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Pink Panther Party -7yr- Pin The Tail on Panther

September 2012

Alecia in Bryan, OH, USA

September 2012 Winner

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering how a 7-year old even knows who Pink Panther is!  We get Netflix, and Netflix has had some old cartoons on there, Pink Panther, being one.  And somehow, this became my daughter’s new favorite thing to watch on tv!  So, that’s how I ended up throwing a Pink Panther birthday party.  I had to really watch my budget this year, so I’m going to write this up, with some of the ideas that I had, even if I wasn’t able to afford to do them.  (mostly the favors and such). 

INVITATIONS:  I came up with the idea that Pink Panther stole the party supplies(he is a little ornery at times), and the kids were going to have to use their ‘detective skills’ to find the items!  So, I designed an invitation around that idea.  The invitation was a ‘postcard’ style.  The front had Pink Panther peeking in from the side, and a pink bubble next to him that said You’re invited to Daughter’s 7th Birthday Party in purple font.  The back was divided in half, leaving me space to write name/address on the right half.  On the top left, the detective(from Pink Panther), is looking in from the side, holding a spy glass as pink panther footprints go across the top of the invite.  Then the wording as follows:  It’s a Pink Panther Birthday Party!  But there’s a problem, the Pink Panther ran off with the party supplies!!  ‘Daughter’ needs your detective skills to track down supplies for her 7th Birthday Party!  Then Date, Time, Place, RSVP.   I had a picture of Pink Panther doing a mad dash across the bottom, as if fleeing from the detective.  These turned out really really cute.  I just found images by googling Pink panther images. It was really pretty easy, and they were really impressive! 

FOOD:  I did an afternoon party, so I just did some snacky food mostly for the adults.  I had a spinach dip with pretzel snaps.  I also had strawberries, grapes, and apple slices, with a pink dip made from cream cheese, marshmallow fluff, and strawberry jello packet.  I had some turkey pinwheels, and chips and dip, and I think that was about it as far as food goes.  You could also make up ‘spy glasses’ as a novelty snack.  Use the round circle pretzels and the pretzel sticks and lay them out on wax paper so they touch, then pour a small dab of melted chocolate over the ‘joint’ and let them set up. I was GOING to have the ingredients to make Pink Panthers which were a novelty dessert drink at a diner I worked at years before.  You could make up an 8 x 11 poster that said Pink Panther and had a picture of Pink Panther photoshop’d with a ‘milkshake’ type drink in his hand.  Then below, listed the following ingredients: strawberry ice cream topping, stirred in a little bit of Sprite, Strawberry Ice cream, more Sprite(it’s essentially a ‘strawberry float’), topped with Reddiwhip and a maraschino cherry.  Tape this to a cupboard, and then have dessert glasses and ingredients below.  I provided Pink Lemonade to our guests.  (as I said, I kinda had to cut some corners!) 

DÉCOR:  The older my daughter gets the more she wants to be involved, which is so much fun!  She drew up her version of Pink Panther on an 8 x 11 piece of paper, and colored it in.  It was really good!  So, I saved that back, and hung this on our front door.  She also drew up a TALL version of Pink Panther on some cardboard, this was to be used in a game later.  She even painted the whole thing.  I outlined it, but other than that she did the rest herself!  I was really proud of her.  We had pink plates, cups, party napkins, and silverware.  I’m sure if you searched hard enough you probably could have found Pink Panther supplies.  You could also buy a helium tank at Walmart and fill up some pink balloons and put those on tables as centerpieces.  For the weights on them, you could use detective style items, such as a notepad and pen, a spy glass, a detective hat, a coffee mug, etc.  OR you could use bags of pink jelly beans OR anything that reminds you of pink panther.  We did put some pink balloons on our mailbox. 

GAMES: Well, this is the part that I always like!  So, the kids were going to have to work their way through 5 games, and at the end of each game, they would get a pink clue from Pink Panther, that would lead them (scavenger hunt-style) to a location where there would be a party supply! 

The first game was Pin the Tail on Pink Panther(the Tall version of Pink Panther that my daughter drew, was used for this).  We blind-folded each child, and gave them a tail, which I cut out of pink cardstock.  We spun them around and led them to the poster to pin the tail on the panther.  After all the kids took a turn, then I read the clue to them all.  (we didn’t really have winners on most games).  The clue said The first place to go, is where the plants grow!  The kids found party favors(noisemakers) in the empty planter by our front door.  I had a kids’ table set up with a pink table cloth, and the kids set the birthday party supplies on this table.  Next, we played a matching game.  I cut out squares from pink patterned scrapbook paper, and I taped them to a square piece of cardboard.  Then, my daughter stuck pairs of stickers under them.  The kids had to lift two squares and make a match.  As the kids made matches, I just removed the squares, and they got a starburst candy. 

After all the matches were found and everyone had mouthfuls of Starburst candy, I read the next clue.  This clue read You can’t catch me, but if you want the next item look up in a tree!  The kids ran to each tree until they found a stack of pink cups that I tucked in on a low branch.  Next up, was a silly game where each child would have to say a silly phrase while chewing pink bubblegum!   I gave each child a piece of gum, then one at a time, they had to say Fluffy Bunny. They were cracking themselves up just doing this!  Then I gave them another piece(only if they wanted).  They worked their way through the phrases, Pink Panther plays Pranks Six sick sheep snore soundly  and She sells sea shells by the sea shore Note:  after thinking about this, I kinda got nervous about kids choking on gum, so I had a trash can in front of us, so when they didn’t want to chew anymore, they just spit the gum wad out right away.  They had to stand still and we didn’t have any problems.  This was highly entertaining! 

Anyways, after we were done with this, they got the next clue, which read: “Stop making so much noise, and go to the place with the outdoor toys!  In the outdoor toy box, they found the pink plates that they needed!  Next, the kids had to take turns keeping a pink balloon in the air.  They each got a turn batting the balloon and trying to keep it in the air.  Once it touched the ground, they passed it to the next child.  After each child had a turn, I read the next clue to them.  This clue said I’m sly as a fox, the next item is hid in the mailbox!  This led them to the mailbox, where there was a gallon Ziploc bag with napkin wrapped silverware in there.  I wrapped the pink silverware with napkins, then secured with a strip of pink scrapbook paper.  Using scrapbooking adhesive, I attached a small circle that had a pink panther pawprint on it. 

The LAST game was Pass the Panther.  My mother-in-law found a plastic Pink Panther figurine that could be used as a cake topper or for a game.  We used it to play Pass the Panther.  Ideally, you could use the Pink Panther theme song as the music.  So, we played the music while the kids started passing the Panther.  When the music stops, the child holding the panther is ‘out’.  I give that child a starburst candy and they get to push the pause button to stop the song for the next round.  The last child left was declared the winner.  After this game, I read the last clue.  This clue read:  For a birthday thrill, look in the grill!  Our grill, which was NOT being used, hid our tray of cupcakes.  The cupcakes spelled out Mystery Solved.  This gave the kids all of their supplies for a birthday party!  The kids pretty much grabbed the cupcakes, and we passed out plates, silverware, cups of pink lemonade, and their favors. 

CAKE:  We just did cupcakes.  My daughter likes chocolate cake, so I did chocolate cupcakes, and strawberry(an attempt to keep with the PINK theme).  We frosted the cupcakes different colors, light blue, light green, purple, orange, and yellow.  Then on the blue ones, we wrote MYSTERY SOLVED.  We used a thick tip, and used dark pink frosting.  One letter per cupcake.  On the rest of the cupcakes we wrote out Happy 7 Birthday ‘Daughter’”.  And then the cupcakes that were left, I piped on my version of a pink panther paw.  My daughter wanted some spy glasses too, so she drew some of those on in white icing.  We served vanilla and strawberry ice cream. 

PARTY FAVORS:  We didn’t actually pass out prizes or party favors.  But here are some ideas anyways.  Pink laffy taffy, a magnifying glass(from $ tree), small notepads/pencil(keeping with the ‘detective theme’), pink popcorn balls(to be used as adult favors, also), and bubblegum.    I can honestly say everyone seemed to have a GREAT time, despite the fact that I wanted to put a little MORE into this party.  It turned out great, and the adults really seemed to enjoy the theme, for nostalgic reasons, I believe.  My daughter had a blast with her friends and is already asking me if she can help plan her younger sister’s birthday party!  I hope this party encourages others to think outside the box, when their youngsters request a ‘not so popular’ theme!!!  :)

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