Hollywood Party -8yr- Movie Poster Décor

Every year we have a themed birthday for my daughter.  This year it was Hollywood for her 8th birthday.

INVITATION:  I took black cardstock and made clapboards with it, using grommets.  It gave them moveable clappers. You have to cut the clapboard with a tab on the top and cut the clapper with 2 strips glued together except at the end where it slides over the tab.  Punch holes through all three and put the grommet through all three.  Then, I used a white marker to draw the hash marks on the clapper and a white gel pen to write on the board part.  The front was split into 3 rows.  The first row said Lights, Camera, Action.  The second row said You’re invited to -------(my daughter’s name)-----  Hollywood Party.  The third line said happy birthday, take 1, she’s turning 8.  The back gave the details of the party.

DECORATIONS: There was a velvet rope (crepe paper) at the doorway, a red carpet leading into the hall, and a red fringe curtain to enter through.  I made Hollywood stars for the floor.  I took black card stock, splattered white paint on them to make them look marbleized, and then put a red star with a famous persons name on it in the middle.  Then, I laminated them.  They were taped to the floor.  Posters from the local movie theater adorned the walls.  Gold and silver stars hung from the ceiling some from fishing line, some were swirling ones.  Over the cake hung 6 strings with small stars in lines on them.

ACTIVITIES: To start off with, as the children arrived, I had them coloring Disney and other movie characters until all children had arrived.  I printed free downloads from online of coloring pages from different movies that I found all children related, therefore all cartoons.

GAMES: There were 9 scheduled games.

#1:  Who am I?  -   Each child had a movie character taped to his back (I used all children’s movie characters mostly Disney).  They then go around and ask others questions about the character on their back to try and figure out who they are.  They cannot ask directly who they are, they have to ask questions like:  Am I a boy or a girl?, Do I have blonde hair or brown hair?, etc until they figure it out.  The first to figure it out is the winner.  (I chose to have several winners).

#2:  Clothespin Game  -  Each child gets a clothespin at the beginning of the party.  Each time someone says Happy Birthday, the first person to hear it takes their clothespins.  At the end of the party, the one with the most clothespins wins.

#3:  Charades  -  We played charades, acting out different movie characters.  We played in teams and the team with the most right guesses won prizes.

#4:  Scavenger Hunt  -  I collected lots of small items from my daughter before the party and hid them around the room.  I made a detailed list for each team and let them find the items.  I used many figurines from movies since she had them, but any small objects would work.  The first team to find all their items won prizes.

#5:  Balloon Bust Relay  -  I split the children up into 4 teams.  On the count down, the first child runs to a designated spot, pops a balloon, runs back to the line, tags the next person in line, then sits down a the end of the line.  The next person then does the same thing.  This is continued until all players have gone through the line. The first line to finish are the winners.

#6:  Guess how many in the jar  -  I put candy kisses in a jar and had the children all guess how many were in the jar.  The kisses were split between the four closest guesses.

#7:  Musical Gifts  -  The children stand in a circle.  Depending on the number of children you have, 1, 2, 3, or 4 gifts are given in the circle.  Since I had 25 children, I used 4 gifts.  The gifts are passed around to music playing.  When the music stops, the person holding the gift is out.  They hand the gift to the person on their right and step back.  The game continues until the last four players are left and they get the gifts.  Sometimes you have to remove one gift for a round or two to even out the number so that the number of gifts will equal out at the end.

#8:  Questions and Dares  -   You start with 2 buckets.  The first one has questions in it and the second one has dares in it.  A child comes up and picks a question.  They have to read the question aloud. Then, they must answer the question, if they answer it correctly, then they can sit back down.  If they cannot answer it or answer it incorrectly, they must pick a dare.  They must do the dare. If they did the dare, they sit back down, if they don’t do the dare, or cannot do the dare, they are out and must cheer on the rest of the players. Our questions were based on Disney movies. The dares were age appropriate like stick your tongue out and touch your nose, suck on a lemon wedge, or pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time.

#9:  Dance Contest  -  We had the children dance to a variety of music, 50’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and today’s.  I had a couple of parents walk around and tap children on the shoulder indicating that they were out and to sit down.  We dwindled it down to 4 dancers who were our winners.

COSTUMES:  When the children arrived, each child was given the following:  Boys:  a top hat and sunglasses  -  Girls:  a feather boa and sunglasses.

CAKE:  Being a baker, I made the cake.  It was a three tier round cake.  It had 3 film reels, a clapboard, movie cameras, and gold, silver, and black stars all made from fondant on it.  It had the #8 on the second tier with a red carpet cascading down from it to the bottom of the cake and onto the board.  There were gold stars flying from the cake on wires.  The clapboard read Happy Birthday Kaelen.  It was served with punch.  It was served on plastic crystal ware. 

FAVORS:  The goodie bags consisted of a door hanger that I made.  It was made to look like a dressing room door with a star on it and the child’s name under the star.  They were laminated.  A bookmark that said,"read with the stars" and had stars all over it.  A picture holder made from clothespins and decorated with stars and painted gold.  A ball catcher, painted black with stars on it, made from a paint stir stick, a napkin ring, a string and a wooden ball with a hole in it.  A magnet made from 2 foam stars glued together that read You’re a star.  The gift bags had CD cases covered with foam, tic tac toe lines drawn on them, and then stars and movie cameras cut out for the game pieces.  I took cans, painted them black, painted gold and silver stars on them and used them to hold candy and then for pencil/pen holders.