The Month of Wyatt- Ninjago anyone?

If I am to have a month of me, it is only fair to have a month fully dedicated to The Wyatt as well, is it not?? Let's just say the apple does not fall far. Given our love for parties, Wyatt chose to have a Birthday consisting of all things Ninjago this year-which was a love/hate theme for me. Slightly burnt out from Ninjago after Halloween, I sucked it up for my son and "spinjitzued"through. Well worth it- he and his friends seemed to have a great time. We invited about 16 kids and my awesome girlfriend secured a space within her apartment, seeing as we had no where to go. This arrangement worked out especially well since it naturally started to rain. After some online scrounging, I totally stole, er, "borrowed" Ninjago ideas that moms before me had so painstakingly outlined on blogs.  Thanks random moms!

Not that I have the exact order of events, but with 2 1/2 hrs to fill, I tried to maintain a tight ship...which for me was pretty tough, as that's just not my thing.  We all survived. I like to think we had some fun too.

Pin the Beard on Sensai Wu. I found a picture someone did online, but I wanted it pretty big, so I free-handed Sensai onto larger than life poster"y" paper, made a beard for each of the kids with their names on it and spun them around. Their Ninja bands doubled as blindfolds = Bonus.
"borrowed" mom link
http://www.craftinterrupted.com/2012/05/ninjago-party-game-pin-beard-on-sensei.html

Pinata Time. SUPER easy. I grabbed a mailer box then divided it up half n half with duct tape to make the Red Ninja and the Black Ninja (aka Kai and Cole).

Duct Tape!

It's the magical tape. It covers everything and turns something boring into something amazing. The below are a couple examples of what duct tape can do. 

Obstacle Course-The kids had a ton of fun and the obstacle course was super easy. I had the kids jumping through hoops (literally), digging through baskets for Lego men, running in circles with ninja swords then tagging their team members. I broke them up into 3 Ninja teams....Green, Red and Blue- and they all had their ninja bands on already. They were hysterical.

 Ball Toss and Game Punch-
I found this awesome idea for a game punch- it was huge and in my experience bigger is better. Go big or go home. That's just all there is to it. The game punch consisted of 3 boards connected together with 16 symmetrical holes cut out and small light toys taped to the back of heavy duty tissue paper. At the end of the obstacle course (having run through it a few times) the kids punched through and grabbed a gift. Voila!
I got the idea of the toy punch from this site, but gave it my own twist.
http://blog.celebratethebigandsmall.com/2011/08/10/856/

Ball Toss- Coke cans taped together and wrapped with..........yup. Duct tape. Super easy. Though I'm not gonna lie. The kids were done with it after like 2 seconds. Bummer. 

THE FOOD.

Ah yes. I find that the key to Birthday parties is to NOT have them during lunch, hence the party time of 2:00-4:30 (which should have been 4). Get'm in and get'm out.- All without offering lunch or dinner.

Since parents were staying, I wanted to offer fruit and veggies too. I loved the idea of sushi rice krispies, though I wish they held together better. Cupcakes were easier than making a big ol' cake and I made Wyatt his own personal Ninjago cake. P.S. The Ninjago cake was SO easy. 

Link to sushi/some other Ninjago ideas below:

http://www.empress-m.com/2011/03/more-ninjagos.html

Photo Booth!!!

This was totally my favorite part! I also borrowed this from another site. I free handed the pic I found on large white paper and then hung it up at the party as a back drop with some props. As a thank you card I printed out the photos- I loved the way they came out.

This website is amazing!-http://www.craftinterrupted.com/2012/05/ninja-photo-booth.html

Randomness- SO obviously not everything went according to plan. Thankfully there were other parents who helped out. We had a bouncy castle, AKA Ninja warm up Dojo, ninja freeze dance, (duck duck goose) aka run run ninja run....(or whatever fits in best); Ninja exercises with the help of my hubby.....on and on. Flexibility is key!

 

Wyatt's School Party-

Thank GOD there were left over cupcakes from the party. Like the EXACT number so I didn't have to bake again. I can't even express my joy. Apparently a little bit of food coloring goes a long way......