21205

Incredibles Party -7yr- Erupting Volcanoes

March 2010

Brenda in Elkhorn, Nebr., USA

Runner Up

Party was for my 6 yr old son with 14 guests!   

INVITATION:    Waiting For Something Amazing To Happen? Race over to an Incredible party with erupting volcanoes exploding candy and super-powered games!" I made 2" circle stickers that said this to seal the invitations with. The stickers also had a stylized image of The Incredibles family racing along in a car. The invitations themselves came from the party store like the plates & napkins.  

ACTIVITY:    We had 2 erupting volcano events; the first was sort of a science project that all the kids got to do and the 2nd was the birthday cake itself. To prepare for the science activity form 14 mini-volcanoes I wrapped aluminimum foil around empty small plastic drink containers (the kind with the foil-sealed top "Little Hugs"). I molded one side of the foil around the top of the container leaving the opening open and fanning out the bottom into the shape of a volcano (wrinkly & ridgey). Then I spray-painted them brown and spray-painted the tops red. I put each dried volcano on a blue plastic disposable dinner plate so the volcano looked a lot like the island in the movie with the ocean(the blue plate) around it. I put these on a table on my back-yard deck (due to the mess) and let the kids stand around the table. Bowls were filled with baking soda to share each child got a plastic spoon and a cup full of vinegar and were instructed to put the baking soda in 1st and then pour the vinegar in slowly. This causes the volcano to erupt (bubble up and overflow). The kids loved it! We refilled their cups with vinegar so they could do it again. You'll want to experiment ahead of time with your container to see how much baking soda and vinegar is required for an overflowing eruption.   

CAKE:    The erupting volcano cake was made to look like an island with a shallow large round yellow cake on the bottom and a volcano chocolate cake on the top. To bake the volcano cake I used a glass bowl. Place the yellow cake on a large round blue plate. Flip the chocolate cake over onto the yellow cake (off-centered) and carve out the center (about half-way through) also carve the outside to look more volcano-shaped. Frost the volcano portion with chocolate frosting and the bottom portion with green frosting except for the "beach" which we covered with a white-sugar and brown-sugar mixture to look like sand. Add a little blue frosting around the base to look like waves. We decorated the cake with plastic palm trees (from party store) and a McDonald's Syndrome Omnidroid toy and a small Mr. Incredible figure. To make the volcano erupt insert one end of a plastic tube (from hardware store) into the side of the volcano cake until it comes out at the bottom of the hole you carved in the center then fill the cake-hole with red vanilla pudding (colored with red food coloring). First let the guest of honor blow out his candles (placed around the top of the volcano) then insert a balloon air pump into the other end of the tube. When you pump the balloon pump the air will cause the pudding to overflow. Depending on the force of the air-pressure the pudding may spurt up aways. I have a picture with the kids all leaning back to avoid be splattered but they all have surprised and delighted expressions!   

DRINKS:    We let the kids put Pop Rocks candy into Gatorade. You could hear the candy pop and see it hop. They didn't have to drink it if they preferred regular Kool-Aid.   

DECORATIONS:    Party décor consisted of a huge Incredibles movie standee (standing cardboard cut-out previously used in a video store which I bought on ebay [and later I resold it on ebay]) a 7' palm-tree (consisting of a palm branch bunch stuck into the end of a bamboo pole from a craft store supported by a Christmas tree stand wrapped in a tan towel [the palm tree had a small tropical bird pirched in it (also from the craft store) to look like the robotic security camera bird in the movie]) movie stills mini-posters (images of the movie printed off of the web) hung on the walls and streamers and balloons. I also made a mobile with 3 evil henchmen in their hovercrafts and hung it above the table where they ate cake. To make the hovercrafts I taped 2 CD's together back to back so the shiny prismatic side could be seen from the top and the bottom taped a little black plastic plug to the top for the 'seating compartment' and taped little paper cut-outs of the henchmen to the top so it looked like they were sitting inside. I strung these with fishing wire to a triangle-shaped hanger made from dowels so that the whole thing could gently spin.  

DECORATIONS which doubled as ACTIVITIES:   I also made a table display with our Nebula ball as the centerpiece and The Incredibles figurines posed around it. I thought that the Nebula ball looked like Violet's force-field. It is a glass ball that you plug in and electric sparks that look like lightening shoot out from the center. When you touch the ball the sparks are attracted to your finger. The kids love to touch it and see the beams of light rush to their touch on the other side of the glass. You can see the beams of light best in the dark so I curved a black piece of posterboard around the back and sides of it (leaving room for the figurines on the sides). I taped this curved posterboard to a flat poster-board to anchor it (cutting slits along the bottom to use as tabs when taping it down). Finally Using gray poster-board I cut out a mini-city skyline (sky-scrapers) and used white card stock to cut out clouds. I taped these to our blue wall in a corner that was full of Incredibles action figures (bought on ebay). When the kids arrived they played with the action figures (as well as when they were waiting to be picked up).   

GAMES:   
1- Key-card stretch: using sticky-stretchy hands the players swung their stretchy hand at key-cards that were sitting in shallow pockets on a board. If their hand hit the key-card and pulled it out of the pocket they placed it in their team's bucket. The team with the most key-cards won. A local hotel sold me some key-cards that I decorated to look like the key-card in the movie. I made the board with chip-board drew a Mrs. Incredible arm on it and taped on the pockets. Make sure the pockets are not too deep or tight so the cards slide out easily. Placing the board low on the wall will help the cards slide out when the sticky hand sticks to it.  

2- Island Shuttle Race: We used white balloons to look like those white oval-shaped rail-cars. We also taped a little cut-out of Mrs. Incredible sneaking a ride on the shuttle car but you wouldn't need to do this. All the kids have to do is release a clothes pin which is holding the balloon closed and the balloon races along a string. Here's how to set it up: tightly tie one end of the strings to something (we used our chain-link fence). Have one string/shuttle for each child. Blow up the balloons but don't tie them shut; twist & clamp with a clothes pin. Tape the balloon to a straw. Thread the open end of the string through the straw. Have all the kids stand in a line holding their string so it is level (not drooping). When they release the clothes-pin clamp the balloon will release its air and race along the string. It's a lot of prep work for a quick race but its cool. Don't twist the balloons too much before clamping because if its humid they may stick shut and not take off like they're supposed to.   

3 - Frozone Freeze Tag: The kid that is 'it' is Frozone and the rest of the kids are Omnidroids. The last Omnidroid left unfrozen gets to be Frozone for the next round. After playing 'Frozone Freeze-Tag' and after the cake and opening gifts we had a scavenger hunt.    

4 - Scavenger Hunt: I told the guests that Syndrome had stolen their goodie bags and we'd have to look for clues to find them. The clues were revealed using 'super-powers'. Each clue gave them directions of where to find the next clue. One clue was written in permanent marker on a piece of plastic (cut from a grocery bag) and then frozen in a small block of ice. We had to melt the ice to read the clue. Another clue was written on white paper with white crayon. To see the invisible message we painted over it with watercolor paint. We used 'elasta-power' to expand a balloon to read the hidden message (ahead of time you write the clue on the balloon in fairly small type when it is blown up so when you let the air out the type is so small you can't read it until the balloon is blown up again). They used their super strength to lift (as a team) a 'heavy' box (not heavy at all actually) and find the clue beneath it. Finally they used their power of speed to run quickly to where the bags were hidden.   

FAVORS:    Bag of Pop Rocks candy sticky/stretchy hand small plastic ball with shiny spinner inside a party-favor sized set of Magnetics (sticks with magnets on ends that connect to form shapes) and a tube of bubbles (the kind where you wad up the gunk and blow a 'bubble' using the little straw).   

COMMENTS:    We had this party 5 years ago and I'm just now developing the digital photographs!"

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