Spongebob 4yr - Patrick Bubbles

For my son's 4th birthday party, we celebrated with a Sponge Bob party- his favorite character at the time! 

I created the invitations by cutting yellow sponges in half and gluing them to the front side of white invitation card stock. Then I scanned SpongeBob's face from a sticker and enlarged it so it fit in the center of the sponge. I printed the face on card stock & glued it with hot glue to the sponge. On the front side I printed "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea....". On the inside I printed "Come Celebrate "__"'s 4th birthday with Sponge Bob. Where: "Bikini Bottom" + our address, time, date, etc. On the facing side, I printed the different activites we'd be doing "Blow Bubbles, Go Jellyfishing, Sponge Paint, Build Sandcastles, Make Krabby Patties, Bounce in Bikini Bottom, Have Fun". Behind the copy I used photoshop to draw the flowers that are in the background of the cartoon. I used a font that looks like the Spongebob font.    

I set up different activity centers in the backyard with signs beside each on foamboard/dowels: 

1) Bubbles: I bought a medium sized blue plastic storage container and filled in half way with bubble fluid. On the kid sized table beside it, I placed several large bubble wands, different small wands and some battery operated bubble blower "guns". I also placed a bubble machine on the deck above the center so bubbles would float around it.  

2) Make a Krabby Patty. I set up a Krabby patty station on a card table with my son's pretend cooktop and had baskets lined up and filled with the ingredients to make a pretend krabby patty. Buns: tan material, stuffed like hamburger buns. Patty: Square piece of brown & pink felt material sewn and stuffed with beans. Lettuce: Green piece of felt with wavy edges. Cheese: Yellow/orange piece of square felt. Mustard & Ketchup: Yellow & Red yarn. Each "ingredient" was cut in the size of a hamburger. To assemble the patties, they had to place the "meat" pink side up and flip it with a plastic spatula. Then they placed it on a paper plate and built their Krabby patty with the other ingredients. When they were finished, I placed it in a plastic sandwich bag so they could take it home as a favor. They enjoyed pretending to eat them.  

3) Take a picture with Sponge Bob. I used an overhead to draw SpongeBob (with a birthday hat on) standing beside Patrick on a piece of 4'x4' plywood. I cut an oval hole in place of Patrick's face where they could stick their face through. I took pictures of each child with the cutout and later included their picture with their thank you card.  

4) Build Sandcastles: I placed lots of sand toys in my son's sand box and also made Sand Dough. This is similar to playdough, but it's made with flour, sand, oil and water (look for recipes online). I placed the dough and a basket of shells (for the kids to make impressions with) on a small table. 

5) Sponge Painting: I bought sponges cut in the shapes of animals and letters and also cut out mini sponge bobs faces. Alongside, I placed metal bowls with different colors of washable paint. The kids made pictures on sheets of colored construction paper. I hung a piece of rope along the fence so we could hang their art up to dry with clothespins. 

6) Jellyfishing: I bought a miniature wading pool and filled it with water and "Jellyfish". I made the jellyfish out of small pink balloons with irridescent pink curling ribbon curled to look like tentacles. The kids fished them out with plastic bug nets I found at the dollar store. They had a blast doing this. Afterwards (since it was late May & hot) they all decided to take turns cooling off in the pool.  I also rented a Sponge Bob moon bounce. This was also a big hit.  

For the other decorations, I set up a shade tent in the backyard and hung metallic green & blue streamers from the top & sides. I also hung clear (to look like bubbles) and blue balloons with fishing wire from the top of the tent. I placed two 6 foot tables under the tent with Sponge Bob tablecloths and a pineapple on each as the centerpiece. I tied 3 balloons to each pineapple with green curling ribbon.  On the deck, I used another 6 foot table for the food. I covered it with a turquoise tablecloth and placed the same pineapple centerpiece in the middle.

We grilled hamburgers ("Krabby Patties"), goldfish crackers (in a fish bowl with a new mini fish net as a spoon), fruit trays, chips inside plastic conch shell bowls and salsa for the adults. I filled ice chests with Capri Suns, Water & Sodas. I purchased the cake from Wal-mart. It was in the shape of Sponge Bob with his hands, feet, pants and face made out of plastic pieces we could keep.    When the kids first arrived, they played for about an hour at the different centers. Then everyone ate. Afterwards, we had a pull string SpongeBob pinata filled with salt water taffy, gummy Krabby Patty candies, sweet tarts and Tootsie Pops. Then we had cake/ice cream and the kids played some more.

The party lasted 2 hours. The favors were mini sand buckets filled with mini bubbles, Sponge Bob crackers, mini Krabby patty gummy candies, individual packages of SpongeBob gummies, Sponge Bob stickers, a sandwich bag with a single portion of the sand dough & a sea shell and their stuffed Krabby Patty.   A few days later, I sent Thank you cards made out of photo cards with their SpongeBob/Patrick picture inserted. For the adults, I inserted a photo of my son inside the Patrick cut-out.              

All in all, the party was a blast. The kids played non-stop!! My son is already talking about what kind of party he'll have next year.