Ninjago Birthday Party

My son recently turned 6, so we decided to let him have his first friend birthday party. In the past, we've just celebrated with some family and maybe a close friend or two, so this was new territory for me. I let him choose the theme for his party, and he went with Ninjago (the Lego Ninja guys).

 

 

 

Not only was this new territory, but the weather did NOT cooperate. We originally planned an outdoor Ninjago party with some water elements. The forecast was in the 80s, so no big deal. However, the forecast kept slowly dropping over the next week and a half and finally landed in the mid-60s. Not ideal for an outdoor water party, but still do-able outside. Except then there were thunderstorms, which meant outside was no longer an option. So the night before the party, I was scrambling to try to plan an all-indoor party. Our tiny townhouse was definitely not built for nine 5- and 6-year-olds! But we made it work and everyone seemed to have fun.
 
The first thing we did when everyone arrived was give everyone their ninja headband. I just used long strips of felt and wrote their names on them.

Forgive the blobs over the faces. Just trying to let the kids (and families) maintain some privacy.
 
Here's an upclose of our Sensei though.

 

 

The games we played were pretty makeshift, since we were in a confined space and I was limited on time for actually coming up with them. We started off with a couple versions of "target practice".

 

This particular version was like bowling. I covered some empty Pringles cans in red and black paper, blew up a few balloons for the top, and let them have fun rolling a ball to knock them over.

 

 

I didn't get a picture of it, but they also had to throw a ball into a bucket that I was holding (thus the reason for no picture). We made it more difficult each round by moving the bucket.

 

After target practice, my husband (our Sensei for the day) alerted everyone that the skeletons were attacking. The kids each picked a balloon sword (directions here) and fought the skeletons.

 

The skeletons were just while balloons with faces drawn on them. Some of the skeleton faces look upside down, because I drew most of them upside down the first time around. That's what happens when I'm in a hurry - I end up wasting time by having to redo something! The skeletons were a big hit, and occasionally throughout the party, Sensei would announce another attack and the kids would run to get their swords and defend themselves.

 

We also had the kids practice their spinjitzu. They had to put their foreheads on the baseball bats, circle around them, then race to the kitchen.

 

After the games, we let the birthday boy open his presents. My hubby tried to get him to play (and understand) the bump on your head and make a wish for your friend thing. The birthday boy had no idea what it meant to make a wish for someone else, so this quickly ended.

 

Finally, we let the kiddos dig into the snacks they'd been eyeing for the last hour or so.

 

 

The birthday boy doesn't really like cake, so while we had cupcakes, the star of his show were these "ninja cookies". Really, they're just my chocolate chip cookies with red, white, and black M&M's instead of chocolate chips.

 

 

Like I said, I did make cupcakes, but they aren't as pretty as I intended. I ran out of time, so they're pretty sad. Luckily, the 6-year-olds didn't care. They were just glad they were yummy!

 

 

I made the cupcake toppers using PicMonkey and the print & cut feature of my Silhouette.

 

The kids also enjoyed the skeleton bones (covered pretzels) and the pit of snakes (gummy worms).

 

 

We also had some grapes and carrots to balance out the sugar overload.

 

I kept the decorations pretty simple by using mostly balloons and streamers. The round paper things (pieces of trash, btw) I found at Zurchers and thought they would be fun. They were a pain to work with. The tips of the fan were glued together (like a notepad, but worse), there was a big old cardboard thing glued into the middle, they didn't want to fan out nicely, and that caused them to rip at the ends (most of which were on the backside, luckily). The banner (no idea what it says) is from our neighbor who had some Chinese decorations leftover from a few years ago.

 

 

I purchased the Ninjago eyes from a seller on Etsy (you can find them here), printed out a ton, and then used them on everything. The set that I bought came with 5 different sizes. There were more ninja eye balloons around the house and outside, plus I put eyes on the cups and the favor boxes.

 

 

(See the cups and boxes in the corner?) I was also going to put eyes on the hats, but there just wasn't enough time.

 

After they devoured the food, we had about 20 minutes left and I didn't have anything else planned, so Sensei suggested that we let them watch some Ninjago. Not the best party activity, but it worked for us.

 

At the end of the party, the kids were able to take home their headbands, a balloons sword, and a favor box.

 

 

The favor boxes contained a tootsie pop ninja, a glow stick necklace, some lego brick candy, and some Ninjago stickers.

 

 

It was chaotic and messy and disorganized, but everyone had fun. I'm still getting compliments from parents who are saying that their kids are still talking about the party more than 2 weeks later.

 

If you're interested in knowing how I did anything, please feel free to ask. However, most of my inspiration and such came from other bloggers. You can find the other blogs here:

 

Click Photo Designs Blog

Craft Interrupted

Chicken Babies

Infarrantly Creative

Catch My Party 

 

If you're interested, you can check out my personal Pinterest board full of Ninjago party ideas. I'm not so great at keeping up two Pinterest accounts (which is why the Someday Crafts account gets neglected sometimes). But you're welcome to take all the ideas from my own board.