Shrek-tacular Birthday - Save the Swamp Game

I went on the birthdaypartyideas.com site to help with this theme, but there was nothing.  My daughter wanted a co-ed Shrek party with all her pals from first grade.  We had the party at a park playground/pavillion on July 21. 

We made the invitation with scanned Shrek pictures on the computer and a mideival green font with bright green envelopes, inviting everyone to "Rachel's Birthday Shrektacular", and offering dinner of "weed rat pie (pizza with removable crispy potato skins - could also use buffalo wings), swamp scum (bright green citrus punch from the store) and swamp cake (cup cakes with bright orange/green/yellow/pink/purple frosting and Shrek sprinkles, in Shrek paper liners, from the store).  We also had Shrek plates, table cloths, napkins and cups.   

During the party, we played CDs with Shrek 1 and 2 music.  Games included
1)Give the Gold to the Kitty - we took a Shrek and the gang poster and made sacs of gold on the computer - then proceed like Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  This was a little bit too babyish for 7 year olds, would substitute bingo with Shrek candies for markers if kids are above 5.

2) Save the Swamp - like the fire brigade game:  make a bucket of swamp water with food color, then 2 teams take turns transporting rubber lizards and frogs in a cup of swamp juice, dumping into a bucket at far end, running back and changing team members, object is to have the most swamp water at the end of the game.  This was hilarious, and we had an adult guest be the judge at the end. 

3)  Blue Bird egg toss:  hard boil and color eggs blue, careful not to crack.  In teams of 3 or 4, begin standing right next to each other, handing egg around circle, then after each trip around, stepping back, eventually tossing. The winning team had 50 tosses before they cracked up!  Finally, we had a Shrek pinata full of candy and Shrek toys.  

For goodie bags, we gave out book store gift cards, along with Shrek fruitsnacks.  We also had guests put their pinata loot in the bags.  We used paper bags decorated to look swampy, but some tore so I would get plastic Shrek bags next time. 

Everyone had a blast, and this party did not cost a lot of money and really promoted socializing!  This was 1 1/2 hours, and it went very well.  I had a lot of fun planning it with my daughter!