Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party

For the gathering activity, we found some treasure boxes and jeweled stickers that the kids decorated.

Our pirate costumes included black bandannas and mustaches for the boys, pink bandanas and pixie dust for the girls.

The table center piece was the Jolly Roger and Buckey across a crossbones napkin with gold coins.

From an Etsy shop, I was able to purchase a Jake and the Neverland Pirates printables.  It was great to print a Happy Birthday Banner and the age he was.

Our dessert table included cupcakes, apple juice, shark bait, cannon balls, red shark bait, and the Cake for the birthday boy.

Our games included walk the plank,

a treasure hunt to find the piñata,

pin the tail on Tic Toc Croc,

and hitting Captain Hook who stole the treasure.  After which we hit the pinatas.

Another game was digging for buried treasure.  We had a bucket full of sand for this game.  However it got so windy when we poured the sand that we just put out the necklaces, ring pops, costume jewelry and gold coins all over the backyard.  It worked out fine.

The pixie dust was a wedding holder filled with glitter.  We reminded the kids it was to be used 'only in an emergency' as Izzy always says.

Star Wars Party

Our treats were blue chips and green chips to represent the colors of light sabers.  We had Chocolate covered caramel pretzels in green with white accents for edible light sabers.  Our punches included Darth Malt (red punch) and Yoda Soda (green sherbet with lemon lime soda).  We found some standup Star Wars memorabilia at a local party store and posters from Wal-mart.  

Games:

1.  Save Princess Lea and Princess Padme.  

I printed their pictures and inserted them into balloons.  The kids had to pop the balloons in order to save the princess.

2.  Jedi Sword training

Each child got a pool noodle (of which I cut in half) and they had to keep their balloons up as they walked across the yard.

3.  Red Saber/Green Saber

I used a red light saber and a green light saber and they had to turn depending on the saber I held up.

4.  Piñata

They had an awesome Darth Vader pinata that worked great into our next game.

5.  Fighting Darth Vader

My brother-in-law was so nice to dress up as Darth Vader for us.  He came out after the kids busted the pinata.  All the kids banged up on him and then each kid got a turn to take him out.  It was the highlight of our day.  

Costumes:

I found some fabric from the local fabric store, found some fleece and cut it into a sash form and then put it on each kid as they came through the door.

Super Mario Party

It was great to be able to find wall decals that were specifically designed for Mario.  I felt like I had hit the gold mine!

 The cupcakes were super easy.  We just made 'M's and 'L's for Mario and Luigi.

 This was an edible add on.  I twas super easy to be able to do.  And it fit perfectly for our theme.

 As the kids came we dressed up as Mario or Luigi.  We had red or green hats, tiaras for the girls so they could look like Princess Peach and mustaches.

 Our first game was Mario Bingo.  Our second game was Pin the Mustache on Mario.

 Our 3rd game was smash the Oompa Gumpas.  We had the kids attempt to break balloons.  It was harder than they thought.

 Our 4th game was Yoshi's Egg Drop.  We hid eggs throughout our yard and the kids were told they could each get five eggs (we had over twenty kids).  Inside the eggs were their gold coins.  Initially we were going to give the coins throughout the party and they could buy something at the end, but it got knocked out due to time constraints.

Before we hit the pinata, we explained to the children that Bowser came and stole Princess Peach away and we had to save her.  She was protected by the chain chomp.  I know there is a name for them, but it has been awhile since I have been in touch with Mario. At the time, there wasn't any Mario pinatas around so I found a soccer ball, spray painted it black, added the eyes and mouth with foam pieces and hung it up where the kids could hit it and knock the candy out of it to save Princess Peach.

Our food was just pizza.  Mario and Luigi LOVE pizza and pasta so why not?  Then we had cake and ice cream.

Curious George Party

The Man with the Yellow Hat Cake

Monkey Cupcakes.  Aren't these super cute?  I thought they were adorable.  I can't take the credit for the idea, but I was impressed with how simple they were.  They were chocolate cup cakes with chocolate frosting.  The ears were broken in half Nutter Buter's.  The eyes were blue M&M's.  The mouth was a Nilla Wafer with a red frosting smile.  The eyes had blue frosting for the pupils.

We decorated the house with Curious George Books, balloons, and streamers.  

Our games were carnival games including fishing for ducks and using a parachute.  It was just our family so I didn't have to plan too much.

Toy Story Party

My son was turning 4 and he LOVED Toy Story.  It was about the time the 3rd Toy Story came out on DVD.  It was a must watch.  I had to do something that resembled Buzz and Woody and the rest of the gang.  I found these streamers that reminded me of Woody and his Sheriff's star.  They also had hanging streamers available with Buzz, Woody, etc. on them.

The cakes had little Buzz and Woody cupcake toppers on them.  The most fun was the Mr. Potato Head cake pops.  They were fun but took a lot of work.  To make them, familyfun.com has instructions.  But I will include them right here.

Mr. Potato Head Cake Pops
Ingredients:
1 box cake mix
1 tub of frosting
Peanut Butter baking chips
Blue M&M's
Confetti Sprinklers
Brown sprinkles
Junior Mints
Peanut Butter flavored melting chocolate
Small Lollipop sticks
Lollipop Sticks

Bake cake according to package directions.  Let it cool.  Once cooled, add 3/4 tub of frosting.  Discard frosting.

Roll into one inch balls and freeze for 10-15 minutes.

Take out of freezer a few at a time and mold into an egg shape.  Insert Lollipop stick into one end of the  'egg'.  Dip into Melted peanut butter.  Apply the junior mint for the head, blue M&M's for the feet, the white confetti for the eyes and mouth, the brown sprinkles for the mustache and eyebrows.  Also apply a red sprinkle for the bottom of the mouth.  If possible, use an edible marker to draw eyeballs.  Insert into styrofoam to let dry.

Our game was pin the part on Mr. Potato Head.  I drew a Mr. Potato head and all the parts were detachable with tape.  We did this over and over again.  It was fun to see how funny Mr. Potato Head looked with his movable parts.  Just like the real thing.