On May 6, 2001 we celebrated my son's (Evan) 3rd birthday at my house with his favorite story "The Wizard of Oz".  I have to admit I was upset to find all the Wizard of Oz birthday items to be in "pink" (invitations, plates, hats, etc.) and more catered towards a girl - so, of course, I needed to make a few changes.  I created the invitations by downloading the forest scene with Dorothy and all the characters from the wizardofoz.com web site and stated Lions, and Tigers, and Evan's 3rd Birthday Oh My.... The best part of the party was that everyone could not believe my husband created by hand out of cardboard the Emerald City (painted in green), which was big enough for the kids to play inside, along with a life size Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, and Wicked Witch. Each character was painted by hand (some nights until midnight) and were positioned according to the story in the backyard.  Of course, in front of the Emerald City we had a yellow brick road that my husband also created out of yellow fabric and hand drew all the bricks with markers.  As guests arrived, Evan took their hands and led them down the yellow brick road into Oz land. Thank god the sun was shining for all of this to be an outside party.  I also placed a basket next to the Emerald City in which I cut out 8 character masks so the kids could play and be their favorite character (amazon.com - search Wizard of Oz Masks).  I also purchased the CD with songs from the Wizard of Oz for our background music throughout the party. After everyone arrived (14 kids ranging from 2-8 and 24 adults) we started playing the games. First was musical chairs to "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead", then 3 legged races, potato sack races, limbo, and pin the heart on the tin man (which was a large tin man mounted on card board and heart stickers were given out).  Now it was time for crafts. In keeping with the Lions and Tigers theme, there was a craft area we had set up where the kids made lion and tiger magnets (oriental.com). We put a string clothes line where all the kids hung their magnets to dry (in a plastic sandwich bag labeled with their name). We had a catered dinner (items I picked up the day before and just needed to be reheated). This enabled us to spend time with our guests and participate in all the games. Again, because of the "pink" situation, I purchased plates, napkins, table cloths, balloons, and streamers in yellow and emerald green. Some character decorations were purchased from birthdayexpress.com. After dinner we had a piñata that resembled the balloon that Dorothy was supposed to come home in.  I decorated it with pictures from the Wizard of Oz. The piñata was filled with the Lion and Tiger theme (zoo assortment of toys from oriental.com). While the kids were hitting the piñata, little dogs (oriental.com) were hidden in the yard for a Toto hunt and only one was the real Toto.  Now it was time for the cake in which I took a picture of all the characters to my local supermarket where they scanned it in and since there was no wicked witch in the picture, I dressed my son up as the witch and put him in front of the Emerald City and I put the two pictures together and he became part of the picture. When all the kids came to the table, I had crayons for everyone and Wizard of Oz pictures for them to color (download from wizardofoz.com) then instead of those "pink" hats each child had a witches hat that I purchased at my local party store with rainbow blowers.  As the kids left we took pictures of them with Evan in front of the Emerald City with their witches hats on and these pictures were sent along with their thank you notes (which I created). Along with all the items that were given to the kids throughout the day, they also received goodie bags with a Wizard of Oz story and sticker book (amazon.com), multi-colored spiral lollypop, and lion and tiger beach balls (oriental.com).  The party began at 2:00pm and ended around 6:00pm.  After everyone left, my 3 year old came to me and said, "Mommy I had so much fun today - thank you". All that planning was well worth it.