Eragon Party 8yr

My son wanted an Eragon party. It was so much fun, I hope the following ideas help: For decorations we made Saphira's tail for the backyard. We got 2 accordian like black drainage pipes (H.Depot $4/piece)and spray painted it w/blue plastic paint (left some black showing) from Walmart. We had the tail coming down from the roof and sitting in the middle of the yard. For the end of the tail I cut out 3 triangles from black posterboard and duct taped them sitting up on the tail about 1 ft apart for the plates/spikes. With the rest of the posterboard we rolled it up and fit it on the very end. The kids were fascinated when they saw Saphira!! You also may want to use posterboard to cut dragon footprints leading to outside. I hung an Eragon poster from Walmart($5). For every party we always blow up 20 balloons for the kids to play while waiting on everyone to show up. 1st activity: Eragon word search. We googled word search and my son selected 8 names from the movie. (The book helped with the spelling). 2nd: I briefly summarized what the movie was about because there are some who have not seen the movie. I showed the pictures from the middle of the book and all the kids enjoyed seeing the characters. 3rd:I explained that each dragon rider has it's own stone. I found a pkg of blue shiny stones at the Dollar Tree. I put each kid's name with tape on a stone and my son hid them around a room before the party. (I hid my son's).I told them each dragon rider must find his own stone, but if you pick up someone else's (I wrote where we hid each kid's just in case)just put it back in the same place and don't tell. They kept finding each other's stones but not their own. Then finally we had the 1st dragon rider! Clues by friends were given later for those who wanted them. They treasured their stones and hesitated to give it to me so I could put it in their goody bags! After they became dragon riders I gave them the mark on their hand w/washable marker. They thought that was cool! 4th:We played a game we called Durza". They sat in a circle. I picked 1 kid to be Eragon and then had them put their heads down. I told them to raise their hand if they wanted to be Durza. I tapped a kid on the head twice the signal they were Durza. With their heads back up Durza had to blink twice to kids in the circle without Eragon seeing him do this. The person who Durza blinked at would count silently 5 seconds and fall over dead. The kids loved playing dead. This game lasted until everyone had a chance to be Durza and Eragon who wanted to. 5th:I told them the end of the movie was a big battle and it was time for Catapult. I had them build a wall with these blocks we had. They divided up and layed on their backs on either side of the wall. They each got a plastic fork and their team got a pile of small marshmallows. I yelled CATAPULT! I told them the winner was the team who could get the most marshmallows on the other side. They loved this!! After this I said there was a contest to see who could p/u the most marshmallows. They went to town! I had them lay on their backs again and threw 2 balloons up. They could only use their feet(shoes off). If it landed on the floor the other team got the point. We played to 5 pts and played the game twice. It was a hit! Cake: I painted Eragon riding Saphira and the candles coming out of Saphira's mouth for the fire. Another suggestion I saw a dragon and boy w/bow and arrow @ Target in the toy dept. Drinks were "dragon juice" (green koolaide). Before the cake/drinks were put out we had dry ice on the table (we warned the kids of the danger of touching it) on an ice cooler lid. We poured hot water on it and smoke drifted on the table plates and off the table. (We actually bought the dry ice for outside with Saphira but it didn't work.)This was a big hit! After cake we opened presents and with just a few minutes left we got the balloon swords out that we made ahead of time (instructions on the web)and let them play until their parents came. Suggestion: This party had to be inside due to weather but for outside swimming noodles would be great for swords and party favors. The boys were sad it was over. They all said it was awesome!!!"