Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Party -8yr- Lots of Games

My son is obsessed with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and requested a Wimpy" birthday party. 

INVITATIONS:  I printed the invite out on textured yellow paper.  The title on the invitation was ___________'s Wimpy 8th Birthday Party.  The invitations had the usual information: date time place.  I cut each one out in the shape of a square and punched different sized holes out to make the paper look like cheese.  I then used green and black ink pads and rubbed ink along the outside edges and the edges of the holes to make the cheese look gross and moldy.  We glued the words "You've got the cheese touch!" on the envelope as a seal. 

ACTIVITY:  As each kid arrived we gave them a trivia quiz about the books and the movies.  This way they were entertained while we waited for everyone to arrive.  At the end of the party we counted up the number of questions each kid got right and the winner received a Diary of a Wimpy Kid tee shirt that I found on the clearance rack at WalMart. Each child was given a tiny composition notebook (the size of a half dollar) and a chocolate crayon as a prize for trying the quizzes.  I also had a white paper table cloth on the dining room table and invited the kids to draw a picture of their favorite wimpy character.  We used this as part of our table scape when it was time to eat.

DECORATIONS: Since the illustrations in the books are all line drawings decorating was easy.  I printed pictures of characters on clear plastic  overhead projector sheets and taped these to the front windows.  The effect looked as if the characters were drawn or painted directly on the glass.  I also created a focal wall entitled "The John Doe Experience".  I used my son's name of course.  This was created to look like the exhibit the main character Greg Heffley creates in one of the books.  I hung pictures awards and other memorabilia to represent my son.  The kids got a kick out of all the funny pictures.  I also hung white helium balloons around the house.  I used a black sharpie and drew different characters on each balloon.  The kids were able to take their favorite characters home with them.  We used black cups plates and silverware.  The effect with the white tablecloth was really nice. 

Games:  1) Pass the Booger (Hot Potato).  We used a green slimy ball to represent the booger that Fregley chases Greg around with.  The kids sat in a circle and passed the ball from one friend to another.  When the music (we played the movie) stopped whoever had the ball was out.  The winner received a large bottle of jelly bean (Fregley's favorite candy) scented bubbles.  Everyone received a Fregley gift bag.  These were green paper sacks (12 for a $1 from the dollar store) with a picture of Fregley glued to the front.  The bags contained: slimy candy in a tube silly putty and a small bag of jelly beans. 

2) Four Corners.  I hung pictures of four different characters in the corners of my living room.  When I said "go" the kids chose a corner.  I then pulled a smaller version of the pictures (at random) from a bag.  Whoever was standing by that character was out of the game.  The winner received a new box of Melissa and Doug crayons in a truck shaped box.  All participants were given a small plastic bag with two snack sized snickers bars.  The bags had a tag on them that read "Rodrick's Rule number 103: When making your brother look like he pooped his pants always remember to use chocolate".  This was taken from a scene in the book when Greg sat on a chocolate bar before Church.  The kids thought this was both gross and funny. 

3) Pin the nose on Sweetie.  I drew a large picture of Sweetie the Dog on poster board.  We cut out different colored circles to represent the dog's nose.  Each child was blind-folded and spun in a circle just like pin the tail on the donkey.  The winner received a webkinz dog and everyone received a red paper sack with a picture on Sweetie glued to the front.  Inside each bag was a bag of Scooby Snack graham crackers Scooby fruit snacks and a giant done bone shaped eraser. 

4) Bean Patty Farrall.  I made a bean bag toss game from two pieces of foam board.  I drew a giant picture of Patty Farrall and glued fabric down as her dress.  I then cut three large holes through the cloth and foam board.  The kids tried to get red balls (to represent the apples that were thrown at Patty during the Wizard of Oz play) through the holes.  The winner received a small version of the game Apples to Apples.  Everyone received a small plastic bag (with a picture of Patty glued to the front) with sour apple candy a caramel apple lollipop and a giant apple shaper eraser. 

5) The Cheese Touch Game (Musical Chairs).  I printed a picture of the moldy cheese as well as pictures of different characters.  I taped the pictures to the floor.  The game started with each child standing on a picture.  When the music started the kids were each standing on a picture.  The kids ran in a circle around the pictures until the music stopped.  Whoever was standing on the cheese when the music stopped was out.  I then removed a picture of a character and the game continued.  The winner received a Melissa and Doug painting craft kit and each kid received a yellow paper sack (with a picture of the moldy cheese glued to the front).  The bag contained a little back of cheezits a little bag of ritz bits cheese sandwich crackers and a pack of cheese stickers. 

6) Gummy Worms.  We filled a small plastic jar with gummy worms and had the kids estimate how many were in the jar (Greg chased the kindergarteners with worms).  The winner won the jar and everyone else won a small bag of gummy worms.

FOOD:  Food was easy for this party.  Since the characters are in middle school we went with typical middle-school foods.  We had several different kinds of pizza chips crackers and pretzels.  We also served sandwiches cut in the shape of a cheese wedge (I used a cheese wedge cookie cutter). 

CAKE:  I made a very simple stacked chocolate cake.  It was covered in white fondant and I piped a picture of Greg on the top with chocolate.  For the kids who don't like chocolate I made vanilla cupcakes with white buttercream icing.  The cupcakes were covered in a piece of fondant cut out to look like a piece of cheese.  I used yellow fondant cut it into a square and punched out different sized holes.  I left the cupcakes out of the fridge so by the time the kids ate them the fondant was a little melty - like old cheese.  The kids thought the cupcakes were both disgusting and awesome.

FAVORS:  I made favor boxes out of plastic canvas and yarn.  The boxes were stitched in the colors of the books (red yellow green light blue dark blue and purple).  I made the front of each box to look like the cover of the books - they were a solid cover with the exception of a cream colored rectangle with blue stripes - to look like lined paper.  I then stitched a different character and the name of each child on the front.  We made journals for each kid by taking dollar store composition books and gluing a wimpy kid character from wimpyourself.com.  This website allows you to create your own wimpy characters so we made one to look like each of the kids coming.  We also glued the words "Diary of a Wimpy _________" under the pictures.  We also filled the boxes with pencils pens and a sticky notes pad.  We glued the picture of a character to the top sticky note to make it look like a wimpy kid note pad.  I also found soccer ball wash cloths (the kind that expand in water) from the dollar store - Greg played soccer in the books.  And lastly I covered giant Hershey bars with a picture of my son's wimpy character and "Thank you for coming to my Wimpy 8th Birthday Party!" "