Makin' Messes

It has been one crazy week here at my house so I haven’t had a chance to be very crafty.  I thought about crafts as I cleaned up after sick kids.  I also thought about crafts when I sat in the doctor’s office waiting for him to tell me that my baby does have R.S.V.  And I thought about crafts while I washed loads of laundry.  I did not actually do any crafts though, so no blog post this week, right?  Wrong!  I’m going to tell you about the ninja birthday party I hosted for my 7 year old’s birthday.

First, a disclaimer:  I have never attended a kids birthday party, not even as a kid.  Thus, I was really nervous about what to do.  The Boy wanted a ninja party so I started searching the web for and thinking of ideas.  I started with Chinese lanterns just like I remember making in elementary school.  My kids were able to help, which makes them extra fun.  Then we hung them from banisters and things.

The guests were sent invitations to a ninja training.  We rolled up the invitations like a scroll and tied them with red ribbon.  When each child arrived at the party they were given a ninja head band so they felt more like ninjas.

I assumed that there are games at a typical party so I set out to think of some for the party .  I remembered that my brother used to make paper ninja stars when we were kids so I found instructions online and made each child their own color of stars.  We played a game where we improved our aim by throwing them at pictures of dragon faces on the wall.

I found an idea online for a game where you try to keep a balloon afloat using ninja swords, so my quest for cheap ninja swords began.  I searched dollar stores and party stores but alas no swords.  I also didn’t want to spend $1 per kid for them because I was doing other stuff too.  Then my brain came up with a great idea (this doesn’t happen all that often).   I made these ninja swords by rolling up sheets of newspaper from corner to corner.  Then I taped it so it wouldn’t unroll.  I folded up the bottom to make the handle a bit more substantial then wrapped it in electrical tape.  Finally I wrapped the sword in tin foil.  I love the results.  The kids did too.   They weren’t awesome at the game.  They just wanted to pop balloons with their swords, but that kept them busy.

Instead of cake we had candy sushi.  It turned out so cute and super tasty.  I keep trying to think of other things to do with rice krispy treats covered in fruit roll up.  For party favors I wanted take out boxes from a restaurant.  I looked at party stores but they were so expensive.  Then my sweet husband brought home the perfect boxes that he asked for at a restaurant where he had lunch.  They gave them to him for free, but he said he left a big tip.

We filled the boxes with fortune cookies, Chinese finger traps, and plastic ninjas that I got at the dollar store.

My first birthday party was a success.  The kids had fun,  my little ninja was happy, and the mom was the hero of the day!