Red, White & Blue's Clues -4yr- Salt & Pepper Toss

4Yr. - Red, White & Blue's Clues Sprinkler Party -- It was that time of year again to plan my son's 4th birthday.  He wanted a Blue's Clues party.  So I gave him one with a partriotic twist.  Being that his birthday is in July, I put on the invitation for all attending to wear their bathing suits.  Because I would have the spinklers on to cool off everyone.  Their snacks were Red, White & Blue Kettle Popcorn (found at Boscovs for the 4th of July holiday), Red, White & Blue Chedder Goldfish, Red, White and Blue Jellybeans. 

At the beginning of the party each child was giving a Old Glory Hat (like an Uncle Sam top hat).  We did a craft as each child was showing up.  That way it would dry by the end of the party.  Each child was handed a craft bag.  In each bag was the supplies to make a Blue's Clues House magnet.  In the each bag was a wooden dicut house, all the characters of Blue's Clues, a tooth pick flag and a 1" magnet strip.  I found clipart pictures on  the internet of all the different characters and cut out every one so it would be easier for the children to glue them on their houses. 

The first thing they did was colored the wooden houses with permanent magic markers.  The markers have to permanent or else the colors would run into each other when the glue was applied.  The they took foam brushes and modpodged the Characters all over the wooden house.  After the house dried we glued the magnet strip on the back.  Next we started to play all our games.  I made the games set up like a carnival style. 

At each game set up there was a sign showing them what they were going to do.  Also at each game the children would win a prize.  After we finished the craft we played Blue's Clues.  I placed around the party area 3 paw prints.  I told the children that Blue was here earlier and left blue's clues for them to guess what game she wanted to play at the end of my son's party.  I put a paw prints on the bowl of Jelly Beans, a Stick wrapped in Red, White and Blue ribbon and on a child's foam thinking chair.  The children found all the clues and figured out that Blue wants to do a Thinking Chair pinata and the end of the party. 

The first game played was Pin the Flag on Mailbox.  I drew a picture of mailbox and made flags out of Red, White and Blue construction paper and stuck flag background name tags for each child for name recognition.  Each child won a flag for their prize. 

Next they played Fling Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper into Pail with Shovel.  I made Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper bean bags out of Black, White, Grey and pink felt; black pipe cleaners for arms and black and white yarn.  I found a one dimentional patern on the Nick Jr. site.  I cut out each pattern and punched holes with a 1/8" hole puncher.  I then sewed black yarn on Mrs. Pepper and white yarn on Mr. Salt.  Filled each bean bag with bean bag filler found in any craft store.  I attached the arms when I sewed the eyes.  I used a simple back stitch for the body and a satin stitch for the eyes.  The grey felt was used for the tops of the Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper shaker.  I sewed french knots for the holes.  I also sewed on pink mounth for each.  I found a 2' yellow shovel and a big Red pail and put faces on both of them to represent the Pail and Shovel character.  Each child had to  1 out of 4 bean bags in pail by flinging it in with shovel.  Each child won a prize of a mini shovel and pail set colored red, white and blue. 

The next game was Sink a bubble with Slippery soap.  I drew a picture of Slippery Soap in bathtub with bubble stickers around him.  I put the picture on a big box and attached the box to my Little Tykes basket ball hoop.  Each child had to sink a blue bubble (ball) in the basket.  Each child won a container of bubbles that was also colored red, white and blue with a star on the top.  After that game all the children were invited to sing Happy Birthday and have Red, White & Blue Frosted cupcakes. 

Next they played Net a duck with Borris the Duck.  I put weighted ducks in a Kiddie pool.  I glued toothpick flags on the tail of each duck to continue the theme.  Each child had to net one duck and keep it and also win a prize of a Red, White & Blue Lei.  Next they played Puzzle Time with Tickety Tock.  I placed a 3' puzzle of Blue with Floatys on her arms.  I also placed flag stickers to keep with the theme on each floaty.  I then velcroed all the puzzle pieces to a 24" x 36" foam board.  I also wrote numbers on the back of each puzzle piece and corresponding numbers on the traces of the puzzle pieces on the foam board.  Each child got a few pieces to place on the board.  After they complete placing all their pieces on the board they received a Red, White and Blue noise maker for their prize. 

After all the games the children Marched with their prizes to marching music in the Sprinklers.  After they marched around for a while they went to where the pullstring pinata was hanging.  Inside the pinata were plastic sandwhich bags with Blue's Clue and Flag stickers stuck to them.  Each bag was filled with Blue's Clues fruit snacks, Electric Raspberry fruit Roll-ups, Berry Fruit Rippers, Blue Blow Pops, American Flag wrapped tootsie rolls, Red, White & Blue wrapped chocolate nuggets. 

As the guest left we gave out blue paper bags with a picture of Blue wearing an Old Glory hat holding a flag.  Also there was 3 firework bursts on the top made with Red, White, and blue glitter glue.  I found the picture of Blue on the Nick Jr. site.  It was in a larger scale so I made a large poster as decoration and shrunk it down to fit the goody bags.  Inside the goody bags were Patriotic tattoos, skickers of Blue and Friends, Blue Silly Straws, Blue's Clues Blowouts, and Red  or Blue Punching balloons. 

The party was scheduled from 2:00pm to 4:30 and a fun time was had by all.