My daughter wanted Clifford the Big Red Dog to be the theme of her 4th birthday party for her playgroup friends.  Here's what we did: I took cardboard 1/2 gallon milk containers, cut out a doorway, spray painted it white and had them in the dining room for the kids to paint upon arrival.  I also printed on the computer the word "Clifford" in an arc for the kids to glue over the doorway. Then, the kids proceeded to the kitchen where we made a Clifford sock puppet. I found it cheaper to buy packages of white socks and soak them in a solution of water and RIT dye.  We used red felt for ears, wiggly eyes, a black pom pom for a nose, a piece of pink felt for a tongue and a black felt strip for a collar.  We attached all this with a craft glue which tends to help things bond more quickly and strongly.  Next, we sang "Happy Birthday" and had Clifford cupcakes.  I just frosted cupcakes with red tinted frosting and added M&M eyes and nose, a string licorice mouth, and fruit roll-ups cut into ear shapes.  Finally, I bought each child a red plastic cereal bowl (to really look like a dog bowl!) and put their name on it.  They were used to put loot from a Clifford piñata.  Daddy came home from work early to do this activity and it went extremely well!  He simply cut a 2 foot section of plastic plumber tubing (of some kind) so that it wouldn't be too hard in case anyone got hit. We asked all the kids to sit in a semi-circle and had a line on the floor that they could only cross when it was their turn.  After they were blindfolded, he also asked them to put one hand in a pocket, which worked great.  All of the 10 the kids got 2 turns with our homemade bat which they enjoyed. I filled it with some healthy snacks, bubbles, stickers, and one kind of candy. It was a lot of fun that the kids really enjoyed, especially their own Cliffy in his doghouse!