20020

Word World Party -4yr- Confetti Cup Cakes

June 2009

Adria in El Cerrito, CA USA

Honorable Mention

My son loves the show Word World on PBS. The show lends itself to fun and easy party decorating, as everything in Word World is made up of the letters that make up its name. 

Invitations: Using 8 1/2 x 11 paper, I folded it in half and on the outside wrote INVITATION in bubble letters, filling up the entire front. The letters butted up against one another and were in, red, orange, yellow, green, & blue (similar to the writing in the show's name logo). Inside, the bottom half contained the party information, written large in the same colors as the front (one color per part or the information, eg. the date was one color, the location was another, the RSVP info yet another). The top half of the inside had a full body picture of my son, with his name written in bubble letters down the length of him (besides his face). He was in the center, and above him was the Word World logo. Toward the 4 corners were 4 of his favorite Word World characters (WordFriends). I got all Word World images from this site: http://www.wordworld.com/birthday/ . I photocopied the invitations onto plain white paper since they were already very colorful, but put them in bright green envelopes. 

Decorations: I didn't need a lot of decorations since the party was at a park, and things from the games doubled as decorations. On the tables I put down red, yellow, green, & blue (solid) plastic table cloths. On each table cloth I taped down 10 large-ish WordFriends, 5 on each side, so they were right in front of people sitting at the tables (like where your plate would be placed). In the middle of the table, I taped 5 Word World logos, alternating angled directions so people on both sides of the table could read them. The characters and logos were printed out from the site above and then I cut them out, following the basic outline (you can't cut right along the figure because they have parts (like eyebrows) which float). I put clear plastic table cloths on the top to protect the characters.  I bought 7 (that's all the store had) plain silver round mylar balloons and using chisel tipped permanent markers, wrote BALLOON in blue, green, or red bubble letters on both sides of each one. I supplemented with latex balloons in colors of the rainbow. I was going to do yellow party hats that had HAT written around them, but ran out of time. I did do a couple at the party when one kid saw the packages of hats and asked for one. 

Activities/Games/Favors: I got a bunch of beach balls from the dollar bins at Target and let the kids chase those around the big field while the adults visited. The kids played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, which I made. I drew a donkey, made out of it's (bubble) letters (the face was on the D, the N was long and made the front legs, and the Y was also long, making one of the back legs), on brownish orange poster board, using brown pen, cut it out and glued it to thick white poster board. The tails were made out of the same orange poster board and brown pen, but said TAIL written downward in bubble letters. I drew on hair at the tip and just cut them into rectangles so the tails wouldn't bend as easily as if I'd cut around the letters. I wrote each kid's name on the back ahead of time.

I bought a red, blue, yellow, & green star shaped pinata. I cut out the letters for PINATA out of large pieces of construction paper, of the same colors, to fit the shape of the star. I used double sided tape to stick the letters to the pinata. The pinata loot doubled as the favor bag loot. Inside I put the usual cheap trinkets, but to fit with the theme, I put 2 types of alphabet stickers, and bags of Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs Little Letters Mini Cookies.

The kids were given favor bags to collect their loot in. They were paper gift/favor bags, approximately the size of a lunch bag, with handles. They were red, orange, yellow , green, & blue. On one side I wrote BAG in block letters down the bags, filling up the whole side. On the other side I cut out the Word World logo and glued it across the middle. In the 4 corners I cut out and placed 4 different WordFriends, so they were similar to the table cloths & invitations. I let each kid pick the color of bag they wanted then wrote their name in possessive form inside the B on the BAG side. 

Party Snacks: We had pizza, so on the cheese pizza I wrote PIZZA in squeezable pizza sauce. On the pepperoni pizza I wrote PIZZA in parmesan cheese, but that didn't turn out at all. I put letter shaped pasta in the pasta salad. 

Cake: I made a simple round chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and wrote CAKE on it in red bubble letters. I also made 26 confetti cake cupcakes with white frosting, and wrote one large letter on each one, alternating between red, blue, green, & yellow. The kids especially liked those and everyone wanted the letter their name stared with. I lucked out and didn't have any problems with kids fighting over the same letter, but if you use this idea, I suggest figuring out if you have kids who's names start with the same letter and having extra of that letter put to the side if needed!  It was fun coming up with ways to implement the Word World theme and my guests, both those familiar with the show and those who weren't, thought it was a cute idea for a party.

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