21981

Invader Zim Party -7yr- Nick Toons

September 2010

Annette in Los Angeles, CA;  USA

Special Mention

My seven-year-old loves Invader Zim which is a cartoon that USED to air on NickToons.  It's since been cancelled and now occasionally the show airs over the weekend or re-runs at night. Needless to say, this isn't an easy themed collection of plates, napkins, and cups to find at your local party store so when my son said he wanted an Invader Zim party, I thought OK….let's do this. 

The entire theme of the party included colors from Invader Zim (neon green, black, red, and purple) and the tone of the party had a special agent, mission impossible theme.  I decided to go with an X-files" or "Men in Black" type feel so that I could create activities for the kids but stay within the parameters of alien phenomenon like Invader Zim.  

The INVITATIONS were made with black red and green card stock. I downloaded a picture of the Invader Zim logo off the internet and printed out on photo paper.  I cut it out and used it as a belt wrapped around the entire invitation.  At the top it had a pencil sketch drawing of Invader Zim with the words WANTED at the top.  The rest of the invitation below the picture read:    Your secret mission should you choose to accept it?  Is to find the lost documents to an important Irken Alien file that went missing on Special Agent Aiden's 7th Birthday.  Please report to Human Intelligence Spy Agency at [address here] on [date and time of party]  Your secret password for entrance is: Gir.  Please contact the agency hotline at [phone number here] and leave a message with your intentions.  All agents will be served brunch.  This document will self destruct in 30 seconds.  

The invitations were hand delivered to my sons friends who were local in manilla envelopes imprinted with TOP SECRET on the front and addressed to the child with "Secret Agent Jake" or "Secret Agent Emma" any others were mailed.  The kids loved getting them by hand. 

We DECORATED the party area with neon green table cloths and balloon centerpieces of red black and purple.  We were expecting a lot of kids and I didn't want them in and around the house so we blocked off areas with yellow crime scene tape.  We used a black trash bag and cut it down the middle and used it to wrap the front gate of our house so they couldn't see the party in the back.  On the front of the gate I made an AREA 51 sign (headquarters for alien phenomenon) and posted out front.  I asked two teenage neighbor boys to come help out with the front gate by dressing in all black and wearing sunglasses.  They would ask the kids for their entrance password. The kids really got in the mood.  

When the kids entered they were asked to pull a card out of a hat.  The card said what team they'd be on when looking for the missing documents in our scavenger hunt later on.  The kids could pull a Human card or an Alien card.  When they had their choice they were given a lanyard to wear that said Special Agent and Human or Alien Case.  The human lanyard had the planet Earth watermarked on it and the Alien lanyard had the Irken Alien symbol watermarked on it. 

For ACTIVITIES we had the kids choose a secret agent name that only they knew.  All the kids sat in a circle and tried to figure out which special agent had which secret agent name.  They had fun guessing.  After that we broke into their human and alien teams.  They were given a file folder with word puzzles and clues written out.  I taped words all over the backyard.  Some belonged to the Human team and others belonged to the Alien team.  You had to solve the puzzle in order to know which word to grab.  

The Human team had Invader Zim questions that pertained to the normal solar system and to the human characters on the show like: Dib Gaz Professor Membrane etc.  The Alien team had questions about Invader Zim and the planet he comes from like:  Irken The Almighty Tallest Foodcourtia Blortch and Conventia.  The puzzles were written to where you didn't have to know anything about Invader Zim you just had to be able to put words together.  For example one of the words was Charcunga (an Invader Zim planet)  the puzzle had a picture of a shark with the + sign and the ending "unga".  Shark + Unga = Charcunga.  They had a lot of fun.  When the team completed their scavenger hunt they were awarded official silver detective badges for alien phenomenon.  

The last activity we played was trying to see which team could deactivate the ticking time bomb.  My husband took two kitchen timers 9-volt batteries electrical tape and the red and black wires from an old cell phone charger and made the kitchen timers look like bombs.  He even coiled the wire with a screwdriver to give it a good effect.  Everyone had to be quiet in order to hear the ticking.  Each child on the team was released at 10 second intervals to find the bomb.  When one child found the bomb they were asked to sit with the bomb and wait quietly until the other agents found the bomb.  Sort of a backwards hide and go seek.  This way everyone got a chance to find the bomb.  They couldn't deactivate it until the whole team was there.  They were timed after the last child on the team was released. The team with the best time won an extra treat.   

For food Invader Zim and his side kick dog Gir like waffles and muffins so we had everyone over at 11:30 for brunch.  We served muffins and fruit and juice water and coffee.  Later we served waffles scrambled eggs and bacon.  I went to our local thrift store and picked up a bunch of little creamer holders so that every table could have syrup at their table.  It was a very inexpensive way to do food for a kids birthday party that wasn't hotdogs and/or pizza.  I downloaded a large 8x10 sketch drawing of Gir off the internet and took it to our Super Walmart.  The bakery scanned it and filled it in with icing.  It looked GREAT. 

When everyone left they were given a purple or neon green goody bag filled with candy and all their secret agent badges and lanyards they had collected from the day.  I was one busy little party host but my son and his friends had a great time and I was proud to have had a party that didn't include a bounce house or swimming pool."

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