My Little Pony -3yr- Pony Match-up Game

My Little Pony Party As a child of the early 80’s I enjoyed playing with MLP.  Now it’s a joy to see my daughter playing for the new generation ponies.  So for her 3rd birthday I decided to have a MLP themed party.  I started by downloaded some free graphics online (google: my little pony free graphics).  I made a boarder of the ponies against a pink background.  Then I downloaded a picture of my daughter on a pony that was taken at the pumpkin patch the Halloween prior.  I titled the invite prance on over to (name)’s 3rd birthday party.   I also made the address labels with the same pony boarder and the return label with just one pony.  I already had the address labels and paper for the invite so the cost of the invitation was only the cost of the stamps.

Craft: I premade white chocolate lollipops a week ahead.  The mold, white chocolate melts, lollipop sticks, plastic bag and twist ties were all bought at a local bakery.  All the materials cost me less than $10.  I also bought what is called luster dust.  Luster dust is super-refined sugar that is in the consistency of dust.  It comes in over 50 different colors but I only bought three containers (pink, blue and gold) for an additional $3.00 per container.  With paintbrushes that were bought at Michaels for $1.00 a 10-pack, the kids painted the colored dust on the white chocolate.  Then, it was put in their goodie bags to take home to enjoy. 

All the kids (boys and girls), ranging from 14 months to 13 years old loved it.  I had a friend monitor the craft table so the kids as they entered the house went directly to the craft table and the adults had a chance to visit with each other.  After they were done, they were given a bottle of bubbles to play in the backyard while the other kids finished. Games Pin the tail on the pony:  Google my little pony coloring pages.  Download a pony with a beautiful tail.  By using photoshop (or any other photo software), I erased the tail on the pony and saved it on a disk.  Then I pulled up the complete picture again and this time I erased the pony and saved the tail.

 I took the CD to kinko’s and had the pony enlarged to poster size.  I was about $3.00.  I redrew the pony with a black marker and had my daughter color it in.  Then I printed up tail proportioned to the pony and let my daughter color all the tails in as well.  I cut out tails and list the kids name on it.  This was a fun game to make since my daughter was able to help.  The kids loved it.  It’s really important to me that all the kids were winners so after the pinned the tail on the pony, the won a little prize, whether they were close or not.  The winner actually won a bigger prize.   Hot Little Pony:  This game is like hot potato, except the kids passed around a stuffed pony instead.  The pony can be purchased at walmart or target for less than $10.  Rather than getting out, the child who ended up with the pony when the music stop received a little stuffed pony (bought at walmart for a couple dollars).  The winner won the big pony that was passed around during the game.

Memory Game:  This game took a little planning but in the end it was the hit of all games.  I downloaded 16 pony images from various my little pony websites.  I printed 2 of each pony and the pony’s name up on sticker paper about 4x4 inches of each pony.  Then I cut up 32 5x5 inch squares of white construction paper.  I labeled each square 1-16 in a pink marker and then 1-16 in a blue marker.  I bought two poster boards ($0.30 each at walmart).  I glued a set of 16 pony on one board and glued the other set on the second board (4 in each row).  Mix up the ponies so they are not in the same place as the first board.  Then using Velcro, I applied the pink numbered squareson one board and the blue numbered squares on the other board to cover the pony. 

The object of the game is to match the pony on the pink side to the pony on the blue side.  By using velcro, we can take off the cover and replace it if there is not a match.  Since the kids were old enough to know numbers and know what matches and what doesn’t, but not old enough to remember 16 ponies, I had them play with a parent.  This was a wonderful parent participation activity.  The parents had a great time playing and at one point got really competitive with each other.  The kids loved seeing all the different ponies and loved getting the prizes for getting a match.  For prizes I bought snack size kit kats (0.56 oz), took off the wrapper but left the foil on.  I measured the old kit kat wrapper and I printed new wrappers with the pictures of each pony on it.  I also made extra.  Once the kids/parents team got the match, I gave them the candy bar with the pony they just matched. 

The team that ended with the most candy bar received a bigger sized candy bar with a personalized wrapper.  I used the picture of my daughter on a pony (same as the one on the invite).  The extra little candy bars were given out at the end of the game to kids who did not win as much as others.  The prizes that were won during the games were all put in the goodie bag that contained a few other MLP stuff and everyone went home winners. 

For the boys’ goodie bags, I bought the Disney’s Spirit DVD.  It was a little more expensive ($13 per DVD) but I only had three boys to buy for.  

For food, I was able to find a pony shaped cookie cutter and made pony-shaped pbj sandwiches.  They had apple wedges with caramel dip, baby carrots.  For the adults we served pizza and salad. The cake was especially unique.  I had some mini-sized MLP from mcdonalds’ happy meals.  I made a 12 round cake a placed 6 ponies around the edge.  I found a carousel themed cake topper and used the canopy to make a MLP merry go round cake.  I place the round cake on my lazy susan.  Ta-Data spinning merry-go-round cake. All of this sounds like a lot of effort, but in reality it was the easiest party I have ever planned yet it was the best so far.  I think my biggest and best advice is to write down a list of everything you need and start two months ahead of time to collect each of those things.  It’s amazing how much stuff you will find on sale if you plan early enough.  Good luck and happy planning!!!