12874

Teenage Ninja Turtle -6yr- Fleece Headbands

February 2006

Elizabeth in Beaverton, OR USA

Runner Up

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme 6 Years Old  Our son has loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since he saw the old live-action movie on video when he was three years old.  So a TMNT party he had.  I tried to psych him out about me making invitations that looked like a manhole cover with green TMNT fingers holding on to it.  Then, when you lifted the sewer lid the party info is underneath.  But he really wanted the store-bought invites with the cartoon Ninja Turtles and I thought, Purchase these or spend hours cutting, gluing and coloring Hmmm. So this year, we bought everything the party store sold.  Ninja Turtle invites, thank you notes, plates, cups, napkins, table cloths, signs and goodie bags.  My son was thrilled and it was so much easier on me.

INVITATION:  In addition to the preprinted It's time to Shell-abrate  I wrote, Cowabunga!  If you come to my pizza party, KidG's Name, it'll be awesome, dude!  Then filled in the blanks with party details.

DECORATIONS:  We decorated the eating area with green and light green streamers, a store-bought TMNT Happy Birthday sign, tablecloth, cups, plates and napkins.  We tied down bunches of helium balloons in purple, blue, red and orange (colors of the four TMNT's masks.)  In the game room, we hung tons more streamers and tied down more bunches of balloons. We moved out most of the furntiture so there was lots of room to play.  On remaining shelves we displayed our son's collection of TMNT action figures.  We hung a giant TMNT poster and his artwork of the turtles on the walls, and hung another Happy Birthday sign. 

We wanted the room to look like the TMNTs sewer  home, so we scattered empty pizza boxes and weapons throughout.  The weapons were placed up high, so none of the little boys at the party could use them to clobber each other.  (We thought of hanging scenery on the walls to make it look like a subway tunnel complete with rubber rats, crumpled up newspaper and graffiti but we're so glad we used traditional party décor.  Sometimes we parents can get so carried away with a theme that we forget it's a birthday party.  The colorful streamers and balloons were great.)

ARRIVAL OF GUESTS:  Before the guests took their gifts upstairs to the game room, and while I put away their shoes and coats, I had them sign their name on a poster I decorated with the phrase We love being turtles! And left a space for us to attach a group photo later.  This now hangs in my son's room.(A great souvenir for our son.) The kids then took their gifts upstairs and played until most everyone had arrived..

INTRODUCTION:  There were 14 kids and not everyone knew each other, so we sat in a circle and took turns saying your name and how you knew the birthday boy.  I asked everyone if they were ready to have fun at Pablo's Disney Princess birthday party.  This got a big rise out of them as they all screamed that it was a Ninja Turtle party. I said, In that case, let's hear the story of the Ninja Turtles.  We then took the kids downstairs and played a 4 minute segment from the 1980s cartoon, in which Master Splinter tells the story of how the turtles mutated into Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo and Donnatello.   I then explained that the kids now will go and mutate into ninja turtles themselves and learn how to fight their enemy The Shredder. This short time in front of the tv was perfect, since most of the kids weren't real familiar with the TMNTs. And the old cartoon is much less violent than the one on television now.  Very cartoonish and cute.

MUTATION ACTIVITY:  We took the kids upstairs to the playroom for mutation activity.  The kids gathered at one end of the room.  One at a time, they crawled like a turtle to the other side of the room, rolled around in green ooze (a large green bath towel on the floor) and chose a mask to wear.  I had precut strips of fleece in the four colors worn by the turtles, enough so that everyone could get the color they wanted.  I tied the strips around their foreheads and presented them as Leonardo or whichever turtle they turned into.  They then moved back to the other side of the room by doing karate moves.  The kids loved this!  Fleece worked great as it doesn't fray (so no sewing needed!!!) and stays tied, even only tying a simple knot.  No one needed to have their masks retied over and over, plus they were soft and stretchy so they didn't feel too tight or uncomfortable.

NINJA TRAINING:  We lined the guests up in two rows along the play room walls.  My husband walked between the rows and taught the kids to stand at attention and yell Yes, sir! To everything we told them to do.  (This is my favorite part of martial arts.) We had the kids promise to use their ninja skills to help others and not to hurt them. And it worked.  Then they practiced punching the air 10 times, and kicking left and right 10 times.  Finally they had to learn to talk like a turtle.  We had they shouting out TMNT phrases Totally awesome, dude! Cowabunga! And I love being a turtle!

TARGET PRACTISE:  We divided the kids into two lines.  In relay style, one person at a time from each team got 1 turn to throw a plastic ninja star into a basket. They got to go through line as many times as needed until each line of kids got 3 stars in their basket.

TURTLE, TURTLE, SHREDDER:  We told the ninja trainees that the next exercise would help them improve their speed, reflexes and concentration.  We played Turtle, Turtle, Shredder ,which is Duck, Duck, Goose in disguise.  I don't care how many times we play this at birthday parties.  As long as each kid gets at least 1 chance to be it this game is always fun. NINJA LIMBO:  A perfect party game for Michaelangelo, who loves to party This was our Flexibility exercise.  We had the kids limbo under Donnatello's Bo Staff (a big fighting stick.)  Each round, we lowered the bo staff.  The kids were chanting, How low can you go!

OBSTACLE COURSE:  The final game was an obstacle course. Ninja turtles live in the sewer and they love to eat pizza, but to get to the pizza restaurant, they have to wear disguises so no one recognizes them.  (They are mutants after all.) We set up a nylon green tunnel (purchased at Toys R Us, a pile of disguises (trench coat, fedora and sunglasses, just like the turtles wear) and taped paper pizza slices to a empty pizza box stuck to the wall.  On each kid's turn, they crawled through the sewer, put on the disguise (which was too big for them, hilarious), got a slice of pizza from the Pizza box, ran back to the sewer entrance, took off the disguise and crawled back through the sewer.  Then it was the next person's turn.  Repeat until everyone has gotten a pizza slice.  Everyone yelled, Go, Kid's Name, Go and cheered for whoever's turn it was.

LUNCH:  (Pizza and soda) I explained that turtles get really hungry and they love pizza, So let's eat.  I then started to eat a slice of paper pizza.  As they screamed and laughed, I asked the kids why they aren't eating their paper pizza slices.  They all yelled out that I was eating paper, not real pizza.  I acted real surprised, then suggested eating real pizza downstairs. (TIP: Do not take and bake.  You can only cook one pizza at a time and when are you going to do that?  Delivery was easier and not that much more money.)

CAKE:  I made chocolate turtle cupcakes with green frosting.  Peel off the wrapper (if you use muffin cups).  Frost the cupcake green (white frosting and green food coloring, mixed), then use dark green icing to draw the lines of a turtle shell. Glue 4 tootsie roll legs around the shell with frosting and stick a toothpick into the end of anther tootsie roll.  Stick the other end of the toothpick into the cupcake so the tootsie roll looks like the turtle's head coming out of the shell.  Dab two dollops of green icing on the tootsie roll for eyes.  I decorated other cupcakes with sprinkles, others with TMNT toys like bakeries use and left five blank.  On those I used frosting to spell out the birthday boy's name.  (One letter on each cupcake.)  I arranged all the cupcakes on a tray and it looked great. 

PRESENTS:  We returned to the playroom to play Musical Presents.  Everyone held the gift they brought and sat in a big circle.  We played the theme song to TMNT on the CD player and the kids passed the presents around.  When the music stopped, whichever present the bday boy was holding was the one he opened.  

CLOSING ACTIVITY:  We told the kids they were finished with their training and ready to fight the Shredder, which was a pinata we made to look like Shredder. The kids got to hit the pinata with one of my son's swords.  

GOODIE BAGS:  In addition to the candy from the pinata, the kids were given TMNT fruit snacks, TMNT jigsaw puzzles (Dollar Store) and TMNT kites (Dollar Store). They also got to keep their bandanas.  The kids loved that. They all had a great time and the parents that stayed at the party were impressed at how organized and much fun it was.  This was our son's favorite party he's ever had at least until next year. (ha ha ha)

EXTRA GAME IN CASE WE NEEDED TO KILL TIME:  Transfer the Ooze  This was a relay race where the kids would carry toxic Ooze (made from empty toilet paper rolls and contruction paper) using kitchen tongs down to the turnaround and back, pass to next player until last player puts in the hazardous waste container. (Our red recycle bin.)

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