Care Bear -5yr- Care a lot Punch

Care Bears Party 5 year old  My soon to be five year old daughter was crazy for Care Bears so we had a Care Bear themed party for 20 of her friends (ages 3-7).  We live in Ohio so we simply had to pray for a warm, sunny Saturday and (thank you Lord, we got it!)  The party was outdoors and plastic CB (Care Bear) tablecloths (WalMart) covered two picnic tables easily. 

We used our daughter's existing CB collection (stuffed and plastic) to "decorate" - even putting small candies and prizes in her CB Castle placed at the center of the table.  If your child doesn't have that any bowls or baskets will do and you can tie on bold colored crepe paper for a "rainbow" effect.  "Care A Lot Rainbow Punch" was rainbow sherbet in Hawain punch mixed with Sprite (see why I was praying we could have this OUTdoors???  Sugar!). 

The CB cake was also from WalMart and came with two really nice decorative bears.  We had a pinata (but not a CB - wasn't sure about having small children wack their beloved bear with a big stick!)  It was just brightly colored. 

We played "guess that bear" games (children describe feelings/colors and others try to guess which bear these belong to - obviously these are younger children - the lone ten year old at the party could've cleaned up easily but gracefully bowed out).  "Duck, duck, hey you're a bear!" is also good.   

Rainbow colored animal crackers stood in for CB crackers (I couldn't find any) and I also placed baskets of gummies and cheesepuffs out in baskets (the party was 2-4 so we didn't provide actual lunch).  Since it was outdoors I prescribe to the idea that parties are essentially "playdates with cake" and the children enjoyed the less structured activities and just running around, swinging, trampoline-ing, and so on.   

THANK YOU: I had all the children get together for a big group photo (be sure to do this mid-party when all guests have arrived and before any begin to leave) and then multiple copies printed.  I created a simple, cute notecard on my pc with a cute "CB related verse" incorporating the thanks and printed and trimmed them then punched two holes in each notecard and photo, used rainbow ribbon to "tie" each photo (punch holes along edge obviously so as not to interfere with main group shot) to the notecard and got them all out to guests within a week. 

Everyone was thrilled with the cute thank you and I have had raves from parents and kids about the group photo which is a nice keepsake since all the kids are friends.