Shrek 2 Party - Shrek Puppet Show

I’ll give an overview of our Shrek 2 party and then, I’ll give more details on how to.

We got an oversized Shrek & Donkey puzzle for the kids to put together as they arrived. (I saw this puzzle at almost every toy dept. I shopped in.) When everyone was there, we had them sit down and watch a Shrek puppet show. The puppet show skits were a substitute for actually watching a Shrek movie. [sidenote: I wouldn’t recommend attempting to watch a movie during a younger child’s birthday party. I have tried it before (with my older son when he was younger) and the kids were too excited to watch very much of it. They didn’t even pay attention to it when it was on and when they decided to quit watching it, we had a lot of extra time on our hands!]  After the puppet show, we played a Shrek  trivia game that we made up, called Help Pinocchio Tell the Truth. Then we had the kid’s come outside. On our back deck, we had 4 stations set up. I described how each station worked and let them choose what they wanted to do first. The 4 stations were the 3 blind mice maze, the make your own clay Gingy (gingerbread man), The Fairy Godmother’s Potion Factory, and Feed The Ogre. 

After they fed the ogre, they received a ticket for a carriage ride to (you guessed it) Far Far Away. The carriage ride ended at the bouncy house that we called a castle. After everyone had done the craft and  played all the games, we came inside to have swamp pudding, castle cake and ice cream/sherbet, but 1st they all got to drink some Shrek potion.  After they drank the potion, we put homemade Shrek ears and eyebrows on their heads (very funny). I didn’t figure they would wear them for long, but we got a great picture! When they were done eating, we opened gifts. After my son was done opening his gifts, it was about 5 minutes before the party was over, so I showed the kids what was in their goody bags; which things they could eat and which ones they could not eat. One of the guests was so excited about his goodie bag that he asked if he could go home right then and there, so he could have it right away! The party lasted for 2 hours. We also had Shrek 2 decorations around the house.  Some of these activities took several hours to prepare for, but when my son thanked me, later that evening after the party, it made it all worthwhile!

Here are the details:  Shrek Puppet Show: Instead of using puppets, we used Shrek 2 plastic action figures. We made a playhouse out of our Christmas tree box. With packing tape and colorful construction paper, we made the playhouse look like the marionette house from Shrek 1.  I set a smaller box on it’s side inside of the tree box, and taped a piece of cardboard to it, like a table top, so that it could be the stage. The doors were cut out of the center of the tree box so the bottom of the hole would be level with the stage. Strings were tied to the doors so they could be opened and shut, and clamps were used to hold these strings in place.  We only opened and shut the doors at the beginning and end and used a curtain between skits to change the props. For curtains we used a section of plastic table cloth, with string stapled to it as a curtain and hung it on a dowl, but cloth would have been more durable. Back drops were made from colorful paper and images printed off of my computer and clipped to a piece of cardboard which was clamped to the back of the stage. My 11 yr old son and 2 of his friends performed the skits. The boys just moved the figures about with their hands and read their parts. Have 2 boys come out from behind the playhouse to tell jokes, while the 3rd boy is changing the props, between skits.

For Shrek’s chair we used a picture frame chair and covered it with snake skin flannel (since we couldn’t find alligator skin); for the TV & outhouse we folded card stock with pictures of these items on them.  Help Pinocchio Tell The Truth game: Ahead of time, we made a flannelgram of Pinocchio’s face with a long nose that was cut into 8 sections, not including the stump. We had trivia questions from the movies Shrek and Shrek 2. The children took turns answering True or False to the statements/questions about the Shrek movies. If they answered correctly a piece of the nose was removed to make it shorter. If they guessed incorrectly a piece was put back on. It took us about 20 questions to get Pinocchio’s nose back to normal and we only had 16 questions prepared so we just repeated some of the easier ones. Just enter Shrek trivia in a search engine to find help with questions.   A flannelgram is a piece of flannel material mounted to a board. You cut other pieces of flannel out and it sticks to the flannel board. Cut & glue pieces of flannel together for Pinocchio’s face with only the stump of the nose glued down. The other pieces of his nose should NOT be glued down. They will stick to the board like a weak velcro, so they can be repositioned. 

3 Blind Mice Maze: As an alternative, you may be able to make a maze out of Legos, but here is how we did it: From the Shrek action figure sets, we got 3 blind mice. Using 3/16 thick foam board, we made a 3D maze with walls as tall as the mice (1 3/4). The base of the maze was 25 squared. Tabs were cut for the bottoms of the walls so they could fit into holes cut in the base of the maze and glued into place. We had 3 entrances (one for each mouse). In the center of the maze, we stood a fibre optic wand (flash light with clear wires that light up on the ends). When their mouse found it’s way to the center of the maze, the child was awarded with their own fibre optic wand as a party favor. Constructing this maze took countless hours, but it was fun and I thought it turned out great. 

Make a Clay Gingy: Remember not all clay is equal; get a  lightweight clay that dries from exposure to air - some clays have to be baked and some don’t dry at all, or you could use play-dough, but it is heavier and sometimes it cracks when it dries. In addition to brown, red, white & blue clay, get small gingerbread cookie cutters and rolling pins (you can use cylinder shaped blocks for rolling pins). I made a small center piece with 3 pictures of Gingy printed on card stock, folded and taped into a triangle shape, so they could see how to match Gingy, if they wanted to. We put their gingerbread men into plastic bowls with their name written on the bowl. 

The Fairy Godmother’s Potion Factory: I drew a bunch of potion bottles on shelves on my computer and superimposed a picture of the Fairy Godmother flying in front of them and mounted this to folded foam board as a backdrop. In a couple little glass bowls, with glass beads in the bottom, I put those little magic plastic capsules that, when soaked in water, the plastic dissolves and a foam creature appears. I taped paper towels down to the table for their creatures to dry on and filled a cake pan with warm water. I gave them plastic spoons so they could poke their capsules in the water until it dissolved. You don’t need to poke them, but it takes a few minutes for them to dissolve, so I thought that would help the time to fly.  Feed The Ogre: I blew up a picture of Shrek’s face with his mouth open wide onto 4 letter sized sheets of paper and pieced them together and mounted them on foam board. I cut a hole out where his mouth and bottom teeth were and attached it to the front of a plastic crate/box. On a plate we put food that ogres like to eat: plastic toys (a chicken leg, eyeballs, creepy crawly caterpillar worms and a rat) and decorator food found in the floral area at Michael’s craft store (garlic cloves and an onion). They stood behind a little end table and threw the food in his mouth. When they made a basket in his mouth they received a paper ticket to Far Far Away. The tickets had a picture of Shrek and Fiona’s garlic shaped carriage on them. 

Carriage Ride: The kids gave their carriage-ride tickets (see description of tickets above, under Feed The Ogre) to the boy (older helper) who was giving the carriage rides. Then the boy gave them a ride around our back yard (one at a time) to the castle which was set up beside our house. The ride was not boring like the one in the movie, though. Our helper ran through the bumpy yard, giving the kids quite an adventurous journey! The carriage was a large plastic wagon (like a little red wagon) that we attached a large chip-board cut-out, shaped like a garlic clove with a window, to, on one side. Then we removed the gate from the other side of the wagon, so they could get in easier. The chip board was really hard to cut through, but it curved to the shape of the wagon better than foam board would have.  Bouncy Castle: Our castle was an inflatable bouncy house. I saw one in the yellow pages that really looked like a castle, but we decided to borrow a bouncy house from my sister, who had purchased one to keep in her yard for her kids to play on.  Swamp Pudding: Mix pkg. Lime Jell-o powder and green food coloring (appr. 12 drops) into Whip Cream (large container). Make strawberry Jello, according to package directions. Once it sets, mix it with a fork and then mix it together with the light lime-green whip cream. Stir in mandarin oranges and blue berries. Put gummy worms and green gel frosting on top. It looks grouse but it tastes yummy. 

Castle Cake: We put Fast-Lite candles on top of the cake - these were really cool! You just light one end & a paper strip that connects the candles works like a bright fuse and lights the whole row!.  If you’re not a skilled 3D cake maker, you may want to have a back-up plan; I think love was the only thing keeping my cake from falling apart! Another tip would be to get a lemon or canary yellow frosting coloring; I got golden yellow and my son asked me if it was cheese that I was frosting the cake with! I also drew bricks on with tube frosting, because I have no idea what gummy strips are and used DOTS fruit-flavored gumdrops, because the little sugar-covered gumdrops are mint flavored. I did use the big sugar-covered gum drops for the tops of the cones. Be careful, if you put cling wrap over it, because the fruit roll-ups will stick to it and tear, you might want to put wax paper around it, first. Even though my cake didn’t look quite as lovely as the one in the picture, it was still quite majestic. 

Ice Cream/Sherbet: We used rainbow sherbet, because our Shrek table-wear and decorations were orange, yellow and green, so the sherbet went with our color theme. We drizzled 7-Up over the sherbet if the kids wanted it that way. For the kids who didn’t like sherbet, we had vanilla ice-cream with caramel and chocolate syrup available.  Shrek Potion: Add green food coloring to 7-Up (easy huh? But it wasn't really). I found a large funny looking pitcher/jar at a Big Lots/Dollar General store that was made out of colored (green) glass, that I used to pour the Shrek potion into the kids cups at the table. I’m not a mad scientist, but somehow when I was making this concoction it erupted like a volcano. I wish the kids could have seen it erupt, but they were in the other room. My bottle was shaped a bit like a volcano, but I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. First I poured the 7-Up into the bottle, then, in another glass I mixed green Kool-Aid with about an 1/8 cup of water. When I poured the concentrated Kool-Aid mix into the jar with the 7-Up it foamed up and overflowed violently!!! It didn’t taste the best either, but most of the kids didn’t mind. I had to add food coloring, because the Kool-Aid did not color the 7-Up enough by itself. I think you could probably skip the Kool-Aid part, but if you want a volcano, who knows, that might be an integral ingredient?  Shrek Ears & Eyebrows. I didn’t like the dinky little paper ears that were with the Shrek party table-wear, so we made our own. I dyed some strips of elastic green and sewed them together so they could fit around the kids’ foreheads like a headband. We traced and cut out ears from green soft craft foam with two tabs at the bottom of the ear shaft, so that one tab could be bent forward and the other one backward when sewed to the headband, to make the ears stick straight out. Ear-holes were drawn on with green markers. I cut eyebrows out of black fuzzy material and sewed them to the front of the headbands. Tip: If your hairy material has a direction that the hair lays, cut the eyebrows out so the hairs are sticking up towards the forehead instead of towards the temples, so they look more like Shreks’. 

Goody Bags: As our party was in October, we were lucky enough to find caramel filled chocolate eyeballs to include in our goody bags. I also found a guey candy with plastic Shrek, Donkey, & Dragon busts on top, called Crazy Hair (we didn’t get any Fiona’s because we had an all-boy party). They also got a colorful plastic creepy-crawly caterpillar worm, some Shrek 2 stickers, their fibre optic wand that they won in the maze, their foam creatures from the potion factory, the clay Gingy that they made, and their Shrek ears & eyebrows headbands.  Decorations: We taped up letter-page-sized print-outs of Shrek 2 posters and movie stills that we found on the Internet. We also taped up a Shrek Happy Birthday banner and had a Shrek 2 tablecloth & dinner-wear. You have to have an assortment of helium filled balloons (with which a group of boys always ends up using to rough house), but we also had a gigantic 32 mylar balloon of Shrek’s head too! 

Here is the script for the puppet show skits:

Skit #1: Props: Shrek, Potion Bottle, Donkey, Puss In Boots, Rubber Duck, White Horse, green hills & blue sky backdrop. 
Shrek: I have to take this potion to make me handsome because I think that will make Fiona happy. The bottle says, Happily Ever After Potion - You must kiss your true love before midnight or the spell will be broken. 
Puss In Boots: Shrek, let me take it first to make sure it is safe. 
Donkey: Hey, I’m Shrek’s best friend. The position of annoying talking animal has already been taken; that’s me. I’m the side-kick. If anyone’s going to test the potion for Shrek it should be me. Donkey takes the potion from Shrek & drinks some of it.  Say Puff.  Exchange Donkey for a rubber duck. (set the duck on the stage where donkey was standing) say Oops.  Throw the duck out toward the audience. Say Puff.  The white horse appears on stage as Donkey. 
Donkey/Horse: (Dancing & Prancing)  Oh yeah! I’m handsome, it’s my birthday! Look at me; I am one big buff good-looking horse! Here you go, Shrek, it’s safe.  Donkey hands Shrek the potion. 
Shrek: On second thought, maybe I should talk to Fiona first, so I know how she really feels. 
Puss In Boots: Yes you are already a quite impressive ogre. 
Donkey/Horse: Yeah, you’re a fine ogre, Shrek. No seriously, we love you just the way you are come, give us a kiss.
Shrek: That’ll do, Donkey, that’ll do. 
Donkey/Horse: (Prancing around in a circle) What about me, Shrek, I’m a fine looking stead, aren’t I? 
Shrek: Yes, Donkey, but you’re still an annoying talking animal. 
Donkey/Horse: That’s me.  Come on, hop on, I’ll give you a ride home.  Shrek & Puss In Boots hop onto donkey’s back with Shrek in front. Donkey prances around and then stops suddenly. 
Donkey/Horse: Yoooouch! Someone’s claws are digging into my rear! 
Puss In Boots: I am most sorry. Can you please forgive me? 
Donkey/Horse: (walking more slowly towards home) Well,.. Alright then. Hey, do you think I’ll find my true love on the way home? 
Shrek: (as they all ride off) Donkey, you don’t need a magic spell to make you a fine stead. 
Donkey/Horse: Yeah? Yeah! That’s right, I was already fine, wasn’t I? 

Skit #2 Remove green & blue backdrop & add wall prop between inside & outside swamp backdrop. Props: Shrek’s chair, table, TV & outhouse, Shrek, pizza with bugs on a plate, Gingy & Donkey.   All the parts between in this skit: should not only be acted out, but should be narrated by someone with an exaggerated deep announcer's voice.   Gingy:  Gingy walks into Shrek’s living room and lies down to take a nap snoring. 
Shrek: Shrek comes in with some pizza with bugs on top, turns on the TV and sits down with his pizza for a second. Then he sets the pizza on the table and goes outside to the outhouse (which is a restroom). Fart Sound 
Donkey: Donkey comes along & finds the pizza. (talking to himself) Oh
Shrek; ruining perfectly good pizza. He picks the bugs off and then he starts to walk away, but then he turns back to look at the pizza again.  Hmmm.  Donkey eats Shrek’s pizza.
Shrek: humming Shrek is coming back towards the house 
Donkey: Donkey hears Shrek coming! He looks around panicked! He sees Gingy and puts him on Shrek’s plate. Don’t forget the bugs. (he slaps a couple bugs on top of Gingy and runs off.) 
Shrek: Shrek comes back in the room, sits down to watch TV, picks up his plate & almost puts Gingy in his mouth, but wait, he hears something  
Gingy: snores 
Shrek: What? Then he yells, Donkey! 

Skit #3 Remove outhouse, & table, but keep Shrek’s chair & the TV. Need Tinker Bell, Shrek & Donkey. 
Tinker Bell: quietly flies from outside through Shrek’s living room and out of sight. 
Shrek & Donkey: come in and sit/lay down to watch TV.  Fart Sound 
Shrek: Donkey, Oh! Go outside to do that. 
Donkey: It wasn’t me  Shrek: (disbelieving) Who was it then? 
Donkey: It wasn’t me!  Shrek & Donkey go back to watching TV  Fart Sound 
Donkey: Shrek! You can’t blame me for that one. 
Shrek: Well it wasn’t me. 
Donkey: (disbelieving) mm hmm  Shrek & Donkey both run outside to get some fresh air take a deep breath  Tinker bell comes dancing through the room as she farts about 4 times. 
Conclusion: Need Glass of Milk & Gingy 
Ethan: Doing those skits and telling jokes made me thirsty  Get a glass of ‘milk’.  Oh look, a cookie!  Try to dip Gingy in your milk. 
Gingy: Stop! It’s me, Gingy! 
Ethan: Putting Gingy down, and snickering, Sorry, Gingy. 
Gingy: as he’s walking away, says, Real Funny  Ha  Ha! 
Ethan: Thanks for watching our Shrek puppet show.