19589

Hula Hoop Party 5yr

March 2009

Patti in Alpharetta, GA USA

Honorable Mention

When my daughter turned 5 we decided to have a hula hoop party.  That was what she loved most.  Hula hoops are hard to find (they are considered a seasonal" item) so I was able to borrow about 25 hula hoops from my church.  (I also saw in FamilyFun magazine how to create your own hula hoop from tubing bought at a home store and decorative tape.  We did that later on after the party for fun.)  I used posters on the front door and other places to direct the party guests to the back.  I had my daughter color these in advance with a cartoon Hula Hooping girl on them.  The day was beautiful so we set up several games using the hoops.  First we had a bean bag toss into several hula hoops that were labeled with point values.  Next they had to throw the hula hoops around several items we had and labeled them with point values.  Next we hung one up from the deck and they had to throw balls throw it.  They had to move back as they kept winning.  And the last game was an obstacle course.  I laid out several hoops on the ground and they had to run jump hop etc through each one.  I don't like to give out prizes.  Kids should be able to learn to have fun without always getting something.  So they just moved through those stations as they liked.  I like to dress my kids in a shirt that has the theme of the party but could not find a hula hoop one.  So I bought a pink shirt from Wal*Mart and used t-shirt markers to draw the cartoon hula hooping girl.  I printed it the right size and used it as a template under the shirt.  It came out great!  (I put it on the back as well as if you were looking at the cartoon's back.)  I used that design for coloring pages and got so good it at that I drew it on the plain balloons too!  After playing the games we had a hula hooping contest to see who would drop it last.  We played fun music too.  I also used the Hula Hooping Girl Cartoon as a design for the cake.  This is a great idea I got from a Party Store.  If you go to a cake decorating store you can buy "wafer paper" it's edible.  You can print out your design on the computer and use edible markers to trace the image onto the wafer paper.  First lightly ice your cake with "classic icing".  (It's the same color as the wafer paper.)  Then simply place the wafer paper on your cake (the icing acts like "glue") and use it like "color by number" with icing tubes or colored icing out of a bag with the right tips.  It comes out great!  I also like to fill the cake with chocolate pudding as a special surprise inside.  After cake we went inside and watched a YouTube video of a hula hoop circus act from Cirque du Soleil on a projector my husband had.  The kids loved it and was just enough time for me to set up for opening the gifts outside.  After gifts we did the pinata.  I bought a Hula girl pinata from Party City and created a Hula Hoop out of small plastic tubing and glued/taped it to her waist.  It was really cute.  One of my pet peeves about pinatas is that some people are just hogs and others get nothing.  So I always fill it and have a rule that each child gets "one of each kind of thing".  Then everyone has the same and no one gets upset.  In the past I've also filled it with prepared bags of candy and each person would just get a bag.  Then no mess and everyone's happy.  For the goody bags they got glow in the dark bracelets candy balloons suckers M&Ms a candy bracelet and birthday stickers.  I don't like to have long parties so we were able to accomplish that in 1 1/2 hours.  It was one of the best parties we've ever had and my daughter loved it!  I was able to keep the cost down as well."

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