Minecraft Birthday Party Plan

I was exhausted but getting closer to actually having the birthday party ready to roll for 16active  kids!  My son had a long list and would you believe that this is what we narrowed the list down to!  He said that he wanted to do all things Minecraft.  I started a pinterest board here.

We started with Pin the Tail on the Enderdragon which I looked forever for and found this one after we already printed the other one.  I was a little sad because we printed a large poster and the tails from this one don't fit on ours unless we go back and print them on the poster paper.

We made a box like a Minecraft head to put over the kids heads like a blind fold but the kids preferred to use the paper grocery bag because it didn't tip as much.  They had a blast and each person's name was on the tail so they compared how everyone did.

Because we had so many kids we decided to do four stations which means that I split the kids into 4 groups which helps to cut down on the crazy.  I made activity books with lots of free printables that I found all over online including coloring sheets, mazes, crosswords and these neat color by number squares (here). 

The books were different colors for the different teams and had the Minecraft logo, the child's name, the team name, and the order of their stations (the schedule).  This was team Gold and their schedule.

The first station was Minecraft elements which are cubes made into elements.  There were paper cubes to cut out and put together with tape and glue sticks.  There were some here and some here.

There were wooden cubes that were painted gray that the kids could paint or glitter glue any color they liked.  We put them on small plates and sent them home next to their goodie bags if they were too much of a mess.  My son's wasn't painted that much and was mostly dry by the time we left.

The cubes were really easy to make.  My husband took a spindle from our old deck railing and cut it so that it was in cubes and I painted them so there was a base color to work from.

The second station was make your own Minecraft skin which for those of you mom's like me who don't know the Minecraft lingo, it is like a square mask but I decided not to cut eye holes.  Here is a blog that actually used sticks but my husband and I felt that would make it less mask like and more like a weapon they could use so we went without sticks (it also made it cheaper). I made ours a little smaller because it seemed a more reasonable size and I could make the cubes small and square and they fit down this block in an even number.

I got ready by making the squares from old cardboard boxes and the cut up cubes from colored construction paper that I had around the house.  To try to stay organized, I put it in egg cartons so that I would have 12 colors for each group.

I made way too much but I was worried that they would use everything and the last group would have nothing.  They made very different masks based on their interests.  There were little guides on the table if they wanted to make something specific or they could make their own.

The third station was the Minecraft games including Creeper toss which was square holes cut into a stand up cardboard that was painted green and the kids had to throw the soft balls through and try to get points.  Turns out we kept it in the basement for two years and I have no pictures of it.  We did a large piece of painted cardboard and folded the cardboard backwards instead of this sample found on the internet here.

We also had Minecraft bowling which was kids bowling pins that we already had that I labeled with the different Minecraft things and the kids loved it.

We had another game we didn't use where we took songs from You Tube and played a musical spots like musical chairs but with Minecraft spots on the ground.  You could easily use some of the many elements or food labels if you wanted to make these too.

The forth station was a Minecraft world with a long roll of white paper and little stickers that were in Minecraft designs and markers so that the kids could make up their own Minecraft world.  I put all of the stickers in egg cartons too so that we would have one per group.  I just printed the design that I found online on return address labels that we already had and cut them into cube shapes by making strips.

We also did Minecraft Bingo at the end of the party after cupcakes until the parents were there to pick up their kids so that we could keep them contained near the door and in chairs.  It has always been a party favorite each year so I decided to go with this one.  It was nice because there were 20 cards and we had a bunch of kids coming so I knew that it would be enough for everyone.

I was hoping for everything to go well and get lots of pictures but that is always hard to do while trying to keep tons of children under control.  It was great and all the kids had a blast but I didn't get nearly the amount of pictures that I would have likes to share.

Before the party, I use paper grocery bags for the goodie bags and decorate them with the kids name and pictures from the theme.  It is super cheap and easy to hold all of the things we are sending home.  At this party, they decorated square cookies like Minecraft blocks and they could eat one and bring one home (or both if they decided) after we had pizza at the beginning.  Some were very well thought out and others were crazy but everyone had fun.  I label the plates first and wrap in foil to keep in all the sprinkles.  I label the plates first and wrap in foil to keep in all the sprinkles. 

They also got their book with activities, bookmarks (here and here), a few of my son's favorite candies, and all the crafts that they made at each station.  I like sending them home with their own work instead of junk purchased at the store that they won't use again.  Most of the kids really enjoy it and leave with more things that they can do at home. My one crafty thing was a TNT labeled party popper that my son asked for because we had some leftover from a 4th of July box, I said yes.  I printed the papers here.

I hope that this helps you come up with a few things that are helpful to make your own Minecraft party.  I mostly come up with ideas that work with things that we have around the house so that I can make the most frugal but fun party that I can come up with.  I hope that you can find some fun things around your house to turn into Minecraft fun!!

Kids Wednesday: Planning a Pokemon Party

My son declared that he wanted a Pokemon party for his birthday so I drove right into Pinterest and found way too many ideas. It was overwhelming to say the least so I decided on a plan on what we had time for during the birthday party.

I wanted to make a sign that said Happy Birthday with pokeballs and there are tons of ideas.  I decided to take the easy way out and just do the printed one here.  All you have to do is download and print and I will put holes in them and thread on curling ribbon to hang on the wall.

We looked high and low and found a Pin the Tail on the Pikachu. There is one that is already separated so that it can be printed on papers and put together but my husband has acess to a large format printer so I actually wanted to get one that was one image and enlarge it so I was little sad but I figure that this is probably better for 99% of the people which you can find here.  I actually downloaded the image and made my own!!!  Loved the picture so super happy to find it and use it.

I also thought that it would be really fun to make our own Pokemon cards.  I found this awesome card template here.

We decided that we were going to make pokeballs but had to figure out a plan to make them that won't get them thrown around at the party but that they would still like to use.  I found these and thought that they would be fun but they needs the special plastic ornament which I couldn't find so they were out but still super cool.  You can check out these here.

We decided that it would be fun to use duct tape and frisbees to make them so that the kids would have to use them outside to get the distance but can hold them like a shield which is totally fine by me!!

I found an awesome popcorn container and since we were planning on having popcorn, it seemed like a good idea even though it would take a lot of work on my part (as most of the things would).  They were super colorful and I thought the kids would enjoy them.  Check them out here.

Another fun one is the poke ball designer page because this can be a great station for creativity or copying the basic balls that they know.  If we do some ahead of time then we also have some fun decorations so I think that I am going to have some coloring fun!!  Check out this site to get your own copy.

There is a really cute box that the kids can cut and fold themselves.  It is super easy to print and if we don't do it at the party, I will put it in their bags to bring home to make at home.  If you want to make your own, download it here.

There is another great site with a pokeball and lots of pokemon to put inside it here.  This looks like something that my son would love to have and play with all the time.  I could print it and laminate it to have hours of fun with!!!

 I found a memory game that would also be fun to print and laminate to play with for awhile to come.

There is a interesting maze that you can download here.  I looked every where for coloring pages and dot to dot pictures.  There are lots out there but none that made me really happy.  There are a ton of different downloads and this was a great site for some great resources.

There is another great activity that I wanted to do but wasn't sure if we had time to do it but it seemed like a lot of fun.  It was Pokemon eggs which I would make ahead of time with my son and then each group of kids would have the chance to hatch their own.  Here is the site that made them so if I don't get time to do it at the party, my son and I are totally going to make them!!

I thought that I would get a few activities that got their wiggles out including a little follow the leader with what the Pokemon would do. Super easy to print out and pull out of a hat and we will have it ready if we need.  You can print your own here.

There is this blowing activity where the kids blow through a straw to make the Poke Ball move from the start to the end.  There is an example here but I have also seen it with a ping pong ball so we might try to do this activity.

I hope that you enjoy some of these ideas to have your cheap Pokemon party.  We got clearance cups, plates and napkins in red from Christmas so we had tons of paper goods.  I grabbed a bag of red and white balloons at the Dollar Tree for the decorations and games.  With a little work, we have entertainment and goodies for everyone to do at the party and bring home with them.  I know that I have enjoyed searching around for the best ideas that work on a tight budget!!  I hope that my work has saved you some time!!!  Hope that you have a great time with these ideas for your own children or birthday party.

Kids Wednesday: Our Lego Birthday Party

As you all know by now, I try to figure out how I can do anything the cheapest.  Birthdays are no exception.  Although I know that kids need to have a great time and make great memories, I know that it doesn't take a lot of money to do that.  Many people in our area (and probably across the country) spend way too much money on kids birthday at least in my opinion.

My son declared last year that he wanted a Lego Birthday party so I started keeping my eyes out for things that I might want to use.  I grabbed some Lego City Birthday Cake Decorations (for $1) at a consignment sale.  I wasn't sure what I was doing but seemed like a good investment.  We also save the candles from the parties from the previous years because they never burn very far.  I wash them and keep them in a bag.  It was a little challenging to find them in the new house but I did it at the last minute so that we didn't have to buy new ones.

Sadly, I was still slightly unprepared when it came down the time for the party because I was just getting over Christmas.  I had a pile of notebooks that I picked up at CVS with the after summer sale for $0.25 each (so that was about $4 spent).

I decided that I was going to decorate the front of the notebook with some Lego brick print in different colors.  I wasn't sure exactly how to do it so I asked one of the teachers at work.  With her great advice, I came home and did them.  It got easier as I went on but I think that they turned out pretty cute.

I made an activity book for the good bag with stuff from lots of sources.  I included coloring, mazes, word searches, and more for the kids to take home with them.  They are all about Legos in one way or another. Some of the sheets came from here and I printed some pages from the Lego Movie coloring sheets and Lego City to make it super complete.

I also made yellow Lego man and green Lego Bricks out of chocolate in these neat molds that I bought from Amazon.  My son wasn't big on the plain vanilla flavor so I added peppermint to the green and they were way tastier!!  I enjoyed the look of the Lego man but was a little disappointed in the brick because they were much larger then the normal Legos.  Jollylife Building Bricks and Minifigure Ice Cube Tray or Candy Mold --For Lego Lovers are the ones that I got (around $6).  I bought the chocolate on clearance at Target at the after Christmas sale last year but I don't remember how much they were but they were at least 50-75% off (around $4).

I was making the goodies to go on the top of the cupcakes but my son decided that I needed to be in the goody bags to take home.  I made the ones for the decorations for the cupcakes and started on the good bags. 

I decided on two Lego men and two full bricks even though I cut the bricks in half because they were so big for cupcakes.  I guess I made more then I thought but I used all of the chocolate that I bought so at least nothing will go to waste.  I used bags that I bought ages ago and never used and blue curling ribbon to go with the colors. 

I made the goody bags from white lunch bags with a thank you Lego man on one side a face on the other side with the kids names written in red marker.  The faces can found here and the Thank You Lego Man here.  We also put a little bag of M&Ms in there because they are my son's favorite candy and we had them at the party to decorate the cupcakes (as well as we got some from my sister in law from the candy she didn't give out at Halloween).

I made a banner with letters that I printed.  I cut the paper to look like bricks.  I decided that I had to link them together with some white yarn that I had and a hole punch.  Super fun and colorful and free with things that I already had at home.  I don't like to pay for things that end up going to waste after the party is over but well worth the time to make this cute banner.  I also have a red table cloth that I have had for a little bit so I used to cover a table for snacks.  Super colorful and with the colors of the party theme.

For fun and games, we printed out a Lego man to pin the hat in the Lego man (found here).  I was going to come up with something where you had to pin the head on the Lego man but the hat seemed so much easier.  My husband printed it and we just needed to put the kids names on the hats so that they could do that as they were coming into the party.

My husband decided that after he blew up the picture that there were a few things that needed to be photoshopped so we had an extra poster.  Since I hate to let anything go to waste, I cut up the paper from the notebooks that was leftover and put it around the extra poster to make this neat decoration for the room.  I think that it turned out super cute and will make a great addition to the sort of boring room that we are having the party in.

We borrowed Lego Bingo Cards (found here) from another mom who had a party and was done with them.  We just had to clean off all of the markers that the kids used.  They were a blast and super easy to use and pass on to the next friend having a Lego Party or to be used as a family Bingo night down the road.  The kids were cheering that they had three or two left so we knew that they were into it and we did two rounds.

We had a mason jar filled with 176 legos.  The kids were supposed to guess the number of Legos in the jar and I was super surprised on how many fit in the jar so I was hoping the kids wouldn't be able to guess either.  They wrote their name and their guess on the paper.  There were a few that were hard to read because they wrote 1002 which was 100 and 2.... most commonly known as 102.  The kids are still a little young for some of the big numbers so it was so funny.  We had one guess that was only 13 away for he won a prize.

We also decorated a Lego Man for which I had three or four different options depending on what the kids wanted.  I pulled out the markers, crayons, stickers, glitter glue, jewels, pipe cleaners, pom poms and more.  I figured that the more creative the better although I was a little worried about drying time.  I am sure that the parents would be carrying them home with lots of not dry items and careful balance.

I bought juice boxes (after sale and coupon the two boxes were $2.50) and I bought green plates another after Christmas purchase a few years ago (about $2).  I used blue and red paper napkins we had leftover from other parties so that I didn't have to get any new ones.  I made cupcakes with things that I already had around the house so I never know how to count how much those cost but they were pretty inexpensive and the kids spent time decorating them as one of the fun activities.

In addition, we had the birthday party at Home Depot.  My son really enjoys the crafts that they do there once a month.  They offer a birthday party free of charge as a public service and they do a craft with the kid.  When my son heard that was an option, he was all in.  When I realized that I didn't have to have all the kids in a house that wasn't done under construction and boxes not unpacked.  I was sold too!!  It took a little more pre-planning to make sure that we had everything but check with your local Home Depot to see what they offer because it is a great party on a limited budget!! We threw our stuff back into the boxes that I brought and we were done with clean up.  Awesome!!

We had a great time at the party with lots of memories and very little money.  I kept adding more and more things to my to do list but I was pretty happy with the work that I put in to pull off a fun party on a very small budget.