Friday's Feature {An Awesome 11th Birthday) and Link Party

From now on, our Friday Features will feature a blog that entered our Link Party.  I love that you share so many of your ideas here, and I want to a show off my favorite.  So this weeks is An Awesome 11th Birthday Party from Alderberry Hill.  I love how she did the streamers twisted down the wall.  Such a fun and easy way to change the decor in the room to create the right feel.  This would be fun during any holiday as well.  Cool idea.

Rules:

• Any creative idea will do
• No selling or promoting, so no giveaways or etsy stores
• Grab a button to link back to this blog
• Start sharing!
• And don't forget to check out other link party projects.

<br /><center><a href="http://cookienut.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/pleasantsunday/Cookie%20Nut%20Creations/LinkParty.jpg" /></a><center><br /><br /></center></center>

Hunger Games Party Ideas

I don't know about all of you, but I am dying to see The Hunger Games movie.  March 23rd can't come soon enough.  I watch the trailer more times than I'd like to admit.  I decided to read The Hunger Games again before the movie came out.  It was supposed to tide me over before the movie, but I read it in three days...then I read Catching Fire and Mocking Jay within a week.  So sad.

Some of my friends and their spouses, and my husband and I, are all going on a group date to see it that Saturday morning.  Already bought the tickets and I'm ready to go.  But it made me curious to see how other people might me preparing for the big night.  I found some cute ideas.

These cupcake toppers are so cute.  I normally don't list Etsy shops, but there are just so awesome that I just had to show it.  You can order them from the Etsy Shop, Death By Cupcake.

But if you don't want to spend that, you can always do your own thing.  These are really clever and cute Hunger Games party ideas, equipped with Sleep Syrup, Cornucopia Weapons, District 12 Bread, and Night Lock Berries.  Go check them out at Oh Brooke.

This one is my favorite because it's something you can do yourself and it looks amazing and you can find it on At Second Street.  She simply placed these on top of frosted sugar cookies.  You'd think that she's a professional, but you'll be surprised how she did it.

Well, there's a few ideas that I have found and thought were fun.  Have fun with your Hunger Games prep.

Friday's Feature {Plastic Tube Crafts}

For those who don't know, Pebbles in my Pocket is a scrapbook store located in Utah.  I recently discovered that they have a blog where I found these adorable tutorials using plastic tubes filled with candy.

I saw these and thought that they would be perfect for birthday party favors, bridal and baby shower decorations, or just for playtime.

Magical Princess Wand Tutorial

Pinwheel Tutorial

The best part is that you can purchase the tubes or they even have wand kits and pinwheel kits already for you.

Friday's Feature {Mario Birthday Party}

For this Friday Feature, I decided to showcase this post from Life Escalated.

I looked up several Mario Birthday Party Ideas and they all had some great ideas, but I loved the little take home bags that she sewed,  the games, the balloons, and the prizes that she made.    Now I know what I'm doing for my son's birthday party next year!  Making these would be a great addition.

Lego Birthday Party

The boy turned 7!!! Just like many boys legos are his current passion, so when faced with the question of what kind of birthday he wanted to choice was easy.

So off I went to the all knowing computer for ideas, and with a couple of my own we had a lego party.

I bought a lot of legos from ebay. I got 300 legos for $20.00. It came with a pretty varied lot, so we got a ton of different pieces. The down side... Three of my own boys plus that of 4 more others 300 legos really isn't that many.

So when boys started coming I had them all go an play with the legos to start while we waited for everyone to arrive.
I had a lot of fun with his cake. It didn't totally come out like I wanted but the idea was there. I bought a square cupcake pan and made some chocolate cupcakes. Then I took a tub of frosting... regular vanilla works best... and I added food coloring to it and I then I microwaved it to get it really soft and pourable.

I cut some big marshmallows in half and put a dab of frosting on each one to make it stick to the cake. And then I spooned the frosting over the top and let it drip down the side. After about 4-5 minutes the frosting will harden giving it a nice shine to it.

{note-to-self... this took longer than I anticipated.... don't try to frost cupcakes and learn how to cut boy's hair on the same day.}

We had a pinata... and only had minor injuries from that, and other than that the boys just played with legos and jumped on the tramp. I figured they would so I really didn't plan a whole lot.

Each of the boys got a baggie to take home. A little lego set to build a crazy straw and little cube shape candies. {the closest thing to legos I could find.} This and the loot from the pinata, and everyone was happy.

Star Wars Birthday Ideas

My son is a big Star Wars fan. So, when it was time to plan his birthday party, the decision was a very simple one.  I did some searching and came up with some simple and fun things.

Invitations

There were so many cute ideas out there.  I saw several like this, but the text was never right, so I made my own.  I had so many moms tell me how clever it was and how their kids loved reading it over and over.  It was SOOOO easy.  All I did was download the Star Wars font for FREE and added the starry background behind the words.  Then, I just printed 4x6 prints at Costco (if you do this, Costco has an option to add a white border.  I always do this to prevent anything being cropped accidentally.).  I printed 35 invites for and about $5!

You can copy the text below.


. . . not too long from now, in a galaxy
not too far away . . .

Star Wars

There has been a disturbance in the force. Young Padawan, birthday child’s name, who has reached the age of 7, has been called by the Jedi Council to seek out future Jedi.  Master Yoda is urging the younglings to complete their training in order to defeat the rising Sith throughout the galaxies.

Each Padawan’s presence is requested to complete their Jedi training on date of party. Training will take place on Coruscant at the Jedi Temple’s outdoor training facility, also known as location or address. Training will run from party time. After which the trained Jedi will receive the rank of Master and may return to their home planet to protect their people from the Sith threat.

Padawans will be learning all the skills required to become a Jedi Master, including how to construct their own lightsaber, so all other lightsabers must remain on their home planet.

Please advise the Jedi Council member, your name, as soon as possible as to whether each Padawan will accept or not accept their training, by phoning phone number, so that the proper amount of lightsaber parts may be available.

May The Force Be With You!

Cake

I normally make my own cake or cupcakes, but my skills are definitely limited.  I went to Walmart to order a cake, but I wasn't impressed with their Star Wars cake.  So, to save money and make the cake more fun, I ordered a plain decorated cake.  I just told them what I wanted and decided to put on my own toppers.  With all the Star Wars toys out there, the ideas are limitless.  This is how our's turned out.

Activities
Building their own lightsaber!  I got this idea from At Second Street, but I made a few tweaks.  She said that her lightsabers ran about $2 a piece.  I did mine a little differently and they ran more like $3.50 a piece, but these were the kid's party favors and I wanted them to be good.  Here's what you need for this project.

• 1 1/4" PVC Pipe (each piece cut to 10 in)
• 1 1/4" PVC Pipe Caps
• 1 1/4"x 6 ft Pipe Insulation (each piece cut to 2 ft)
• 4 ft Wooden Dowels that fit inside Pipe Insulation (each piece cut to 2 ft)
• Gray Duct Tape
• Colored Duct Tape (found at Target in Home Improvement Section or Michael's)
• Blue Painters Tape
• Black Electrical Tape
• Black Sharpie

I decided to have the lightsaber handles done before the party to save time.  This helped a lot!  I started by putting the cap onto the pipe.  You don't need any glue because the duct tape holds everything in place.  I covered the top of the cap and then covered the pipe lengthwise.  I tried wrapping, but it wasted a lot of tape.

At the party, each child was able to personalize their handle with black electrical tape and a black Sharpie.  The kids loved this part and got really creative.  Being 6 and 7 year olds, they would tell us what they wanted and we did the electrical tape for them, but they were able to add things with the Sharpie on their own.

The kids could then choose their own color.  We had blue, green, red, and purple to choose from.  To do this, you need to place the wooden dowel in side the pipe insulation.  Adding the dowel gives it stability.  They were still plenty soft for the kids to play with.  I did these the same way I did the handles, by going down the length of the insulation.  By doing this, you are taping the dowel inside.  I added a little reinforcing by wrapping around the top and bottom (this was more necessary with the blue painters tape because it wasn't as sturdy as the duct tape).  Then you slide the lightsaber into the handle a few inches and let them at it.

Make sure you have some extra adult helpers.  My husband, another parent, and myself all worked on the lightsabers.  If we had more kids, we would've had a mob on our hands.  But, all in all, I was SO happy that we did this.  It was a great time filler and the kids loved it.  Side Story- There was a family having a picnic at the park and there was a boy with them who was very intrigued by our building these lightsabers.  He came up to me and asked, "Excuse me.  Can I have one?"  I asked, "Are you here for the birthday?"  "No.  My name is Luke."  My eyes got big and I said, "Like Luke Skywalker!"  How could I deny Luke a lightsaber.  I was lucky that I had a few extra.

Afterward, we did a Jedi training.  We kept it simple, showing them some techniques, but then guess who showed up?

My husband went back to pick up the cake and ice cream...and dress up as Darth Vader.  I love that my son's birthday is near Halloween.  It makes stuff like this so much easier.  So, you can tell what he's going to be for Halloween this year!  And if you couldn't tell, I was dressed up as a Jedi Master with whatever I could find around the house.

Afterwards, the kids kept plenty busy with playing all over the park with their lightsabers.

Party Favors

Along with their lightsabers, each child received this certificate, signed by Master Yoda himself (with a cool free font I got).  I printed them off at Costco in an 8x10 for about $1.50 a piece.

I got this form from Jessica G, she had made these for her son's birthday party in 2009.  She was allowing people to print the files for free, but unfortunately, she lost the original pdf file and her son's name, the year 2009, and a misspelling were still on the certificate.  I must say, I LOVE Photoshop Elements.  It was a snap to fix and I have the blank file for you to print.  I just wanted to be sure that I gave full credit for her work.