T's Cat Party

My little guy turned 8 last week. We were kicking around ideas for a party theme. We were considering a cat theme along with a couple others. Then I was scrolling through Pinterest for cat party ideas. T got one look at this litter box cake and his mind was made up. Cat party it was.


 The invitations were a free download generously offered by Heidi of My Paper Crane. They were so impossibly cute. Thank you, Heidi!




Decorations were a combination of store-bought basics with added homemade touches, and a few etsy purchases.  The colorful kitty head garland was a pdf from GirliePains.  The black cat heads and triangle garland was from BluefinWorks.



I made headbands with cat ears, and cut up feather boas from the craft store for tails. Some guests chose to wear cat accessories and others declined. Okay by me.



The first game was Eat Like a Kitty. Pet food bowls filled with dry cereal were put out in a circle. Guests had to eat it like a cat, no hands!



After that we went outside to the park to have a mouse hunt. Nate had gone out a few minutes earlier to scatter the "mice." They were ping pong balls with mouse faces drawn on. Guys, did you know it's pretty difficult to draw on a small round surface? The mice faces were not great looking but they got the job done. The kids spent a few minutes running around the park looking for mice. Then they delivered them back to me, as a cat would deliver a prized catch to his owner. I didn't get many pictures of this game in progress. I was watching the kids, and visiting with a friend in the park.




Back inside for cake. We served litter box cake, which had brownie/cookie bars on the bottom, vanilla sandwich cookie crumbs, and tootsie rolls. A touch of food coloring makes it look pretty darn realistic. What can I say about this cake? It's such a disgusting idea. I'm glad I'm not the person who originally thought of it. But for an eight year old boy (mine, at least), the gross-out factor of this cake was absolutely the most important feature of the party. So I had to make it. I also served cupcakes for those who couldn't stomach the litter box cake. And there were a few kids who couldn't. Sorry, kiddos! We also had popcorn, pretzels, and M&M's.



Our cat Sirius can jump really high when he's trying to get his favorite feather toy. A few different times during the party we showed off his moves. Free entertainment at its finest.

After cake we played Pin the Whiskers on the Cat with an adorable, if I do say so myself, cat head I whipped up the night before the party. Black pipecleaners for the whiskers. That was our last game.



Afterwards we let T open gifts and watched a bunch of cat videos on YouTube until parents came.



Goody bags featured some internet cat faces, and had Trader Joes cat cookies, kit kats, two Japanese cat charms, and stickers.


This party felt like a lot of work because of all the homemade decorations and activities. But at its core it was a very simple, sweet party. I love how much T loves cats, and I'm happy he wanted to do a cat party.

t's seventh birthday and doctor who party

 My little guy turned seven today.  He wanted a Doctor Who themed party.  I sort of procrastinated on the planning of this party and had to pull it together in the last couple of days.  I basically pulled an all-nighter on Thursday in order to get things ready for the party today.  Luckily the boys were in an all-day camp this week, and while I didn't use my time very well earlier in the week, you better believe I worked my butt off every single minute they were gone today.  Decorating, mostly.  Finishing up game prep, too.  I was really grateful that the boys were occupied and that Nate was able to take a half-day off work and help out too.  T and S gave the party top marks, so all the work was worth it.  Here is what we did for our Doctor Who party!

Invitations.  Here are the invitations we sent out.  I bought a pdf from this etsy shop and it was really easy to print them up, add our info on the inside, and mail them out.

Party day!

First of all, the outfit.  I found the shirt and jacket at Goodwill.  The Fez and Bowtie came as a set from Amazon.  I thought we would just use them to take a few photos and then he would change into a t-shirt, but he decided to keep them on.  I was pleased as punch that he liked the costume and wanted to wear it for the whole party.  I know he had to be hot in those layers plus a hat (!), but he was a very dedicated Doctor.  The backdrop here is a beach towel, also from Amazon.

Decorations.  I went overboard with decorations, perhaps because I felt my party activities were pretty basic and traditional.  I wanted the wow-factor of an over-decorated party room and I think I achieved it.  When the boys walked in from camp they definitely gave a WOW reaction.  T said, adorably, "Are we in space?!"  I bought balloons, dangling stars, and dangling planets from Oriental Trading, Amazon, and Walmart.  The best bit of the decor, in my opinion, was the set of T.A.R.D.I.S. lights from ThinkGeek.  I wrapped the wiry star garland around the strand to try to make it look like the time machine was spinning through the time vortex.  How dorky is that?  But I have to say I thought it looked awesome.  It was one of my favorite things of the whole party.

Games!  As guests arrived, the boys instructed them in how to play our first game.  I had pictures of some Doctor Who aliens posted on the walls, with envelopes underneath.  The kids had strips of paper with alien names on them, and they had to try to match the alien name with the picture.  When everyone was done, T emptied the envelopes and read the slips of paper, and then told the kids what the alien was actually called.

Next we had everyone sit down and gave a very brief description of Doctor Who for those who had never seen it.  I had T help me explain the basic gist of the show (really too bad that we didn't get that on video, as it was adorable).  Then we showed the kids a short video to further illustrate what the theme of this party was all about.

Our next game was Pin the Bowtie on the Doctor.  Pretty self-explanatory.

Cake time.  The cake came from a local bakery.  We found a picture of a cake we liked on Pinterest and took it in for them to see.  Our cake looked pretty much identical to the one we saw online, except that one said the kid's name and age, and ours said, "EXTERMINATE!"  I let T decide which he would rather have on his cake and for him the choice was clear.

After our snacks and cake, T opened gifts.  He scored a lot of cool Doctor Who stuff.  And a lot of cool stuff in general.

Outside!  Thirteen kids in our apartment feels pretty crazy, so I was glad when it was time to go outside.  I was also glad that the downpour from earlier in the day had stopped.  The grass was really wet but otherwise the park was perfect.  The rain had cleared it out for us, I think, so the field was empty and ready for our gaggle of guests to run around while Nate tied up the pinata. 

The gorgeous T.A.R.D.I.S. pinata was purchased from this etsy shop.  It was so sturdy I was worried the kids wouldn't be able to bust it, but it wasn't a problem.  I think the kids enjoyed the pinata but I have a hard time with the whole diving-for-candy issue.....  some kids got a ton and some didn't get much at all.  There was some grabbing, which resulted in some tears, and I felt bad.  I asked the kids who got a lot to share with the kids who didn't get as much, and most of them did, and then I felt a little better.  But it always stinks to see a kid crying because of a game you planned.

After the pinata broke and everyone enjoyed a piece of candy, the kids played in the field until the parents came.  The boys and I had discussed a game of Weeping Angel freeze tag, and then it evolved into a form of a game they play at recess called Infection.  I have no idea how it works, and I didn't organize the last game at all.  I let the kids work it out amongst themselves and it seemed to go well.

Goody bags.  I had blue bags and I printed a picture of the T.A.R.D.I.S. for the front of each.  Cut them out and stuck them on with glue stick.  I went through a lot of printer ink for this party!  The favors in the bags were not overly exciting.  Alien erasers, alien shooter toys, a glow stick (they were supposed to light up blue, not sure if they worked), and a planet stamp.  All the favors were from Oriental Trading.  Guests also took home the candy from the pinata.

That was our party!  I loved doing it, wish I had paced myself on the planning a little bit instead of working like a beast at the last minute, and consider it a big success.  There is a lot you can do with this theme, of course.  But I chose to keep it pretty simple. I figured that any references to the show that weren't completely overt would be missed by the guests anyway, so why bother to bring out the deep cuts?  (This is exactly why I didn't bother doing any themed food, other than the cake motif).  I know that T and S had a great time so I am a happy party planner.  Now maybe we can just do bowling alley parties from now on?  These theme parties are exhausting.  :)

a calvin and hobbes birthday party

My little guy turned 6 recently.  Six!  I can't believe it.  We decided on a Calvin and Hobbes theme for his birthday party, since he has been super into the comic this year.  I had fun making decorations and coming up with games.  Here is what we did:

Invitations!   (picture coming soon; need to get it off my phone)


Pizza!  The party was in the evening, and fell within the dinner hour.  So we served pizza, watermelon, and carrots with dip.  Simple.  Easy.  I ordered WAY too much pizza.  Oh well.

Games!  First we had three "stations" that were supposed to be happening simultaneously, with kids taking turns at each station.  It didn't exactly work out this way, and most of the kids were just playing while we did the Crazy Faces station (took longer than I anticipated).  But it was okay.  They were having fun playing around in the yard.


Three stations:


     -----Hop with Hobbes.  I set up two trampolines and put a plush tiger on each.  The idea was for two kids to hop and toss the tiger around, and even toss them back and forth to each other.  This station was pretty much a flop, for some reason.  Maybe I should have had an adult on duty to encourage the kids in what to do.... but left to their own devices they weren't too interested.  That's okay.

     -----Newspaper Hats.  Pretty self-explanatory.  Kids made newspaper hats, which Calvin and Hobbes wear in their boys-only treehouse club.  We didn't play up that aspect, as there were several girl cousins in attendance.  :)  Both Grandmas were very helpful at this station.

     -----Crazy Faces with Calvin.  I enlarged the faces in this picture

 on the xerox at the library, then cut them out, ala flash cards.  One at a time, the guests sat down and tried to imitate Calvin's faces.  After the party I made them into collages.  I love how these turned out.  I will print them out and send them to our guests with their thank-you notes.

-Calvin and Hobbes' Time Machine Dinosaur Dash
This race was completely inspired by this picture:

 The kids picked partners, put on Calvin and Hobbes costumes (shirt for Calvin, ears for Hobbes, and goggles for both), then ran in a time machine (box) through a maze of dinosaurs.  The dinosaurs were just ones I had around the house, taped onto garden stakes.  Some were wall decorations, others were decorations I had made and saved from S's 4th birthday party, 5 years ago!  I felt pretty proud of myself for using them again.  The kids were supposed to weave between the dinosaurs.  I spray painted a path for each team to follow, to make it easier for the kids to see.  Some of them still totally missed it and just ran straight for the finish line.  It was pretty hilarious.  Some of them ran so fast that they wiped out in their boxes.  This game was 1. totally adorable, 2. pretty chaotic, 3. fun to watch.  Hopefully the kids liked it as much as I liked the idea of it.

-Grand finale: Water Balloon Fight!!!
If you're a fan of the comic, you know Calvin loves his water balloons.  We didn't drop them from trees onto Suzy, instead we had a good ol' fashioned water balloon fight.  We filled a lot of water balloons.  I personally filled about 450.  My father in law contributed 200.  So 650 water balloons!  We distributed them around the yard in various plastic containers.  When I said GO, the kids went at it and got completely soaked.  I know my boys loved it.  All those balloons were popped within about 8 minutes!  After they were gone I had several pleading faces looking up at me......  "do you have any more???"  It was great.

Cake.  T chose an ice cream cake from DQ, which was generously provided by one of his grandmas.  Nice and easy.  Fine by me.  I made cake toppers out of paper and toothpicks.  We actually had two cakes because we had a lot of guests.

Gifts.  He got lots of fun things.  Time to write some thank-you notes.

Goodie bags.  I found some tiger tails and stretchy tiger balls that I thought slightly resembled Hobbes in the dollar section of Target.  The balls actually ended up ruining my first batch of goodie bags, leaving big grease marks on them.  Yuck.  I had to re-do the bags and put the tiger balls into plastic bags.  To go along with the tails, I wanted some ears.  I couldn't find any at a decent price online so I enlisted my mom to make some.  She made 14 tiger ear headbands for me and they were awesome.  Thank you, mom!  A few other little treats in the bags: animal crackers, m&m's, a punch balloon, a slinky, and dinosaur tattoo.

Miscellaneous decorations.  The power of the internet and a home printer made these decorations possible. 

T and I wanted to try to recreate Calvin's jump in this picture, since he has the matching sunglasses.  This was our best take.  :)

A note on T's outfit.  We had the shoes from 1950's day at school; they were perfect.  I bought a red shirt and painted on the stripes using painter's tape as my guide.  (I used electrical tape to make the stripes on the shirts for the game).  Shorts are just a simple knit pair from Walmart, cheapest I could find.  I tried to gel up his hair to make it look like Calvin's but it looked a lot more Calvin-esque the next morning due to bedhead. 


Okay, I think that's all I wanted to say about this party.  I had fun planning it and I love my little Calvin to the moon and back.