Cal Ripken Orioles -6yr- Magnet Craft

My son loves the Baltimore Orioles and especially Cal Ripken, Jr.  Since Cal retired this year, we decided to honor him and my son for his 6th birthday in December 2001. 

I used a colored picture of Cal that said 1981-2001(the years he played) on the front of the invitation. I also asked the children to wear black and orange, the colors of the Orioles. 

The party was held at the Community Hall of our church.  We decorated with black and orange crate paper and many pictures of Cal taken from magazines, newspapers, and sent to me from the Orioles organization.  We had a huge Orioles flag hanging on the wall, along with pennants.  I had a large poster of Cal advertising "Drink Milk."  Since my husband works for Frito-Lay, we were able to get a life size stand-up of Cal used in the stores to sell chips!.  This stand-up served as a photo backdrop for my son and each guest.  We sent copies of these pictures in the thank you notes. 

The tables were covered with orange tablecloths and all of the Orioles souvenirs we had collected over the years: pom-poms, helmets, baseballs, miniature bats, lunch boxes, etc.   The first thing the 21 girls and boys did was make a craft-a little baseball man decorated in black and orange holding a pennant that said Cal is #1.  This was a magnet and was made of foam.  All of the pieces were pre-cut and in baggies to help in organization.

Next we played games.  Since I am a Physical Education teacher, I ran the games just as I would in class.  The first thing the children did was "Go Fishing" with baseball bats.  The bats had yarn tied to them with a magnet attached on the end.  On the floor were many cut out paper baseballs with either the word "single," "double," "triple," "homerun," or "Cal" written on them.  On the other side was either the point value 1,2,3,4 or 10 for Cal!  The baseballs had paperclips on them, so the children could "catch" them with the magnet on the bat.  Then they could add up their teams points. The children loved this game!

We also used the parachute with balls, threw soft baseballs through hoops, and played "Pin the Glove on Cal" using the life size poster.

For lunch we had hot dogs, chips and juice boxes.  Desert was cupcakes and ice cream served in miniature baseball helmets(from Oriental Trading).  My son had a baseball bat candle in his cupcake.   My son opened presents, and we gave goodie bags to the children after the two hour party. 

In the goodie bag I  included baseball pencils, a bat/ball key chain, a little baseball, a blow-up baseball bat (all from Oriental Trading), and Cal Ripken baseball cards and Baltimore Orioles stickers (from the Baltimore Orioles organization). My son thanked me over and over for his "Cal Party."  What would have made this party complete?--if the real Cal Ripken, Jr. had walked through the door!!