Club Penguin -9yr- Pirate Penguin Treasure Hunt

For my son's ninth birthday, he wanted to have a party themed after his favorite online game--Club Penguin.

I was excited because almost everything could be printed from the computer, making it a very low budget party (under $50). You may need a larger piece of land than your backyard, so it may be a good idea to go to a park. Also, recruit some friends or family members to help.

As guests arrive, give them a nametag. Tell them to put their penguin name on it (or make one up, if they don't play).

One of the main events on Club Penguin is when a Pirate Penguin comes to visit. So that's how we started the party. I divided the boys into three groups, and gave each one a message in a bottle from that pirate. The message was a map of the grounds (gotten online as a satellite view) and a message from the pirate showing 6 different numbered challenges for them to complete in order to get a treasure. Each team started on a different challenge and all rotated clockwise so they never ran into each other.

The first challenge was my favorite--Pizzatron 3000. We got pizza boxes and cut out  toppings from the pizza game. Cheese was shredded yellow paper from the $1 store. The team split into two and raced (in apron and chef hats) to complete the orders.

The next challenge was Aunt Arctic's Advice. My son's grandma showed the kids how to make hats out of newspaper and decorate them with CP stickers we made by copying pictures from the game to labels.

The third challenge was Bean Counter. The team grabbed a towel together and ran around trying to catch things my husband threw into the air. They were supposed to work as a team to catch the bean bags and avoid the water balloons.

The fourth challenge was the Photo Gallery. We had a box of old Halloween costumes for the penguins to try on and get their picture taken.

The fifth challenge was  Cart Surfing. A piece of plywood leaned up against a sawhorse made a good ramp. The boys used Legos to design cars to race down the ramp.

The sixth challenge was the Puffle Roundup. I purchased three Puffles from the online store. Each team member had to make three baskets with them in the basketball hoop.

When the teams completed each challenge, they were given a puzzle piece. (I found six-piece puzzles at a craft store). Once they put the puzzle together, they turned it over and on the back were instructions to find the buried" treasure. There was a baseball diamond at this park so we instructed each team to stand on home plate and look toward one of the three bases and walk in a straight line from that base until they found the treasure. I got small cheap wooden chests from the craft store and put a note in each one telling them to find the pirate. We dumped a bucket of dirt over the chest and spray painted a red "X" on the dirt piles. We also left a small sand shovel by each pile. When the kids found the chest and then found my husband wearing a pirate hat he gave them their treasure: One new gold John Adams dollar coin and a ring pop.

The cake was an ordered photo cake of my son's penguin."