21129

Grease 50s Party 4yr - Music Invite

February 2010

Jennifer in Pflugerville, Texas  USA

Runner Up

INVITATIONS: I burned a copy of some of the songs from the Grease soundtrack along with other songs that were popular during 1958/59 (the year the movie took place). (Some of the other songs were Purple People Eater, The Witch Doctor, Yakety Yak, Lollipop, Chantilly Lace, Splish Splash, Dream Lover and Charlie Brown.)  I put the CDs in paper sleeves.  On the front I created a paper record with a label that read You're the One that We Want."  On the back I printed out a block with the following:   to celebrate Lizzie's 4th birthday So swing on over all you Grease monkeys and Beauty School dropouts.  It's sure to be a rockin' good time. Grease is the Word: (date) Grease is the time: (time) Grease is the place: (location) Grease is the Motion: (RSVP number)  

DECORATIONS: We created 3 different "scenes" in the 3 bottom rooms of our house.  Our kitchen became the Frosty Palace our front room became the drive in and our family room became the gym at Rydell High.  In the kitchen we kept it simple using strands of 45s we found at Party City to hang from both doorways.  To create a drive in we hung a white screen on the wall to represent the movie screen.  We also created a 3D replica of Greased Lightning out of a large box and some wood.  This sat in front of the movie screen.  The family room was decorated with red and white streamers and balloons and large tissue paper flowers of the same color to surround the door frames.  It pretty much resembled the decorations from the dance-off in the movie. 

COSTUMES:  Guests were encouraged to dress in clothing from the time period.  One of my daughters wore red shoes black leggings and a black shirt that had the neck and arms cut off so that she could pull it down to be like the shirt that "bad" Sandy wore at the end of the movie.  We also curled her hair to be like Sandy's.  My husband and I bought costumes from Party City.  I bought a pink ladies jacket that I wore over a black shirt and skirt (a la Rizzo) and my husband bought the T-birds jacket.  Most of the guys showed up in jeans and white shirts and some of the dads were even sporting black leather jakcets.  The girls varied between wearing capris and shirts with scarves or poodle skirts.  One little girl even came dressed as cheerleader Sandy.   

ACTIVITIES:  As the kids arrived we took everyone's picture sitting in Greased Lightning.  Then they were able to move to the family room where everyone could take part in a dance-off to the music we had burned for everyone. 

GAMES:  We kept the games simple since we were dealing with mostly 4 year olds.  The first game we played was a car-hop relay race.  Each team was provided with a tray that held play food that you would find at a drive in: hamburger hotdog ice cream cone soda fries and bucket of popcorn.  The teams raced to Greased Lightning and back trying to keep their food from falling off their trays.  After the relay we put on the song Limbo Rock and had a limbo contest.  Then we had a drag race.  Each kid was allowed to chose a Matchbox car when they arrived.  (We shopped for weeks to find Matchbox cars that represented cars from the 50s.)  The kids raced their cars across a table to simulate the car race at the end of Grease.  The final game was a large record pinata (found at Party City) filled with penny candy that was popular in the 1950s (We found a good mix of carmels Mary Janes Tootsie Rolls and Bit O Honeys at Sams Club.) 

PARTY FOOD:  We kept the menu simple serving food you would find in a 50s diner.  We cooked up hot dogs White Castle burgers (We were able to find boxes of 6 in the freezer section at Wal Mart since we don't live near a White Castle.) and french fries.  We served all of the food in paper trays that we bought in bulk at Sams Club.  For drinks we provided Coke root beer and juice boxes for the kids. 

CAKE:  I made a 12 inch circular cake and iced it with brown icing to make it look like a record.  I used a fork to create the grooves on the record.  I also rolled out white fondant to create a label for the album.  On the label I wrote my daugher's name and a 4 in pink icing.  I also made cupcakes for the kids.  They were iced white and decorated with white fondant stars that I sprinkled with pink sugar sprinkles.   

FAVORS:  Along with the penny candy the kids got from the pinata and the Matchbox car they used in the drag race game we sent each kid home with some more 50s candy (candy buttons Safe-T-Pops and candy necklaces) and small genuine Coca-Cola glasses we found for 50 cents a piece at the dollar store.  We were told by everyone who attended that this was by far the best birthday party that we have thrown to date."

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