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Lego Ninjago Party -8yr- Ninja Awards

July 2011

Jennifer in Rapid City, SD USA

Special Mention

My son wanted a Lego Ninjago party for his 8th birthday.  The trouble, these Lego sets had just started showing up on the shelves!  I didn't think I'd have much luck with my planning.  After much thought and e-mail searching, I came up with lots of ideas. 

Invitations:  I searched online for free clip art images of different Ninjago characters.  After selecting some images, I sent the clip art,text and a general idea to my aunt, a graphics art designer.  We collaborated together to come up with a great invitation.  On the solid colored envelopes, I used another free clip art image and the child's name to create a name label.  These labels came in handy throughout the party!!  Thank you cards were made to match in the same fashion. 

Decorations:  I really didn't do much other than solid red white and black for plates cups and napkins.  The children's name labels were on each cup, quite helpful I found.   

Party Snacks: The party was from 2-4 pm, so I only needed to provide a light snack and drink.  I used Club crackers and cheese circles on them (cut with an apple corer).  ThI also took granola bars and cut them into little square chunks and covered them with a green candy coating.  My son chose blue koolaid (to match the Kai character) to go with all of it.  The 10 boys ate it all up and thought the green Lego" chunks were funny!   

Cake: I had the cake made at a local bakery (Jerry's Cakes & Donuts).  I took a picture of an assembled Ninjago arena and a package of the Legos giving them an idea of the font style.  I dropped off the photos and two Spinjitzu battlers to be added on top of the cake.  It was a simple cake with the arena piped on a birthday message and the Spinjitzu battlers on top.  I also made Lego head marshmallow pops to send the kids home with.  The marshmallow pops consisted of one large marshmallow one small cut in half (one above & one below the larger marshmallow) tinted candy coating and food markers to make faces.  *Note if making these use white chocolate NOT almond bark.  Almond bark has a wax property making it difficult to draw on with food markers and it's not very compatible with food coloring.* 

Activities/Games:  I started the games with a "Master Build" to see who could build their Ninjago character and Spinjitzu platform the fastest.  I used the small Ninjago face mask stencil (from the Ninjago face mask download) with each character name on the back.  The boys drew one from a bag at random so there was no argument about who got which character.  After they were done they moved to the next table to practice spinning while the other boys were still assembling.  Once they were all assembled (5 Ninjas 5 Skeletons) I had all the boys share the Ninjas on the Spinjitzu platforms while the skeletons were lined up to be bowled over.  I added one extra skeleton from my son's collection to total six skeletons.  One at a time they played skeleton bowling on a card table with cardboard on it.  Each child had two chances to knock them all down. The rest of the children watched and laughed until it was their turn.  I took photos of each kid during this game. 

Next we moved to two other tables.  I had previously purchased two rectangular folding tables that lower to different heights.  I had them dropped to the lowest level allowing the boys to sit on their knees.  I had skeletons at one table ninjas at another.  Each table had the Ninjago starter arena on it.  Word to the wise TAPE THEM DOWN!!  I was glad I did.  The boys had a hilarious time battling each other some spinning them to see just how hard they could soar across the table.  I figured it was time to reel them in a bit so I called a time out then lined up Ninjas on one side skeletons on the other for a Skeleton to Ninja battle.  After these few games I gave them a couple of minutes of free play so I could reset.  I had two extra moms helping since my husband was deployed so we quickly rebagged each character.  They were put into each of their goodie bags so they could take them home.  The bags were simple little brown bags with the Ninjago character/name labels (self-made) on them. 

Costumes:  I then reset the main table for cake and ice cream.  On top of each plate was a Lego Ninjago face mask (template found on the Lego.com site-free! Three different images were on these and I used them all!)  I had the boys return to the table put on their masks and piled them onto the couch for a photo.  A couple with the masks on and of course a couple of funny face shots.  This proved wise as one or two masks quickly lost their attached strings.   

Favors:  While the boys were eating cake and ice cream we handed out awards.  I kept track of different wins losses sportsmanship etc. throughout all of the games.  On the Ninjago Face Mask I downloaded there was also a picture of a Ninjago character with a karate suit on holding a golden trophy in his hand.  Since these were already printed on cardstock I cut around each of them taped them onto a lollipop stick and shoved them onto a marshmallow (I had extras of these from the marshmallow pops).  On the back of each I created different trophy title names.  One by one they were awarded out while they were eating.  The boys loved hearing which trophy they got and why! 

Goody Bags:  The contents were simple-1. Spinjitzu character and platform. 2. Face mask 3.  Ninja silly bands (I found these on sale at a drug store and put only two in each) 4.  Ninjago "stickers"-for these I used large mailing labels found online free images of the Ninjago sets along with their set names and created my own makeshift stickers!  The boys didn't care that they were self made! 4.  Marshmallow Lego head pops (I had these covered and sealed saved in the freezer).  5. Trophy  Out of all the comments the kids LOVED taking home the Spinjitzu battlers instead of lots of random little junk.  Since many of the boys were classmates they also enjoyed the time interacting with each other!  It made my heart smile pulling off this all boy party while my husband was deployed!  Whew! :o)"

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