16464

Little Einsteins Party -2yr- Backyard Maze

August 2007

Heather in San Luis Obispo, CA, USA

Honorable Mention

My daughter and nephew are only six days apart so for their second birthday we decided to have a Little Einsteins party.  Since we couldn't find anything online for ready made stuff we had to come up with most of it on our own. 

For INVITATIONS: I made them on the computer with the title We've got a mission!  We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship to celebrate Karsyn and AJ's 2nd birthday zooming through the sky (date) climb aboard get ready to explore (address of party).

For DECORATIONS: we printed out several different sizes and colors of musical notes mounted them on foam core board and punched a hole in the top to hang them from the patio covering.  We also found images of famous pieces of artwork and made foam frames with foam sheets from our local craft store.  We hung these from the patio covering as well. 

For CENTERPIECES we printed out the characters including rocket and a picture of the celebrants and cut them out.  We pasted them onto barbeque sticks and stuck them inside the sand.  We also decorated the buckets with images from the Disney website. For the main event we rented a bounce house.  To keep it interesting we decided to make the kids earn their 'entrance' into the bounce house.  At one end of the back yard we set up a maze.  The entrance to the maze had a large printout of Rocket and it said "Mission: Find the Bouncehouse". 

For the maze itself we bought rolls of black painters dropcloths at Home Depot and stapled it to stakes we stuck in the ground.  Strategically placed throughout the maze we placed small tables with an easel containing a 16X20 sheet of each character along with and activity which became their take home items.  The first station was LEO and it said "Hi my name is Leo and I love to conduct.  My baton and I go everywhere together. Would you like to make your own baton so you can practice at home?". 

Next to the picture we had a basket of pre-holed and pre-painted colorful foam balls and some small dowel rods that the kids could make their own baton with.  After making the baton they took it with them to the next station which was Quincy.  Same set up image with an introduction of himself and what he loves to do. 

For the take home here we bought harmonicas in bulk as well as whistles for an assortment of musical instruments.  Next came Annie and her introduction sheet and the take home was an inflatable microphone I found at Oriental Trading Company.  Lastly was June the dancer.  Since a unisex take home was hard we decided to have two different things here.  I found glass slipper party favors in the wedding section at WalMart which I filled with candy necklaces for the girls and June also loves astronomy so we had build your own solar system sticker sheets from Orintal Trading Company for the boys.  At the end of the maze was a table with personalized favor bags for each child. 

We decorated plain favor bags with images from the show and hung an image of rocket from the handle that we printed the names on.  They found their name dumped their goodies inside and then off to the bounce house.   It was a good way to get the parents involved as well. By having it this way it solved the problem of having to make up games and buy a lot of different prizes.  It was its own self contained game/prize/activity all in one!  We also had the celebrants wearing matching shirts that had an iron-on transfer I made on the computer that said 'Karsyn and AJ's 2nd Birthday Bash' and had images of the characters on it.

For FOOD: we just had typical party food nothing special.  We did have two separate cakes though so they could each blow out their own candles.  We just used primary colors for party ware. All in all it was a great party the kids were all exhausted at the end of the day but they were excited. 

The parents all loved it and the personalzation we were able to do added that extra touch.  It was exhausting for us as well but our kids were excited so that's all that mattered!"

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