Backwards Party -6yr-Un-Hot Potato

For my son's 6th birthday, we hosted a backwards party and invited a dozen kids! 

We printed off black and white invitations (where all the words were backwards) asking the kids to come dressed backwards.

As each child arrived, we taped their names on their backs -- but added something special -- a picture of an animal. The kids were not allowed to look at their own tags, but were able to ask the others questions like "do I have a tail?"  Because we asked everyone to arrive just before lunchtime, we let Ryan his presents.

Then the kids got to eat -- the cake came first (they thought this was great), followed by the pizza and punch. After they washed up, we played games. One was Take the Tail Off the Donkey (we had his eyes, ears, legs, tail, etc. stuck on in the wrong places, and the person to take off the tail won).  

We also played Un-hot potato.  That's where you TRY to be one holding the potato when the music stops, because then you go into the winner's circle. The game doesn't end until everyone's chosen a prize. (Toys R Us had great, inexpensive party prizes like small tubs of playdough and styrofoam airplanes that really flew and made noise.)  We played Un-charades where each child had to guess what the animal picture was on his/her back -- this led to a whole lot of laughing.  

Lastly, the party-goers created their own coloring books (of six pages each) -- and we gave them lots of pictures to choose from! Once they'd put their books together, they colored until their parents came to get them.   Each child left with a treat bag that contained wrapped un-birthday presents -- items like bubblegum, pencils and stickers from the dollar store -- and a thank-you-for-coming note, designed and hand-signed by my son.   It was a relatively inexpensive day that was loads of fun for all of us!