Saturday, October 1, 2011

Survivor Birthday Party

For Jenna's 11 birthday party, we hosted a Survivor Birthday party. Jenna made the invitations. We downloaded a survivor logo and she glued it onto the front of the invitation card. She wrote: "Can you Outwit, Outlast, Outplay your friends at..." on the front of the card. On the inside, she wrote, "Jenna's 11 birthday party" and put all of the info in there.

When everyone arrived, we handed out bandanas to assign people to their teams. Three girls per team, and two teams. One team blue, and the other team purple. The girls came up with a tribe name and made a tribe poster. The tribe name had to be made up with letters from the words "Jenna's birthday party". The purple tribe chose "Yadit" and the blue tribe chose "Hi". We began the challenges. We didn't want to vote anyone out, because it would be no fun for those girls to sit out and watch everyone compete. We decided to award points for each challenge and the winning tribe would then compete for individual immunity.


















Reward Challenge #1 "Shelter Me"

The tribes were given 2 poles, a tarp, scissors and twine, and were told that they had to make a shelter that they could all fit under. They were allowed to use the back fence as part of their shelter. It was fun to see both tribes working together building their shelter. The tribe to complete their shelter first won a small bag of chips and bottle of water for each member. They also won points for this. Winning tribe - 15 points. Other tribe - 5 points for completing their shelter. The "Hi" tribe won this challenge!










Immunity Challenge #1 "Slippery When Wet"

The tribes each had a plastic vase and a sponge at one end of the backyard. There was a bucket full of water at the other end of the backyard. One at a time, the tribe members had to race to the bucket and fill up their sponge with water, race back and squeeze the water out of their sponge into the vase. The first tribe to complete this was the winner and received 10 points for their tribe. The "Hi" tribe won this challenge as well!

Tribal Council

We totalled up the points for the two challenges. The "Hi" tribe was winning. Everyone received a glow necklace (instead of a torch) and at this point we also handed out water and a smaller bag of chips to the "Yadit" tribe.

Reward Challenge #2 "Slimy"

Each tribe member received an ice cube with a plastic frog in the middle of it. The tribe to free their frogs from the ice first, without breaking the ice, would win this challenge. It was interesting to watch the girls be creative with this one. Some of them used the bucket of water from the previous challenge to help melt the ice. Some held their ice in front of the dryer vent and others were blowing on the cubes. All of the girls had cold hands!! Once again, the "Hi" tribe were the winners. The winners received a bag with gummy candies - I used gummy spiders, because I wasn't able to find the gummy frogs. The winners won 10 points and the other tribe received 5 points for completing the challenge.

Immunity Challenge #2 "I'm Puzzled"

I made 2 survivor logo puzzles and separated the pieces of each puzzle into 4 bags. The "Hi" tribes puzzle was in white bags and the "Yadit" tribes puzzle was in purple bags. We had the girls wait in the backyard and we put the bags in the front yard in various places. 1 tribe member from each tribe was chosen to put the puzzle together. The other 2 tribe members had to take turns racing to the front yard to find the bags of puzzle pieces. Once they had found all 4 bags, the puzzle maker was able to start putting the puzzle together. The "Yadit" tribe had their first victory! 10 points for the victors, 5 points for the "Hi" tribe for completing the challenge.










Tribal Council to tally the points

Reward Challenge #3 "I Know, I Know"


I had printed out questions for the tribes to answer. I gave each tribe their question on a piece of paper and if they knew the answer, they would receive 5 points for the correct answer. I had a total of 10 questions and it was a tie. Each tribe won 25 points and a small box of Smarties for each member.
The questions were brain teasers. For example:

A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 of them die. How many sheep does he have left? (9)

You are running in a street marathon and you overtake the person in 2nd place. What place are you now? (2nd)

A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose among 3 rooms. The first is full of raging fires. The second is full of assasins with loaded guns. THe third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is the safest for him? (The 3rd - lions who haven't eaten for 3 years are dead).

You walk into the room with a match. In the room there is a stove, a heater, and a candle. What do you light first? (the match)

MEREPEAT (repeat after me)

R
Y
S
(syprup)

N N N N N N N
A A A A A A A
C C C C C C C
(seven up cans)

poFISHnd
(big fish in a little pond)


Immunity Challenge #3 "Blind Girls"

Each tribe chose a caller. The other 2 members were blindfolded. 4 plates numbered from 1 to 4 were laid out in the grass for each tribe. The "Yadit" tribe caller had to lead their tribe mates to purple plates, and the "Hi" tribe caller had to lead their tribe to blue plates. The callers led one girl at a time to pick up 2 plates. When they had found their 2 plates, they could take off their blindfold and come back to their caller. The caller then led the other girl to the last 2 plates. Once they had their plates they arranged them in numerical order and turned them over. On the other side of the plates were math symbols and numbers that made an equation that the tribe had to solve. The plates said 5X, 6-, 8/, 2= . The answer was 11 (Jenna's age). The "Hi tribe was the winners and won 10 points for their tribe.

Tribal Council to tally points.

Reward Challenge #4 "Feed Me"

No Survivor game is complete without a food challenge. Since Jenna is a picky eater, I choose foods that weren't too gross. However, I did give them bad names, which made some of the girls grossed out!! I had the girls spin the food challenge wheel, and they had to eat whatever food they landed on to receive 5 points for their tribe. The team with the most points would win a chocolate bar.

Fish eyes - peeled grapes
Cow's tongue - pepperoni chunks
Worms - whole wheat cooked spaghetti mixed with a bit of ketchup
Rat droppings - chocolate covered raisins
Dirt - Oreo crumbs mixed with skor bits
Spider legs - black licorice cut up
Pureed ants - purple baby food - blueberry applesauce
Cow's blood - orange juice with food colouring

I anticipated a tie for this game, however was surprised. One girl could not eat the pureed ants - no way, no how!! So, the "Yadit" tribe won this round and received 30 points for their tribe and the reward of a Twix bar for each member. The "Hi" tribe received 25 points.



Immunity Challenge #4 "Outwit Me"

I made a 12x10 grid on the driveway with chalk. Each tribe member chose a square to stand on and had a piece of chalk. They were able to move forward, backward, or sideways on the grid, but NOT diagonal. When their name was called, the made a move and crossed off the square that they moved from. They were also not able to move to an "X"'d off square. The last player standing won for their tribe. The "Hi" tribe won 15 points and "Yadit" won 5 points. They girls really enjoyed this game and wanted to play again!! Too bad I only had one big grid made on my driveway!

Tribal Council to tally points and then inside for pizza dinner

Reward Challenge #5 "B is for Bubbles and Bubblegum"

Each tribe member received a hair elastic and headband as well as a bib that I made from a cheap plastic tablecloth. They each got a plate and a piece of Bubblicious bubble gum to put in the centre of the plate. I squirted whipped cream on the plate to cover the gum. The girls had to put their hands behind their back and using their mouths, find the bubblegum. The first girl to blow a bubble with their gum - a good bubble, won for their tribe. Winning tribe was "Hi" and they won a pack of "Splash" bubble gum.

Immunity Challenge #5 "Knock Out"

On a table outside, I lined up 8 cups of each tribe colour. The girls lined up behind a line on the ground, and using a slingshot and marshmallow, had to try to knock down the other tribes cups. This proved to be a tough challenge, but they persisted and knocked down a few cups. Each tribe member had about 5 turns. "Yadit" won and received 15 points for their tribe.

Tribal Council to tally points.
"Yadit" had 95 points and "Hi" had 115 points. The 3 members from "Hi" won a chocolate bar and were about to compete for the title of "Sole Survivor".

Sole Survivor Challenge

I had a board with 16 large playing cards attached to it. The 3 members of "Hi" received an envelope with the same 16 cards and a board with pegs on it, where they could place the cards. They had to race to the board with the cards and try to memorize what was on it, then go back to their board and place the cards in the correct places. They were able to go back as many times as they needed to. Charlotte was the winner and as the "Sole Survivor" won a Movie Pass.
The girls had a great time and this took about 3-1/2 to complete! Just enough time left to eat cake, watch a movie and open gifts before heading off to bed!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Alvin and the Chipmunks Birthday Party

We went to see "The Squeakquel" over Christmas break and now Kaylee is having an Alvin and the Chipmunks party for her birthday. I found out that McDonalds had the Chipmunks and Chipettes for their Happy Meal toys. Of course, I was too late to buy any, but had the idea to ask friends for them when they were tired of them and about to throw them away! We now have an assortment of toys for some games and for cake toppers!! Thanks everyone!


I made a poster of Alvin, Simon and Theodore for a decoration, since I couldn't find any decorations anywhere. It turned out pretty good!
I decorated the living room with streamers and balloons in red, blue, and green. I also hung up some music notes that I cut out of black poster board.
When the kids showed up for the party, I had coloring pages of the Chipmunks and Chipettes for them to color. When everyone had arrived, we got to work making and decorating our craft, a microphone. I took toilet paper rolls and had the kids cover them in black construction paper. We then took a styrofoam craft ball and covered that with foil. We taped the foil wrapped ball onto the toilet paper roll. I had stickers and sticky foam shapes for the kids to use to decorate their microphones. They had fun doing this. I then took a picture with each child holding their microphone while they stood beside the Chipettes poster that I had made.For games, I made a poster of Theodore with a hole where his mouth is and we called the game "Feed Theodore his favourite cheese puffs". I bought some small orange squishy basketballs that the kids attempted to toss into his mouth. Some of them fed Theodore and were so excited!
I made a poster of the Chipettes with Brittney holding a microphone. I made extra microphone stickers on Avery Sticker paper and the kids played "Stick the Microphone on Brittney. I blindfolded them and turned them around and they had to see if they could get the microphone where it belonged. They wanted to keep playing this game over and over again!

We also played "Hunt for Alvin", a game where the kids each got a chace to hide an Alvin McDonald's figure in the living room. The child who found it had to yell out "ALVIN" and then they got to hide it next.


We also had the kids playing Freeze Dance to the Alvin soundtrack.

We had cake in the colors that Kaylee chose. I made the cake look kind of like a stage with the figures from McDonald's placed on the different levels.
For goody bags, I found some "Alvin and the Chipmunks" coloring books at Michael's. I also put in some cheese puffs, a pack of bubble gum and a candy skewer that I made up. This was a fun party and the kids had a blast!

Monday, January 11, 2010

High School Musical/Swimming/Sleepover Party

For Jenna's 9th birthday, she wanted a High School Musical Party, she wanted to go swimming and she wanted to have a sleepover! We decided that she could have a party at the pool and then we rented a room there for cake and dinner afterwards. We let the girls go swimming for 1-1/2 hours and then they came out for pizza and cake.

We used red tableclothes on the tables in the room at the rec center and had red and white balloon centerpieces to try to tie into the High School Musical theme. We had pizza, fruit and veggies and chips for dinner. After dinner I gave the girls a High School Musical Quiz and the girl with the most answers correct got to pick out a prize first from the prize bucket (High School Musical stuff - notebooks, pencils, diaries...), the next most correct answers got to choose next and so on.
After the quiz we had cupcakes. I just swirled on the icing and sprayed it red with a Wilton icing spray. You could taste the spray a bit, I probably wouldn't use one again. I put HSM stickers on toothpicks and put those in the cupcakes.After the cake, Jenna opened her gifts and then we played one final game. I played HSM music and the girls passed around a present. When the music stopped, the girl holding the gift got to take off a layer of wrapping paper. Lots of layers of paper...until the final girl opened a box with a candy for everyone.
Goody bags before leaving included their prize from the earlier game and a HSM pen, HSM tattoos and HSM stickers as well as some candy. This was the first party we've had outside the house and WOW, easy cleanup - no huge mess at my house.

HOWEVER, we did let Jenna have 3 friends sleepover. They got a HSM pillowcase that I had made with iron on transfers I had found and they got to sign eachother's pillowcase with fabric markers. The girls also watched a movie (NO, not High School Musical). In the morning they had pancakes for breakfast and then went outside to play until their parents came to pick them up. Easy...everyone was happy and had a great time!

Mario Party

Ethan loves playing Mario Kart on the Wii and he asked for a Mario birthday party for his 7th birthday. I scoured the internet and found a few sites that gave me a bunch of ideas. I started planning this months in advance. Mario decorations are absolutely impossible to find!! I therefore had to handdraw my decorations. I am not an artist, but I printed off a small image of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Funky Kong (my son picked 4 of his favourite characters). I made a grid (horizontal and vertical lines) on the small images and then drew a grid onto my large cardboard paper. I was then able to make my large characters by drawing what was in the small grid on the big grid. Not as confusing as it sounds.We had our party outside and I decorated the garage doors and our trailer with the things I had made, as well as with red, green and yellow streamers.
Star Coins
Funky Kong
Yoshi
Luigi
MarioI made a Mario Kart Wii Activities Poster so the boys would know what the plan for the afternoon was.
Poster welcoming the boys to the party.



The plan was to split the boys into teams and have them play some games. When each boy arrived they were to find which team they were on (Luigi or Mario) and get a hat. I bought green and red hats from Oriental Trading Company when they were on sale after Christmas. I bought white felt and cut out circles and then cut out either an M or L and glued them onto the hats. Very easy to do and a great thing to take home.

The boys were then supposed to make a guess at our Mario Coin Count. I filled a jar with chocolate coins and whoever guessed correctly got to take home the whole jar of chocolate coins. Lucky boy!! Happy parents:)

After that, the boys got to decorate a Mario Star Cookie. I made yellow icing and gave them all candies to decorate with. We put the decorated cookies in baggies for them to take home.

The first game we played was Yoshi's Egg Hunt. I had my husband take a whole bunch of plastic easter eggs to the park and hide them in the grass. We took the boys to the park and gave them all bags to collect the eggs. Each player on the team with the most eggs received a plastic gold coin. They were to save these until the end and the player with the most gold coins would win a special prize (Mario Kart candy).

The next game was Balloon Battle. We threw green and red balloons all over the ground and the kids had to pop the other teams balloons. Team Mario had to pop green balloons and Team Luigi had to pop red balloons. This game was over very quickly. Another gold coin for the members of the winning team.
The next game that we played was Target Practice. We had filled up water balloons and the two teams lined up and, one at a time, were given a balloon to throw at the opposing teams target, a poster with members of Mario's team or Luigi's team. Everyone won at this game! The boys just had a blast getting to throw water balloons!

Next was the all anticipated "Spin the Wii Wheel". I had made a prize wheel with different prizes on it. The boys could win candy for things like Triple Green Shells (3 green gummy candies), Triple Bananas (Banana candies), Triple Red Shells (3 red gummy candies). They could also win plastic gold coins (grand prize at end of party for the most gold coins), and other random prizes. They all spun a few times on this. Very exciting!!

After the excitement of the Wii wheel, we had cake and then gifts. I made a Mario Kart cake. I found Mario driving a Kart so I used that, as well as a figure of Yoshi and Luigi that I found. I found some mini mushrooms from Scoop N Save that fit the theme as well.

For gifts, I had all the boys sitting on a blanket and had Ethan on a chair with an empty seat beside him for the boy whose gift he was opening. This always seems to work well. The other kids can then see the gift being opened.

After that the boys took another spin on the Wii Wheel and then we counted everyones gold coins to see who would win the grand prize. We also checked to see who the winner of the Mario Coin Count was and handed out the goody bags - their star cookie, their hat, some chocolate coins and whatever they won from the Wii Wheel. This was a fun party to plan and I think Ethan had an awesome time!!!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Princess Party

Kaylee wanted a Princess Party for her 5th birthday. I made invitations by printing the following on pretty pink cardstock: Hear Ye, Hear Ye, By order of the King and Queen, Princess (Name) is cordially invited to the (Last Name) Castle to celebrate Princess Kaylee's 5th birthday. The royal celebration will begin at (time) on (date). Princess Kaylee asked that you come dressed as your favourite princess in your most royal attire. The festivities will include the royal limbo, crafts, games and fun for all! Have your carriage arrive for you at (time party ends) when the celebration comes to a close. Please RSVP with the Queen Mom at (phone number) if you are able to attend this royal gala...the castle needs to plan for your arrival. We hope you can join us. I rolled the invitations up and tied them with a pretty pink ribbon and we hand delivered them to the guests.On the day of the party I became the Queen Mom!! What fun to get to dress up for your daughters party!!
We had the Princess Party sign on the door when the guests arrived and had coloring pictures for them to color until everyone arrived. We also took pictures of them in front of the Happy Birthday Princess sign with Kaylee.
We had princesses on the wall that I had found at the store. We also put tulle type fabric on the ceiling with balloons hanging down to make everything look princessy.
When everyone arrived, we went to the table and the girls decorated princess crowns I had made out of cardstock and tulle. I had alot of stickers, felts and stick on gems they could use to make them their own.
After the girls decorated their crowns, and believe me, this took quite awhile for some girls, they played Help the Bird find Cinderella. We blindfolded the girls and spun them around and then gave them their bird to put on Cinderella. They were all giggling alot during this game!!

After that we played Princess Limbo. I made a Limbo stick and held it while the girls danced around to Princess Music and ran under the Limbo stick. The next game was the Princess Walk. I had princess pictures laminated and put them on the floor. The girls had to walk around them while the music played and when the music stopped, they had to step on a Princess. Whoever wasn't on a Princess was out and got to pick a prize (different princess little things I had - erasers, rulers, stickers etc.). The last girl standing on a Princess was the winner and got to pick 2 prizes.

The girls then got to decorate cookie wands I had made. All of the girls got a container with icing and a container with candies and were told to go for it!
Here's what one girl came up with. I put them into baggies and tied a pretty ribbon around it for them to take home.
Next on the agenda was cake and gifts. I made a pink cake and put a princess crown on the top. YUM!
For the gift opening I had my daughter sit on a chair and had an empty chair next to her for the girl whose gift she was opening. The other girls sat in a circle in front of the chairs so they could all see. This worked great, although the circle did keep getting smaller and closer to the birthday girl:)

After gifts, I read the Cinderella story and had the girls sit in a circle and pass a glass slipper everytime I read the word "Cinderella". The girl who ended up with the slipper at the end received a prize. It was then time for the goody bags and for everyone to go home! What a great time getting to play princesses!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Rescue Heroes Birthday Party

For my son's 4th birthday, he wanted a Rescue Heroes theme. I searched the web and found some ideas on the Fisher Price Rescue Heroes website as well as birthdaypartyideas.com. I went to the local fire department and told them that I was planning a Rescue Heroes party for my son's birthday and asked if they had anything I could use for goody bags. They gave me colouring pages, growth charts, stickers, balloons, suckers and plastic fire hats. They were really wonderful at the fire department. They even let me take the kids to see the fire trucks while we were there! I printed out rescue hero badges from the fisher price website on sticker paper and put them on the plastic fire hats. I also printed out a different badge onto cardstock that I used as nametags for the guests. I made a sign for our front door with the rescue heroes logo welcoming the guests to "Training Camp". I printed out rescue hero coloring pages for the guests to color while everyone arrived.When everyone had arrived, I told them that they were in Rescue Hero training camp today and that they needed to be ready to help in any disaster. I told them that they would get a sticker for their name tag when they completed each mission. When they got all their stickers, they would get to become a Rescue Hero. Their first mission was to rescue a cat from a tree. I had made a poster of a cat stuck in a tree and had printed off some colored pictures of Billy Blazes and Wendy Waters (2 popular Rescue Heroes). The kids were blindfolded and they had to see who could get their Rescue Hero closest to the cat in the tree. They loved seeing the Rescue Heroes floating around in the air, especially the one that the birthday boys dad did that didn't even make it onto the tree poster! They all got a sticker for completing the mission.The second mission was to rescue people and cars from a village at the base of a volcano that was about to explode. I put a black sheet over my loveseat and said that was the volcano. I put a red tablecloth on top of the volcano to look like lava. I set up my "Little People" house and farm and garage at the base of the couch and had people and cars all around them. The kids had to put on their fire hat, hop in a pillowcase across the living room, get a person or car, go down my small slide, and crawl through a tunnel to get their person or car to safety. They thought this was hilarious and everyone was laughing and having a great time! They all got a sticker for completing this mission as well. We were all thirsty and hungry after this mission, so it was time for cake and drinks. I made the Rescue Hero symbol by using plastic wrap over top of the design I wanted and piping icing onto the plastic wrap. I then put a layer of plastic wrap over top and gently pushed out all the lines. I then froze it. When it was frozen, I peeled off the plastic wrap and put it on top of the cake. After we had cake we went outside for the third mission.
The third mission was a meteor shower. The kids had to stop meteors (purple balloons) from hitting the earth. I stood on my deck and threw off the balloons to the kids who had to try to keep them in the air. There was a lot of screaming and laughing going on during this mission. All the kids got a sticker for their badge after this mission was complete (they ended up stomping on all the meteors).
The fourth and final mission was also outside. The kids had to rescue animals from an animal hospital that was close to a forest fire. I set up our little outside playhouse by a large piece of cardboard that I painted to look like a forest fire. One at a time, the kids had to walk across a piece of wood that we laid across our hard plastic kiddie pool, ride on a yellow ride on car (fire truck), get a water balloon and throw it at the fire.Then they had to go into the playhouse and rescue an animal, climb the slide on our swingset and slide down, and bring the animal to Ariel Flyer (rescue hero who is a veterinarian). After everyone had a turn, the kids wanted to go again, so we let them have a free for all with the water balloons. They threw them all at the fire to make sure it was out!!The kids all got a sticker for completing this mission as well. I then handed out diplomas to all the kids that I printed off from the Rescue Heroes website. They said that "This is to certify that "guest" has shown compassion and courage by not giving up and finishing the job. We're glad to have a hero like you on the Rescue Heroes team!" The kids thought it was cool to be real rescue heroes! I now told them that since they were Rescue Heroes, we had to go inside and make Rescue Hero walkie talkies, just like real Rescue Heroes have. I had cut foam into small brick shapes and covered them in aluminum foil. I had stickers, pipecleaners, crayons, felts and scissors for the kids to create their very own walkie talkies. My husband took a real walkie talkie and hid it behind one that my son had made and made it sound like it was real. The kids were so excited, but later a little disappointed when they found out that he had tricked them! They still really loved making this craft.We had gift time next. I had everyone sit in a circle and asked who knew a safety rule. When someone told a safety rule, they got to give their present to my son. After gift time, the parents were all arriving. For their goody bags, they all got their fire hats, walkie talkies, certificates, and all the fun stuff from the fire department along with a few extra candies. This was my first big party that I threw and it went over great! Everyone had a great time and I couldn't wait to plan the next one!!