Blues Clue's Party-3yr- Paw Print Cake

We had a Blue's Clues party to celebrate my daughter's third birthday. 

To begin, I made 3 different postcards for the invitations.  Each postcard was yellow (like Joe's notebook page) on one side with "A clue! A clue!" above a blue paw print.  Beside the paw print there was the picture clue which I drew with a black crayon.  The first one showed a party hat...on the other side it read, "Blue left us a clue, do you see?  A birthday hat, for you and me!  Two more clues we need to find, to figure out what Blue has in mind!  The second card showed balloons...the clue read, "There are so many balloons that I can see, now you need to look for clue number 3!"  The third card showed a birthday cake...the clue read, "You found another paw print, a cake is the last clue.  Sit down in your thinking chair, what could Blue want you to do?  Then I gave the info for the party. 

The decorations consisted of...dark and light blue balloons, giant Blue's head helium mylar balloon, big blue paw prints leading up to our door (I printed these from nickjr.com), 2 colors of blue wrapping paper for table covers and matching curling ribbon...curled all over the table (found these at Target), thinking chair pinata (from birthday express), inflatable thinking chair (from kbtoys.com), and a lot of the party merchandise you can buy at the party store or on line.  When the kids arrived I took each child's photo in the thinking chair with my digital camera.  (I used these photos in my thank you cards.) 

We served food at the party, so we set everything up at our snack bar.  We called it "Blue's Hot-Dog Bar".  I tried to think of food that was 'Bluesy'.  We served hotdogs of course, and the Kraft Blue's Clues Mac and Cheese.  I also found Blues Clues applesauce in little individual serving cups which we served.  To incorporate the other food, I made little tent signs to sit beside each dish...ex:  'Magenta's Veggie Tray', 'Joe's Taco Dip', 'Slippery Soap's Baked Beans' etc.  I found really cute stickers (by Hallmark?) that showed each character that I put on the signs. 

After we ate, we played 3 games.  The first game was called Pass the Present.  I had 2 different gifts (a stuffed Blue, and a Pail and Shovel playdough set) that I wrapped in 5 different layers of tissue paper.  The kids passed these around the circle while we played our Blue's Clues Boogie CD.  When the music stopped, whoever was holding the present got to remove a layer of tissue.  Whoever unwrapped the last piece of tissue got to keep the present.  The other children received a Blue or Magenta Gel Pop (found these at our party store, but I saw them online at the party supply sites). 

Next, the children went on a Paw Print Hunt.  I made paw prints out of felt and hid them all over the house before the party.  Once each child found 3 of them they had to come to me to redeem them for a prize (Blue's Clues Fruit Snacks).  They could keep the pawprints to take home.  (My daughter still plays Blues Clues with her set). 

Finally, we did the pinata.  The pull string converter was well worth it.  I tied those safety lollipops to the ends of the most of the strings so that the little kids would feel like they won even if they didn't pull the magic string.  Plus, I didn't put a lollipop on the magic string, that way, everyone got at least one turn. 

We had the paw print cake (made of one large circle cake and 4 cupcakes).  We also had cupcakes for the kids.  Each cupcake had a plastic ring with either Blue, Magenta, Periwinkle, or Joe on it (from one of the party sites).  The cake was served with Blue's Clues icecream...Blue with paw print cookies inside.  (I found it at our WalMart...BlueBunny makes it.) 

When the guests left we gave them their treat bucket.  I got pails and shovels at Target that look just like the ones on the show.  I took paint markers and painted faces on them and wrote each child's name on them. 

Inside, we placed various blues clues things…like the notebooks, straws, individual packs of oreos (they're blue!), etc.  We had several small kids here that were too little for those things, so I got them one of the Blues Clues videos to put in their bucket…they were only $3.44 each at our WalMart.  If you can't find those, I also saw that they make Blues Clues sippy cups which would be nice.  I burned a copy of Blue's Clues Boogy for everyone as a reminder of the fun time we had at the party.