8084

Wizard of Oz (2&5yr) Witches Freeze Tag

Feb. 2004

Rebecca in Harleysville, PA USA

Runner-Up

My daughter and son have birthdays a week apart.  This year my daughter wanted a Wizard of Oz party, so I took the idea and ran with it!

I began by ordering personalized invitations on-line which read, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Lauren's 5th and Nicholas' 2nd Birthday Party."  I included that costumes could be optional if their child wanted to dress-up.  I arranged for the party to take place at my house from 11:30am to 2:00pm and lunch would be provided for all. 

I then began the task of making the sets and purchasing the goodies for the party.  All of the goodies were purchased on-line and so were the costumes. (Ebay is great!) I began the party by having the children enter my front door and walk over a rainbow. In my foyer was a large spiral beginning to the yellow brick road I drew and painted. I purchased all of the materials at a local teacher store. (paint and large butcher paper) Hanging from my balcony over-looking the foyer was a large movie poster from the Wizard of Oz and there were Wizard of OZ pink and purple balloons on either side.  My daughters play house was also in the foyer and half in my living room jacked up on one side, and the roof caving in.  The Wicked Witch of the Easts feet were sticking out of the bottom into the room. (These were inflatable ones pirchased on-line, but you can make your own) 

I directed the children into my dining room where the table was set up with materials for the children to make a crown to wear as a party hat. They decorated them with stickers and glitter.  The boys made lion crowns and the girls princess crowns.  Once all of the children arrived, I sat them all down in the dining room and showed them the picture book from the Wizard of Oz. I explained that they were now in the land of Oz and they were going on a journey.  They would meet a Good Witch, a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, Lion and a Wicked Witch on their journey. 

I then gave each of them a handled Official Wizard of OZ bag(purchase on-line) that I wrote their names on, that they would take on their trek and collect items along the way. I then told them in order for them to get home they needed to collect as a group the diploma from the Scarecrow, the Heart from the Tin Man, the Badge of Courage from the Lion and the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick and take them all to the Wizard.  Then he would grant their wishes and they could go home. 

My daughter was dressed as Dorothy and carried a special basket to keep all of the items in as they were collected. Before their journey began, Glinda appeared (my 15 yr. old babysitter) and presented them with bubbles and Glinda party blowers to put into their goodies bags to start them off.  Them she followed them on their journey.  Each child began on the spiral and then followed the yellow brick road (made of a giant roll of yellow table cloth bricked off-purchased at a party store)into my living room.

The living room had flower pots filled with giant lollipops (bought at Cracker Barrel) and blue balloons to represent munchkinland.  They played pass the ball in a circle to the Wizard of Oz CD and the person with the ball got out and picked a lolipop to put into their bag. All children won! The yellow brick road then led them into my sunroom where I had painted a giant cornfield. My brother was sitting in there dressed as the Scarecrow and had a dance party with the kids. He then gave them all a diploma (coloring sheets of OZ characters and a maze-off the internet) wrapped in ribbon and a sticker seal as a prize.  One person got the official diploma to take to OZ. 

Then it was back onto the yellow brick road down the main hallway filled with trees (painted and silk) along the way and found a blown up picture (life-size from KINKOS) of the Tin-Man.  They then played pin the heart on the tin-man and the closest one got the heart with the clock to take to OZ. Everyone also got heart pencils and springs to put in their goodie bags.  Then we followed the yellow brick road into the family room which was filled with paper poppies and mult-colored balloons (I made the poppies out of construction paper-hundreds of them). The kids laid down in the poppies to fall asleep until the Lion came out (my nephew dressed up) and told them to wake up and find one silk flower.

Once everyone had one,(I hid them around the room like Easter eggs) there was a sticker on the bottom of one and that child got the badge of courage to take to the Wizard and all kids got small bouncy balls and metals to wear and put in their goodie bags.  Then I told them they still had to get the broomstick of the wicked witch to take to the wizard, so we followed the yellow brick road which led to the basement steps. It ended and we went down the steps, which were lined with painted trees with no leaves and signs of "Beware" and "I'd turn back if I were you!" and then in the basement there was a tunnel made of boxes which led them to the far end of the basement which had dry ice smoking the floor. The witch suddenly appeared (my sister) and told the kids they had to play freeze tag and the winner would get the broomstick. She was it! The kids walked briskly and were frozen by the witch. I replaced all the lightbulbs with green lights to set the mood. 

Once there was a winner, the witch melted and the kids went back up the stairs into the kitchen which was decorated all in green. A large painted Emerald City with a sign "Welcome to the Emerald City" was hanging across the windows and the tables, dinnerware and all accessories were green with green balloons everywhere. The kids were told the Wizard was not ready to see them yet, so they had to eat lunch. We had pizza, chips and melted witch punch (green sherbert, ginger-ale, and a plastic witches hat floating on top). 

After the kids ate the broke a rainbow pinata and then it was time to see OZ.  I took them upstairs to the master bedroom. There was a sign that said "Bell out of order please knock." The guardian of the gates(my mother dressed in all green)answered the door and asked them why they came to see OZ. The children quickly showed her the broomstick, but she shut the door. They knocked again and said Dorothy was with them. She slowly let them in.

In the "THRONE ROOM" I had a green plastic table cloth as a runner leading them to a recliner in the middle of the room covered in another green table cloth. On the recliner was a drawing of the giant head from the movie (made from poster board). My father(the wizard) hid behind the chair and used a microphone and speaker system to echo his voice and play the part of the wizard. All the furniture was covered in green and I anchored green balloons on either side of the chair.  The wizard asked the children to put everything one by one on his chair and then he finally arose and told them they did a great job and needed to take a green balloon and click their heels 3 times and then they could go downstairs for cake and ice cream and go home. 

The cake was made by a friend who did a replica of the Emerald City with the yellow brick road in front and poppies on either side. It was awesome!!  I bought the main character cake toppers off the internet and put them on the cake. It was a very memorable party and a lot of work, but very worth it!!  The parents were amazed and asked what was next years adventure. Any ideas?

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