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Wizard of Oz Party -5yr- Stuff the Scarecrow

May 2007

Lucinda in Bakersfield, CA, USA

Special Mention

We celebrated my daughter's 5th birthday this year with the theme set as one of her favorite movies  The Wizard of Oz.  I enjoy throwing unique parties, I like the challenge of making all of the decorations and party favors, not buying the store bought, mass produced character plates and napkins.  I started with the invitations my favorite part of the party planning.  I purchased blue gingham paper representing Dorothy's Dress and made a pocket for the invitation to slip into, which was trimmed with a yellow ribbon representing the yellow brick road.  I attached a picture of the 4 characters skipping down the yellow brick road in front of Emerald City (The picture on the front of the DVD) to the front of the pocket, with a green border representing Emerald City.  The invitation was printed on red cardstock and sprayed with red glitter representing the ruby slippers.  I attached a raffia bow at the top representing the scarecrow. 

The invitation read Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Ava's 5th Birthday Party and had all of the party info listed below.  We laid a yellow tablecloth roll from the sidewalk up the steps to the front door, which was weighed down on each side with bricks we spray painted yellow.  Hanging on the front door was a sign that read Bell Out of Order, Please Knock.  I downloaded the Wizard of Oz soundtrack from iTunes and had that playing on a CD player hidden in the front yard to add to the atmosphere.  Our backyard was transformed into the Land of Oz.  We had the movie playing on our projector screen for the kids to watch.  We had a mural of Emerald City hanging on one side of the yard, with cardboard cut-outs of the characters on each side (purchased from cardboardcutouts.com). 

We had 4 tables set up representing each of the 4 main characters.  Dorothy's table was covered in blue gingham fabric, with some of the yellow bricks lined down the middle of the table.  On top of the bricks I placed items that represented her: ruby slippers, Toto in his basket, etc.  The Scarecrow's table was covered in burlap with the yellow bricks lined down the middle of the table with a Diploma, dried ear of corn, etc. on top.  The Tinman's table was covered in silver fabric, with the yellow bricks lined down the middle of the table with his heart, a silver funnel and oil can, axe, etc. on top of the bricks.  I found the perfect furry fabric for the Cowardly Lion's table. 

Same as the others, it had the yellow bricks lined down the middle with his Badge of Courage, crown, etc. on top of the bricks.  I rented a cotton candy machine to make Cotton Candy Tornados.  The kids loved it.  We played a couple games, the first was Stuff the Scarecrow.  I set up one area of the yard with bales of straw and some old raggedy clothes I purchased from a local second-hand store.  The kids split up into teams of 4 to play this game, with 3 teams competing at a time.  There were about 40 or so kids, so we had to do a few rounds of the game.  The object of the game was to stuff the clothes completely with the loose straw and put him together like the scarecrow.  The kids really enjoyed this game.  The winning teams got to pick a prize from our prize box, most items were purchased at the dollar store. 

The next game we played was the Apple Toss.  My husband made a cut-out of a tree out of plywood and attached a board to the back for it to stand up like an easel.  He cut 6 different sized holes in the tree and attached a net to the back to catch the apples as the kids threw them through the holes.  I purchased fake apples from the dollar store, but they looked like real apples.  The kids had a great time throwing the apples back at the tree.  The number of apples they made through the holes determined their prize, 0-1 apples = small prize, 2-4 apples = medium prize, 5-6 apples = large prize. 

The last activity we did was the pinata.  I thought it would be easy to find a rainbow pinata, but none of the local party stores carried one.  My husband found a store that custom makes pinatas, and they made a rainbow pinata that was taller than my 5 year old.  It was the biggest pinata any of us had seen, which made it that much more exciting for the kids to break it open.  Each child received a goody bag with assorted candy, along with some extra goodies I made.  I purchased animal crackers and tied them in little bags with a tag that read Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!  I also purchased horse shaped fruit snacks and bagged them with a Now that's a horse of a different color tag.  I purchased lollipops that were from The Lollipop Guilda and made each child a necklace with a bubble wand attached (Glinda's Bubbles). 

My daughter was dressed in her Dorothy costume, complete with ruby slippers.  I couldn't convince my older kids to dress up in costumes of the Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion, so I made each of them a t-shirt with an iron-on picture of the character they chose.  I wore a shirt with Glinda's picture and my husband was the Wizard.  I purchased all red plates, napkins, forks, etc.  We ate the usual BBQ food.  My husband's aunt bakes cakes and she made a 3 tier cake with edible images of the characters on the sides of each tier, with a yellow brick road made of fondant circling up to the Ruby Slippers resting on top.  Much cuter and more original than any grocery store cake you'd see.  I'm sure I'm forgetting to list some things, but regardless my daughter and all of our guests young and old had a great time.  Can't wait to start planning the next party!

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