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Phineas & Ferb Party -6yr- Giant Board Game

April 2012

Kelly in Ellicott City, MD USA

Runner Up

We had a Phineas and Ferb party for my son’s 6th birthday. There were 21 guest kids and 11 siblings, so some of the tips in this post may also help in managing a big crowd. We had the party outside (kind of a necessity with such a large crowd), but you should be able to perform or adapt most of these activities for inside. Having it at the house allowed me to include siblings. A lot of these games you could do with any party theme. It definitely helps to have helpers to get each activity set up and broken down quickly. This agenda kept us busy for two hours with just a little downtime between each activity; not enough really for the kids to even start playing on the swing set too much before the next activity began.  BEFORE THE PARTY I sent out a Phineas and Ferb primer via email to the parents of the guests. I knew not all of the kids had seen the show, so I included enough information to explain some of the references that would made at the party. That way they could pass the info along to the kids before the party. I also included in the message that some activities would just be for the invited guests and not siblings, so the parents could prepare the younger siblings for that before the party.

INVITATIONS: The front had a graphic of Perry and said Hey, Where’s Perry?. The inside had a picture of Phineas and Ferb rocking on guitars and said He’s at Jackson’s Birthday Party!” with details of the party. 

ACTIVITIES:  As guests entered the house, I gave each one a clip-on badge and told them they were agents for the day (like OWCA agents). This allowed me to call for agents to assemble whenever it was an activity for the guest children and not siblings. I had thought about ordering plastic fedoras as well, like Perry wears, but wasn’t sure if they would keep them on the whole time. MAKING -INATORS While waiting for all guests to arrive, the children built–inators. I had lots of found objects set up on tables, so the kids had lots of materials to work with: toilet paper/paper towel tubes, small boxes, buttons, foam inserts out of packages, pipe cleaners, pom pom, buttons and components I took out of old phones and other electronics. I spray painted some of the boxes and tubes with leftover paint from the game board described later. I provided glue and glue sticks, but found that glue dots worked best since the materials you are trying to put together aren’t always flat.

GAMES:  Giant Boardgame -  After everyone arrived, we set up a giant boardgame in the backyard. Making the game: I made about 10 cardboard squares approximately 3’ x3’. I spray painted each one ( I had 3 different colors of spray paint). For the last square, we painted a bullseye with two of the colors. My husband made a spinner wheel out of some scrap wood and nails. We printed pictures of the numbers 1, 2,3 and one picture of Doofenshmirtz and one picture of Candice. We use spray adhesive to adhere them to the wheel. Make sure there is only one number 3 on the wheel. If you have extra spaces, use multiple ones and twos. If you can’t make a spinner wheel, you could also make a large die out of a square box or out of a PVC pipe frame with stretchy fabric covering it. (If I had to use the die, I had envisioned the kids throwing it from the top of the deck into the yard. Just make sure the die can roll and won’t just land like a brick.) Another method would be to make a deck of large cards. Any method that could produce a random outcome.  

Playing the game: For playing the game, we laid the squares out in a curvy path in the yard. We had cut slits in two corners of each square and put plant stakes through them into the ground so they wouldn’t shift too much while the kids were moving on them. Explain that P&F often make huge things in their backyard, so you created a giant board game and the kids get to be the pieces. Before the party, I printed each child’s name on a piece of paper and put them in a drawstring bag. (It helps to wear a fanny pack or something to carry these things around during the party.) I drew out four names to play the game. (for the first game, it should be the birthday child plus three.) Everyone else gets in a line and will be the wheel spinners (sell it as they get to control the movements of the players).  Make sure the line is positioned to that the kids playing the game can see the wheel. (at our party, the line started out fine, but it was so long kids were bending it around to see the wheel; that got in the way of the players seeing.)

Each kid turns the wheel and the players move the number of spaces until someone reaches the bullseye. If the wheel land on Candice, the player is busted and goes back one space. If the wheel lands on Doofenshmirtz, they go back two. We had time to play two games. Freeze Tag - For this game, it helps if you have a parent or friend willing to play actor for a little bit. After the board game, I gathered the kids in a different area and explained we were going to play freeze tag. My husband does a pretty good impression of Doofenshmirtz. So as he got done explaining the rules, I walked up to him with a box and said he got a package. He opened it and inside was a letter saying something along the lines of I know how hard it can be throw a good birthday party for your child, so I sent these along to help. Tell Perry the Platypus I said hi. Doof. N. Shmirtz Inside were work gloves we had covered in glitter and a bicycle helmet we covered with foil, glitter and glittery pom poms. My husband read the letter out loud and said how nice. He asked the kids if he should put it on, and of course they shouted No. He did anyway, and then said he felt dizzy. Then he started talking in Doofenshmirtz’s voice saying “Hello, Hello, is this thing on? Can everybody here me? Ah, my mind controller worked! Now to test my freezinator gloves for freeze tag. I’m gonna get you! And that’s when the freeze tag game started. My husband lasted for about five minutes, then pretended to recover. He said he needed to rest and made someone else It. While they are playing freeze tag, set up the bags for the scavenger hunt below and bring out the balloons.

YOU'RE SO BUSTED/WHERE'S PERRY SCAVENGER HUNT Setting up: Create 5 or 6 clues for the scavenger hunt.  Make the clues lead the kids to places that go all the way around the outside of the house, or start at the bottom of the house, go up and come back down. The goal is to end up where you started. Print on colorful paper that can be found easily in grass or on your carpet. Cut each clue out separately. Blow up about 125 balloons (the Dollar store is great for packages of balloons). Put each clue into a balloon. Keep a separate copy of the clues with you in case any get lost or blown away later. We stored the balloons in large lawn bags and put them in a storage area out of sight (we tried to keep as much as possible a secret from the birthday boy). An electric air pump helped fill the balloons quickly.

GOODY BAGS:  On the scavenger hunt, the kids are filling their goody bags. This is why I labeled the goody bags, because they aren’t being handed out at the end of the party. This helps the kids/parents keep track of theirs until they leave. For the actual hunt, I put the favors into brown paper gift bags (as many as you have clues), and I pasted a picture of Perry’s platypus foot on the bag. I put each favor into a separate bag (all the rubber duckies in one bag, all the bouncy balls in another etc.)

PINATA: We had a friend make a Perry piñata for us. If you are lucky, you may be able to find one on Ebay or Etsy. If not, you can buy a generic sort of piñata and paste a large picture of Perry on it.  During the party: While freeze tag is going on, put each bag in the location where the scavenger hunt clue will lead them (while the kids are distracted). Bring out the balloons. When freeze tag is over, explain that they are playing You’re so busted. Tell them pop the balloons and find the six clues inside and bring the clues to you. (Kids seem to love busting balloons.) After you’ve collected all of the clues, tell them you are playing Where’s Perry, and the clues will lead you to Perry. Pass out the labeled good bags. Read the first clue. You may have to help them with the first one so they grasp how the game is going to work.

Also explain that since it’s the birthday child’s home, they may have to help everyone with the clues since they are more familiar with the place. As they figure out each clue and go to that place, they will find the favor bag. You take control of the bag and pass out the favor to each child to put in their goody bag. Now when you have a lot of kids, they will start to crowd you to get the favor. Tell kids who already got their favor to move a little ways away. Once everyone has that favor, move on to the next clue. Don’t get into granting each child the exact favor they want (the pink one, etc. ) Tell them they can trade later. As you and the kids move around the house or upstairs out of sight, someone else sets up the Perry piñata. The final clue leads the kids back to the beginning where they find Perry and are ready to do the piñata. The birthday child goes first, then the child who won the first giant board game, and then the child who won the second board game. 

Extra: If you want to be nice to the siblings, blow up an extra 100 balloons, put stickers in a few, and let the siblings pop those while the party guests are on the scavenger hunt.  My clues for the scavenger hunt were as follows. You can tweak to fit your surroundings. 1. I hang out with these guys in high places; they have plants for hair and funny faces (This led them to hanging plants hanging down from my deck. This was in sight from where we busted the balloons. I used stickers to put faces on the plant pots. I hung the favor bag from the hook the plants hung on.)  2. Go to the left and around the side, with the gnomes is where I hide. (I put the bag next to some garden gnomes around the side of the house.)   3. Up to the front, look for a tree; by a magical door is where you’ll find me. (We had a fairy door under a big tree in our front yard. You could change this to be a doghouse or mailbox, if it is close to the house.)  4. For this next one, use your powers; look for me among the flowers. (hidden in a flower bed)  5. Around the next side, where there are trees; look carefully in the leaves (hung in the branches of a tree)  6. Go back to the beginning, a total rewind; look high again, and see what you find (Perry piñata hanging down from the deck.) 

CAKE:  I like to give a door prize during birthday parties, so we put a Perry sticker on the bottom of a paper plate and stuck it in the middle of the stack. During cake time, we have the kids look at the bottom of their plates (warn them not to tip them over), and whoever has the sticker gets the prize. We gave away a P&F voicinator toy. Just make sure the birthday child doesn’t get the special plate. SILLY STRING Our last activity was silly string. We gave a can to each kid. We told them they couldn’t spray until everyone had a can, so they were instructed to shake their can until everyone was ready. The other rule was no spraying at faces. When everyone was done spraying, we then challenged them to see who could make the biggest silly string ball by gathering up the string that was around. That was a sneaky was to have them clean it up. (We got this idea because the kids started making balls out of it anyway.)  One thing I considered doing but didn’t have time to set up was pin the tail on Perry.  It’s a good downtime activity or something for the siblings to do.

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