Goosebumps Party -9yr- Book & Shirt Favors

Invitation : In a Paint program, I copied and pasted an image of the Goosebumps movie characters in a movie theatre which read Join us for Night of the Living Monsters, based on the Goosebumps movie.  Beside it, in a black box, I typed in spooky letters Join us for a Monstrous good time to celebrate K’s 9th birthday with the specifics and RSVP number, along with Monster hunt, dinner, and movie to follow.   

Decorations : I found some cute (clearance) monster favor boxes at Hobby Lobby and set them around the living room, along with green and black streamers and balloons, and my daughter’s collection of Goosebumps books set on shelves for ambiance. I found an adorable pink gnome in the dollar bins of Target that came to live with us also. 

Activities/Games/Costumes : Each of the girls received a black t shirt with Goosebumps written in the creepy style of lettering in the paint that glows in the dark before we began. We took two vehicles with excited girls to the overlook park of our town, where each of the girls received a new Goosebumps book by J.N. Stine (neon notebooks from the dollar bin at Target,) with a cute monster and title on the front.

There was a story depicting each girl encountering a monster at their friend’s birthday party and what they had to do to capture it and save the town. I had found some adorable monster buttons at Michael’s, which I drew a picture of and put on the covers of each story (ie The Monster Who Ate Everything,  Gnome Sweet Gnome, Come Dance with Me) and made coordinating bookmarks with the monster button attached which had to be captured and returned to the book.

As the girls read their stories, they found out that they had tasks to complete that were near a river in order to save the town and catch their respective monsters. We traveled to the destination (an amphitheater at a park near the KY River, which was beside a historical mansion with haunted gardens,) and along the way the girls read their stories to one another in excitement.

When we arrived, each girl had to play a game to catch their monster and receive their bookmark I used several Minute to Win It game ideas as inspiration for the stories and coordinating games. (Junk in the Trunk, candy toss, wrapping themselves in streamers like a mummy, etc.) The girls had an absolute blast cheering each other on and catching their monsters.

They finished their stories in the little notebooks, and went for a quick ghost hunt in the gardens before returning to our house for pizza and watching the Goosebumps movie. I stuck a printout of a tiny handprint to the bottom of one of the glasses to symbolize the Invisible Boy, and the girl who picked that glass received a special prize (http://www.bluegrassprincesses.com/create-.html .)   

Party Snacks/Cake : We had little monster lips which attached to straws for the liquid ooze (ie sprite, rainbow sherbet, and tons of gummy worms.) Also, we used leftover cake mixed with frosting for monster cake balls which the early arrivals to the party made with melted chocolate and candy eyeballs. The cake was square, white, with oozy font that read Happy Goosebumps 9th Birthday, K! and oozed down the sides with its colors of purple and green.

For the movie, we made gnome mix in a nod to the movie where gnomes attacked the characters which was really popcorn mixed with pretzels, M&M’s, and little peanut butter chips that were fixed to look like gnomes.  

Favors : The girls took home their notebooks with stories of themselves overcoming monsters, along with a cute neon pen, bookmark with monster button, and their Goosebumps t shirt. The girl who found the Invisible Boy handprint took home a silly monster ball with a long tongue that was used in a game.   

My daughter adored the party, and all of the guests were perfectly spooked and seemed to enjoy the monster hunt.