Spongebob Party 6yr - Pineapple Entrance

For my son's 6th birthday party, he decided on SpongeBob Squarepants. Being a March baby, and living in Canada, this beach/Bikini Bottom theme was an ideal way to get into the spring spirit! (We still had lots of snow on the ground.) I used a lot of ideas from this site, and added a few of my own.

INVITES: I designed a postcard. I used a scene still from a SB episode where SB and Patrick are lying on the beach on towels, wearing sunglasses. (There are lots of SB fan sites that have lots of images to download.) I then took a photo of my son lying on his beach towel, sunbathing, and wearing his sunglasses. I superimposed him, using PhotoShop, next to SB so he looked like he was sunbathing with SB and Patrick. This photo/clipart was the front of the invite-postcard. Using SB font that I downloaded from the net, the front of the postcard said Aloha! In red in large letters at the top-left of the card, and then from Bikini Bottom in the bottom left corner in a smaller point size.

The back of the invite-postcard looked like a typical postcard: I had a line splitting the postcard in halfùright half for the address; left half for text. On the address side, I had P O S T C A R D near the top, then a To and then a black line for the name of the guest. I designed a SB postage stamp by using a SB clipart/scene still and placing that on a postage stamp clipart (with the little wavy edges like stamps have). Then I added 50 cents and Canada so it looked like a SB Canada Post stamp. I placed it where stamps typically go, and then I used a fine black marker and a template I made of card stock of that wavy line to cancel the stamp with a few of these wavy linesùlike it had actually gone through the post office. On the left side of the postcard back, I wrote in yellow SB font: who lives in a pineapple under the sea and then put the SpongeBob Squarepants underneath using the actual Nickelodeon logo.

Then under that I added And he would like you join him and all of his underwater buddies in Bikini Bottom for some tropical fun! (and to celebrate Gregory's 6th birthday). Then I gave the party details, and then at the bottom, added Wear your funkiest beachwear (but wear warm clothes underneath, of course!). To make the invites stiff like a postcard, I printed the fronts and backs on separate sheets of cardstock and then glued them together. Then using pinking shears, I cut them so they had that wavy postcard edge.

DECORATIONS: I love using cardboard cutouts, and luckily for me, have an artistic edge. This was definitely an indoor party, and we have a small house, and I also work within a budget. I could have enhanced the party ten-fold, but one has to draw the line when you have limited $$. So I make many things myself, and I skip the whole licensed paper products line, like plates, tablecloths, etc., as they can take a huge chunk out of your budget, and I have noticed over the years, the kids don't really care or notice.

For the entranceway to our front door, I had wanted to construct SB's pineapple so they had to walk through that, but weather was iffy and we always get the wind and rain on our side, so I decided not to spend the time on that or any type of outdoor decorùdid something similar last year and it collapsed in the rain and wind. So I just hung blue and teal streamers and jellyfish balloons (pink balloons with pink streamer legs and red construction paper circlesùlike in the cartoon). I had a tape recorder outside blaring the theme song over and over again. When they walked in, a 4 foot cardboard (I use LazyBoy boxes I get from a local furniture store for all of my cutouts and paint them with poster paint) Squidward, with his hands on his hips and wearing a lei, was there to greet them.

The hallway down to the rest of the house had the flowers like in SB on the wallsùmade with newsprint and just quickly coloured with crayonsùsomething my son helped with---cut out and stuck on with sticky tack. From the hall ceiling were blue and teal streamers to mimic waves and some more jellyfish balloons. At the end of the hall to the left is the diningroom. Above the entrance was a sign The Krusty Krab in SB font. A Mr. Krabs cutout was at the entranceway and holding a Krusty Krab menuùfound a scene still for the menu info and prices.

Craft and cake occurred in the diningroom. The table had a yellow plastic tablecloth. Then I pieced together newsprint to fit the table and added that on top. I have this contraption that allows you to trace images using its reflection hard to explain, but I bought it from Regal a # of years agoùis meant for kids to help them draw. Using that, I drew a # of SB colouring images on this entire newsprint tablecloth: Sandy, Mr. Krabs, Gary, Patrick, SB, Plankton, lots of jellyfish and bubbles, Squidward These were outlined with a black Sharpie. The purpose of my tablecloth was allowing the kids to colour to their hearts content while I prepared drinks, cake, candles, etc. On top of that, I placed a black tablecloth at the start of the party, just to do craftsùthey didn't see this colouring table til cake timeùand they loved it and it really settled them down.

On the ceiling, I just hung green and teal streamers straight down to mimic seaweed. When exiting the Krusty Krab, the kitchen is right there and so are the stairs to the downstairs family room. On the banister was sticky-tacked a little Plankton cut out. In the family room, the same blue and teal ôwaveö streamers were on the ceiling with jellyfish balloons. I had a 4 foot Patrick cutout eating an ice cream cone in one corner. On top of my TV/wall unit, I had Sandy sitting playing her guitarùthe image from when Sandy wanted to return to Texas. I had a small Gary next to the couch and used an actual glass cereal bowl and taped on Gary with some Cheerios in it so it looked like Gary was at his food dish. Then of course, we had SpongeBob. I chose a pose that had his arm out---to be used for the craft which I'll explain later on. Also lots of newsprint flowers on the walls.

CRAFT:  When guests arrived, I welcomed them with welcome to Bikini Bottom and placed a lei around their neck. Then they went directly to the diningroom to begin their craft. I made SBs house (pineapple) and the kids had to decorate them. I used craft foam for the pineapple, pineapple top, stove pipe and window. I was lucky to find little foam flowers and actually sat and cut out the insides so they looked just like the flowers on SB! (insane, I know). I printed jellyfish clipart and Gary to the appropriate size, and each boy received 1 Gary and 2 jellyfish to add to their house. I drew lines on the pineapple to look like the diamond shapes they have, and added a round piece of glitter of various colours to the centre of each diamond---I was going to let the kids do it but then thought it was too much for them and the glitter would slide around as they tried to add other items, etc.ùhis kindergarten classmate's ages ranged from 4 to 6.

So the kids glued on the rest: green top, stove pipe, window, flowers, Gary, and jellyfish. Using my SB cutout, we took a photo of each boy with SB at the end of the party SB's arm looked like he was putting it around the boyùand this photo was inserted into the door of the house/frame. I had glued corrugated cardboard to the back of each frame, in the shape of the pineapple, to add support; glued in the photo, then glued a piece of black construction paper to cover all of that cut out to the shape of the frame. Then added a label to the back, eg, Joshua and SpongeBob Squarepants at Gregory's 6th birthday party plus the date. Then added 2 magnet strips. These were delivered to the school on the Monday along with a thank-you note (was a group shot of the boys at the party)ùparty was the Saturday. Total frame size was approx. 6" wide, 11" tall (including the green top); photo/door size was approx. 3 x 2. They turned out really well.

GAMES: I find 5 games work out well for a 2-hour party. Being indoors and having a small room really limits my choices of games. I had a black bag of chocolate coins and gave each boy a ziplock bag. Everyone rec'd a coin at the end of each game---I warned them to guard it as Mr. Krabs might be watching!! First we played Who Am I? I called one boy at a time to the stool and placed a SB character printout on his back. The others saw; the one boy had to ask his friends 5 yes/no questions (eg., am I big? Do I work at the Krusty Krab?) and then try to guess who they were. The younger ones didn't quite understand that concept. But it was still fun.

Then we played Pin the Nose on Squidward. Using regular Bristol board, I made a cutout of Squidward there's one out there where he looks stunned and not his grumpy self. Of course he was missing his nose I made one for each boy with sticky tack on the back. As a twist, I sat the boys down in front of Squidward and asked, what's he missing [his nose]. This was set up next to my laundry room, so I was able to hide my noses there and could just reach around the wall. I said to the boys oh, is this his nose?ö and stuck on a pig's nose cutout painted Squidward's colour. Got giggles and nooooo, and switched for a human nose (painted Squidward colour), then a clown's red nose. They're really giggling at this point, and I asked Do I need a smaller nose or a bigger one? They all yell bigger! So I stick on my elephant trunk (painted Squidward colour)---hysterics---then I put on the right nose, and then we started the game exactly like pin the tail on the donkey.

Next they did a Limbo Dance. I used the song Chaperoneö from SB see Music later on for details. I used a pool noodle as I thought if they bumped their head, it would not hurt like a broomstick. They enjoyed that. Next was Jellyfish Stomp. Like musical chairs, but I placed construction paper jellyfish with pink streamers for legs on the floor. When the music stopped; they had to find a jellyfish and stomp on it. I started with the same # for the # of boys. They had to do their funkiest SB dancing.

Last game was the Krabby Patty Assembly Race. This one took the longest in way of making the items for it. I made each boy a Krabby Patty employee hat from cardstock easy to do. Then told them they were now fry cooks and had to quickly assemble a Krabby Patty according to my diagram. I had 4 TV tables set up at opposite ends of the room: 2 for cooking and 2 for assembling. Made 2 teams. I used my indoor BBQ grill for the grill and a couple of spatulas from my kitchen plus paper plates.

For the Krabby Patties (needed supplies to make one complete patty per child), I used all scrap fabric I had in my fabric drawer: buns were made of beige corduroyùcorduroy side for outside of bun, and smooth on inside. Sewn and stuffed with cotton balls. Real sesame seeds glued on top bun. Patties were brown corduroy on one side (for cooked side) and pink felt on other for raw side; sewn and filled with beans. Pickles, tomato, lettuce were made of scrap felt and whatever I had lying around. Mustard and ketchup were short pieces of yellow and red wool. Kids had to flip their patties on the grill from raw to cooked, then put on bun on plate, then go to assembly table to add condiments then deliver it to me. My diagram I drew the bun and patty, then glued actual condiments to it as a math equation: bun/patty + pce of lettuce + tomato slice + pickle slice + strands of mustard/ketchup = and here put a clipart I found of SB getting ready to bite into a Krabby Patty. The kids loved this game.

Then back to the dining room for cakeùI removed the craft tablecloth to reveal the colouring table and the kids loved it. I was able to get things together and get juice and ice cream without a lot of fuss they were so engrossed in colouring. Before singing happy birthday I told them they should warm up their voices and help sing the SB themeùI played it and they had to yell out the part that the kids do in the actual song. After cake, we returned downstairs to open gifts. We had 1 hour to spare,. I had taped some SB cartoons so I put those on, some boys wanted to play with the gifts, and one by one, each boy was called to get his photo taken with SB. My rule with parties is the bedrooms are off-limits. A couple of them wanted to check out my kids bedrooms. I just see no need for thatùbut that's my personal opinion. As kids were leaving, they rec'd their loot bag, kept their leis and krabby patty hat. The closing theme to SB was now playing on the porch.

MUSIC: I love music at parties. I was able to download a TON of Spongebob music at www.spongymedia.x3fusion.com I burned these onto a CD and them made tapes as I needed them (only have 1 cd player but a couple of portable cassette players). Made 1 tape of the theme playing over and over for 20 minutes for the porch; on flip side did closing theme for end of party; made one tape for limbo dancing; the chaperone song repeated a few times; made a tape for jellyfish stompingùthe upbeat ones; then a general music cd that played at all times other than for the music games.

It contained SB songs such as Campfire Song Song, F.U.N., Loopty-loop, Having a Wonderful Time, etc., plus I slipped in a few actual Hawaiian songs had a Hawaiian cd kicking around. LOOT BAGS: I found bright yellow lunch bag style bags at Walmart that were of the price of SB party bags. I printed off his face just his eyes, nose and mouth, glue sticked them onto each bag and colouring the face accordingly. They looked greatùfastened them shut with neon-colouring pipe cleaners. Contents: 3 Krabby Patty gummies; some sour stix (sour powder in straws)I replaced labels with my own SB labels that I made; bottle of bubbles (replaced labels with my own SB labels of him blowing bubbles); colouring book that I made from downloaded colouring pages, and got photocopied; box of 8 crayons; 1 SB Dunkaroo; little flutes of which I glued on a small clipart of Squidward playing his clarinet; a SB pencil, some SB stickers; a crazy straw, a SB character lollipop (got the mould from eBayùI can resell this, and used the merck wafersùfun to make!). My kids get a loot bag too, and instead of the crazy straws (which they already have a few of, I put in SB lip balm I found at the $ store). I wanted to give each boy a butterfly net with a jellyfish balloon inside, but it was too early here in the season, and no $ stores had them in stock yet.

FOOD: During games, I only had a tray of munchies: chips & dip, cheesies, pretzels. My experience is that kids don't eat if you prepare much more than that. They're too excited!!! Then I made a SB cakeùone change I made: instead of using breadsticks or pretzel sticks for his arms and legs, I used straws and coated them with icing (cutting costs), and rather than buy Twinkies or whatever for the feet, I just drew them on the platter with black icing as well has his hands. Ice cream with the cake, and krab juice (red) for a drink.

TIME TO PREPARE: The more time, the better, and it depends if you work, how much spare time you have, etc. Party was 3rd week in March; I started early February picking things up. I didn't work on it night and day so to speak, so by starting this early, I was able to work a little more leisurelyùno panic mode this time!

COST: Hmmm..haven't added up the bills yet, but I'm guessing between $50 and $75 Cdn. I do 95% of my shopping for supplies at $ storesùfor hard to find things I use eBay (like the lollipop moulds, and the pencils couldn't find them here).

DRESS UP: Everyone dressed for the occasion: my husband & I in Hawaiian shirts and summer pants; my boys in SB button-down shirts with long-sleeve underneath and pants, and all the guest had some sort of summer stuff on: shorts over their pants; Hawaiian shirts; SB shirts, beach hats, etc.

This was a F. U.N.! party!!!! I've since rec'd a phone call from one of the boys moms to give advice on planning her son's party. I'm very flattered!