Rock Climbing Party -8yr- Stone Carabiner Invite!

My son is very much into rocks, so trying to put together something he loves with something others will enjoy was this years task! Not all 8 yr olds want a Geology birthday party. ;)

Invitations: I mixed some quick cement together and spooned out small scoops (size of a potato) with a U" shape metal piece from the hardware store stuck in as it dried.  I then attached a carabiner to the metal "U" with the party details on a card saying "Come hang with us for ____ birthday".  I included the liability release forms and a brochure about where we were going for the parents.

Activity: we went to a rock climbing place that had a special area for parties.  I arranged for a Geologist grad student (luckily we live near a large university with a Geology graduate program - I emailed the dept secretary asking for any grad students that would be interested and found the perfect one!) to come for a 15 minute rock demonstration.  He brought rocks from the university but also his own collection.  He was awesome to show the different types of rocks and talked about the interesting Utah terrain and mountains.  My son was in awe!  

The kids then did different types of rock climbing - free form or with a belayer.  We arranged some friends that rock climbed to come so they could give pointers and be more official than I would be. ;). For those kids that were not be into climbing I had some geode rocks they could break open (from Oriental Trading) and rocks they could decorate.

Food: as the party was in the middle of the afternoon I didn’t need to feed the kids.  I did chocolate cupcakes that looked like a mountain with rock candy on top of some and others with a flag on top with a figurine (to look like a climber atop a mtn) bowls of trail mix and popcorn. I had small bottles of Gatorade and water too.

Favors: In a larger cello bag I put a smaller cello bag of rock shaped jelly beans a pack of Pop Rocks a swizzle stick of rock candy a rock shaped bouncy ball (from Oriental Trading) and tied it with climbing rope and a note "Thanks for hanging with ___"

Budget: invitations with carabiners ($40) rock climbing place ($10/ head for 15 kids) grad student Geologist ($30) food ($35) and favors ($40) = $295"