Blues Clues -3yr- Decorate Your Mailbox

For my son's third birthday, we had a Blue's Clues party.  He loves Blue's Clues, and after we took him to Blue's Clues live, there was no doubt what his party theme would be.  I made notebook invitations using green card stock with a red thinking chair glued on and outlined with black.  Inside on yellow paper were six pages.  The first one said, "We are gonna play Blue's Clues, cause it's a really great game." The next three pages were clues, including a party hat, a cake with three candles and a number three. 

The next page said, "You just figured out Blue's Clues.  Blue is inviting you to Connor's 3rd birthday."  And the last page had all the party information.  I punched holes in the tops and bound them together with red pipe cleaner spirals.  They came out very cute.   

For decorations I used a overhead projector to blow up pictures of all the characters on to posterboard and then I painted them appropriately.  I put most of the characters in the living room and entry way, but some I put in more logical places, such as Salt and Pepper on the door to the kitchen and Slippery Soap on the bathroom mirror.  I also bought a real mailbox and primed and painted it to look like Mailbox.  My son especially loved the mailbox.  I used light and dark balllons, streamers, and curly ribbon and hung them all around the ceiling, just like on the Blue's Clues birthday video.  We also had several bunches of helium balloons and Blue's Clues mylar balloosn. 

I bought a blow-up thinking chair and put it against one wall that I had covered with peach paper and painted to look like the wall in Blue's house.  I also painted a sidetable and made a yellow picture frame.  I used modeling clay to make the spirals on the picture frame and glued them to posterboard.  I printed a coloring page from Nick Jr. and colored it with crayons and put it in the frame.  I took a picture of each child in the thinking chair and looked great in front of the back drop.  I used light and blue party supplies and Blue's Clues napkins on the tables.   

For food I served hamburgers and hot dogs, chips in large red bucket painted like Pail, including a shovel painted like Shovel.  I made blue jello jigglers shaped like dog bones, and served salsa and strawberries in blue dog bowls that I picked up at the dollar store.  For cake I made two cakes.  The first was a vanilla cake that I tinted blue and cut and decorated to look like Blue's head.  The second was a square chocolate cake decorated to look like notebook.  I used licorice twists as the spiral and an stuck a small inflatable crayon in the loops.   

For activities each child made a mailbox as they arrived.  I purchased small paper mache mailboxes and painted them like mailbox for each child.  Then they glued, under supervision, using q-tips, google eyes on and a mouth that I had cut out of foam.  These were then put away to dry.  We also had a pawprint hunt.  I cut out 100 small blue pawprints and taped a piece of blue wrapped candy on the back.  While the kids were inside, my husband placed these all around the yard. 

The kids were each given a blue gift bag with their name and a paw print painted on it, and then let loose in the yard.  We also had a pinata shaped like thinking chair.  I could only find a blue one, but I painted it red with spray paint and painted the black lines on it.  I filled it with all different types of blue candy.  I went to the bulk food store and picked out only blue candy from several different types of assortments.  I also put enough blue whistles and blue's clues key chains in the pinata for each child. 

We also played pin the flag on mailbox.  I painted a posterboard mailbox and a flag for each child.  The kids didn't like the blindfold, so the mostly just went up and fun putting their flag on over and over again.  The kids also made dog food bowls to take home.  I bought the cake cups for stawberry shortcake and then helped them each spread peanut butter in the center and sprinkle on peanut butter cereal pieces.  The looked just like little dog bowls.  These were then put into small plastic Blue's Clues treat bags to take home.  

At one point during the party, we played the mail time song and my son went over to the real mailbox and checked the mail.  There was a letter inside with a drawing on it just like the one's on the show.  Inside was a picture of his grandma, who lives very far away.  My husband then started a video of his grandma on the tv and she was sending him a birthday message.  He was so excited to get his own letter.   

In each child's goody bag, they received the candy from the pawprint hunt and pinata, the whistle and key chain, the mailbox and dog bowl they made, a blue's clues coloring book that I found on clearance, a package of Blue's clues fruit snacks, and a container of Blue's Clue's applesauce.    It was a wonderful party, and my son and all his friends had a great time.  The very next day, my son wanted to know when he could have another party.  It took a lot of planning and prep work on my part, but the look on his face everytime something new happened, from him walking in the room all decorated, to the getting the letter and sitting in the thinking chair made it all worth it.  I can hardly wait to start planning next year's party.