Candyland Party -3yr- The Lost Candy Castle

My niece recently turned 3 years old and wanted a candy" party so I helped her mom create a life size Candy Land game.   

The invitation read "Come join Plumpy Mr. Mint Gramma Nut Queen Frostine Princess Lolly and all the Candy Land characters in celebrating Christina's 3rd Birthday.  Dress like one of the characters from the game and come couragous clever and determined to find the missing King."  I used a picture of Candy Land on the front of the invitation. 

It was raining the day of our party so we set up the party indoors but this party could be outside as well. We used colored pieces of construction paper as the path to follow for each clue and decorated each room of the house to match the task that children had to perform along the way.  Each of the little girls dressed up as a character from the Candy Land game like Queen Frostine and Princess Lolly. 

Once all of the children arrived we read the Legend of the Lost Candy Castle found on the inside of Candy Land game.  After we read the story we gave each child a bag decorated with their name on it and started the children as a group on the life size candy land path so that they could find the Lost Candy Castle.  Along the path we placed written clues on white paper with pictures of different characters with tasks they had to perform in order to continue on the path and find King Kandy and his castle.  (Pictures of the candy land characters can be found at www.hasbro.com/candyland/default.cfm?page=ecards)  Here are the clues (the children that could read took turns reading each clue): 

1)When we read the story Plumpy was eating plums and growing more and more glum with each bite of his plums.  If we were to eat these plums we would grow glum as well and not be able to continue on the path.  Therefore each of you will have to squash 3 plums in order to continue on your way to finding King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  (For this task we blew up purple balloons which the children had to sit on to squash)  Peppermint Forest 

2)Lord Licorice has cut down most of the peppermint forest and Mr. Mint is not able to cut down the peppermint trees for whistles and flutes so we will have to grow more trees before we move on.  Make teams of two and each team will have to pick an adult to turn into a peppermint tree before continuing on the path to finding King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  (For this task we had red and white streamers for each team to use to turn their adult into a peppermint tree.  We choose several judges to pick winners in different categories like "most unique peppermint tree" "pretties peppermint tree" "most creative peppermint tree" etc.  Every team won a category and the children were given large chocolate bars to put in their bags.  You can decorate the room by having large peppermints/candy canes laying all over the floor.  These can be made out of plastic tubing found at hardware stores and red tape or you can buy large candy canes during the Christmas holiday if you are planning the party in advance.)  Lollipop Woods 

3)Lord Licorice has hidden all of the lollipops that should be on the trees.  Each child needs to find 5 lollipops before continuing on the path to finding King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  (For this task we filled the room with fake trees that we borrowed from different family members homesand hid lollipops all over the room.)  Peanut Brittle House 

4)Lord Licorice has hidden all of the chocolate in Candy Land at Grandma Nuts House.  Each child will have to dig through the nuts to find 10 hershey kisses before continuing on the path to finding King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  (For this task we took a large galvanized wash tub and filled it with peanuts.  The children had to dig through the peanuts to find the kisses.  On the door leading into this room we placed a sign that said "Peanut Brittle House")  Gumdrop Mountain

5)In order to make it over the gumdrop mountains we will have to make and wear candy necklaces with candy that will give you special power to hike over the mountains. (We set up a table and had two adults help the children to create necklaces out of stretchy string we found at Walmart and  colorful candy/cereal.  I recommend the gummy candy not hard.  You want candy/cereal that they can bite off and chew not suck on.  Once the children make their necklaces you can have them hike over and slide down a children's slide or hike over a bed sturdy boxes etc. if you don't have a slide.)  Molasses Swamp 

6)Oh no we are stuck in the swamp and there is only one way to get out of the swamp so that we can continue on the path to find King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  We will have to play hot potato with a magical jar of molasses.  Whoever has the molasses when the music ends will be able to get out of the molasses swamp.  We will have to play the music until every person is out of the swamp so that we can continue on the path to finding King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  (We used black sheets to creat Molasses Swamp and had the children sit in a circle in the swamp.)  Queen Frostine 

7)In order to help Candy Land sparkle again we need to help Queen Frostine decorate cupcakes so that we can find King Kandy and his fabulous candy castle.  (We set up a table in the kitchen with cupcakes frosting sprinkles and candy for the children to use to create their cupcakes.  The kids were so creative we ended up with elmo and oscar cupcakes as well as flowers and other designs.  Make enough cupcakes so each child can decorate at least two or three.)   

8)Lord Licorice has taken the rest of the candy in Candy Land and hidden it in the castle at the end of the trail.  In order to find King Kandy and the rest of the candy in Candy Land you will have to hit and break open the castle to release King Kandy and Candy Land from evil Lord Licorice's spell.  (We purchased a castle pinata for the children and filled it with candy.)   

After the children finished playing our Candy Land game we had sandwiches chips fruit and vegies for lunch and everyone enjoyed their cupcake creations. "