and silver colors for your decoration. Hang up star-shaped balloons, Victorious Mylar balloons as well as a ton of streamers. Choose Victorious tablecovers, napkins, cups and paper plates. Hang sparkly musical notes and shiny silver stars from the ceiling that you easily make yourself with some construction paper, glitter and fishing line! Request that your guests come dressed as their favourite cast member or musical celebrity but still provide a "dressing table" filled with everything needed to glam up - glitter, tattoos, hair colour, makeup, hairspray 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 doing this! 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 microphone around in a circle with the guests seated. Play music from the show mixed in with some popular top 40. When the music stops, the child with the Mic in hand must sing the next line. If they can do it, they stay for another round, if not, they are eliminated. The game ends when there is only 1 girl (or boy!) standing. If you have a creative bunch, divide the guest into 2 random teams and have them make a 30 second music video. Give each team a Cd player, a few Cd's and 20 minutes to create. It can be anything - a dance or even a story set to music. Then record their performances and playback their "music videos." Hilarious! What a keepsake that will be! That would be fantastic party favor that they could look back on and cherish forever.

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 bags(brown lunch bags cut down) and plenty of sodas. Give all the guests a plastic champagne glass of 7-up or sparkling water. Have them all sing "Happy Birthday" and then cheer "Here's to ___" and then the tradition of clinking glasses. Then pig out on your child's favourite dessert! For an easy-to-do fun cake decoration, I suggest you download a Victorious related picture, photo or clip art from the Internet or my fave - google images. Print it out on regular paper. Laminate it. Lay it on the cake, pressing it lightly into the frosting. Decorate around the pic with some blue or purple icing. Remember to leave enough space for the "Happy Birthday" writing and the silver, sparkly candles! Last but certainly not least, don't forget the party loot bag! You can fill it up with Victorious licensed party favors, candy, gum,chocolate, inflatable instruments, nail polish, lip gloss, costume jewelery, friendship bracelets and of course a copy of their music videos!

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!

SMURFS 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!
https://www.partydepot.ca/smurfs.php

Super Mario Party Plan!

2011-07-19T21:21:00.001-07:00

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!

Super Mario 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!

https://www.partydepot.ca/super-mario-bros.php

JUSTIN BIEBER Birthday Party Ideas

2011-05-14T19:43:00.001-07:00

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!

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

Monkeyin' Around Party Ideas

2011-01-28T14:30:00.001-08:00

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 Sitewide. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

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

Barbie Themed Party Ideas

2010-10-19T15:15:00.002-07:00

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 Sitewide. 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!

Construction Themed Parties

2010-02-16T18:24:00.001-08:00

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 Sitewide. Please see "Coupon Codes" for details. Check us out Online!

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

iCarly Birthday Party Ideas

2009-11-26T09:18:00.005-08:00

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!

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!

Fairytale Princess Birthday Parties

2009-07-30T08:15:00.001-07:00

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.

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Star Wars Birthday Party Plan

2009-07-16T13:03:00.001-07:00

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.

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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?

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