Mardi Gras Party -8yr- Kings Cake

Mardi Gras  For my son's 8th birthday he chose a Mardi Gras Theme.  We are having two parties.    For his classroom party first we asked for permission from the teacher.  Since it will only be an hour. 

We are passing out goodie bags.  Everything is in Mardi Gras colors - Purple, green and gold.  The party bags will have a set of three beads, mask, whistle, candy, doubloons, trinkets, candy and a raffle ticket. We are also assembling kits so they could decorate their own masks and maybe hats.

My son will be crowned the "King".  I am making a kings cake. (Cupcakes in an oval shape with the Mardi Gras colors)  One of them will say "baby" on the bottom. The winner will receive a prize. I am going to try to find a book to read to them and music to listen to. 

There will also be a "facts" lesson.  For example what does Mardi Gras mean? What are the colors? What do they stand for? Etc…  At the end we will have a raffle - the "King" will help me with this.  The children will be able to win fancy beads, Mardi Gras colored halos, elaborate masks and toys.  

The party for the family is for children and adults.  All will be invited to wear costumes.  The goody bags will be the same minus the beads.  These will be thrown out as well as various trinkets when they yell "Throw me somethin' mister".  I will have three separate craft tables with all the needed supplies.  One will be for masks.

These will be made out of paper plates and we'll have feathers and sequins etc.  Table number two will be the hat decorating table.  We've been collecting large paper bags from the grocery store.  These will be prepainted (Purple, green and gold) ready to decorate. 

Third table will be for float decorating.  The kids can decorate a float (shoebox) for the parade.  I will also have face painting.   The decorations are a lot of purple, green and yellow streamers.  I also have Mardi Gras cutouts.    We are serving jambalaya or gumbo.    I want everyone to have a lot of fun and party, party, party - that's what Mardi Gras is all about!