Spongebob Party 5yr - Pin the SquarePants

This was the best birthday party we ever had! About a two months ago my then 5 year old Benjamin saw a SpongeBob Squarepants birthday cake in a local supermarket flyer. He loved it and immediately wanted to have it for his birthday. With that cake as the start I decided to have a SpongeBob theme for his party.

I downloaded a birthday planner whcih really helped. I was going to purchase SpongeBob invitations, but after reviewing my son's guest list ( he wanted to invite 30 people) I decided to save the money and make my own. I purchased a 200 sheet package of construction paper at Walmart for $1.97(Canadian) I used this for almost all my decoration needs. I used a scrapbooking scissors with the rippling edges. It was perfect. I got three invites per sheet of yellow construction paper. Just cut out strips then folded thm length wise. I used coloring pencils and drew just SpongeBob's face and then added some grey spots for holes in his sponge, I added the grey spots on the back as well. The invitation read in SpongeBob font that I downloaded online like this: " Are you ready Kids? To Celebrate Benjamin's 6th Birthday! (the next lines were in comic sans font ) Come to Bikini Bottom for some seafraing fun & enjoy Supper at the Krusty Krab! Destination: Bikini Bottom ( Benjamin's House) Cast off: Friday May 19th, 2006, Dive Time: 4:30 pm. Resurface: 6:30 pm. R.S.V.P. On or before May 17th, ( and added our phone number) at the bottom it said "Wear your funkiest beach wear! Sea you soon!!" I used SpongeBob clip art I found online and a cute sea theme divider at the bottom. I used Microsoft word and had two per page in tables to make it easier to cut them out straight. I used thicker than normal printer paper and glued them inside my SpongeBob faces, there was a line on the bottom for the kids name that you were inviting. We delivered them 12 days before the party. 

For decorations I mostly made my own which was the first time I ever tried anything like this. I have never even tried to draw before. I made dozens of fish from construction paper, them all colors and drew different faces on, to look like Bikini bottom town's folk. I put them everywhere in my living room, dining room and entranceway( these were the main party areas.)  I also made dozens of flowers in all colours like you see on the show in the background. I had these on the walls and ceiling. They looked great! I made a SpongeBob using a sheet of Yellow Bristol board and contruction paper. I cut out his pants and shirt, tie, shoes, arms, etc... from red, brown, yellow and white construction paper. I drew his face on with markers. I hung him on the wall inside our door to greet you when you came in. On the wall facing I had a life preservor made from white Bristol board and colored with red makers for stripes it said "Happy Birthday Benjamin" in blue. It looked awesome!

My living room and dinning room are all one big room so I had one long wall which I had a Plankton made from, you guessed it the same consrtuction paper, and a Patrick. It also had the fish and flowers. In my dining room I had the Krusty Krab menu on top it read Galley Grub. I used a sheet of bristol board (which are only $0.72 cents) and used a black marker. I had surfed the internet they have tons of fans sites that can tell you the menu items. I chose items that related to the food we served.  I also had Sandy made from another sheet of Bristol board and I had a sign over the door leading in to my kitchen it read "order here". I made it to look old by ripping the paper.

We had light and dark blue streamers hanging down from the doors, like a curtain, to look like waves so the kids had to walk through them ( this was a big fave the little kids loved to run in and out of them, lol.) We had pink ballons dotted with purple dots that we drew on using permanent ink markers. and taped curled pink ribbon to the bottom.( got the ribbon at the 99 cents store.)  These were jellyfish and we had them all over the cieling with the flowers. I had two summer table clothes that were yellow, light blue and white, They were only $1.00 each and had sea shells, star fish and sea horses on them. They looked so nice.

I had two tables because we had a lot of kids. I also had a fish net hung over my entertainment center, it had various sea creatures caught in it. These were just toys my kids had like, fish, crabs, lobsters etc... we also had three very large sea shells that came from Hawaii I borrowed from my parents. We live by the ocean and collected tons of shells and interesting rocks. I scatterd some of these around and filled a large fish bowl with them also. Sitting among this was a plush SpongeBob of my son's.

Above the door leading into my kitchen from our main entrance way I had another net hanging with toy fish in it and some green stramers to look like seaweed. I was so impressed by how it all came together.It looked like something you see on TV. That's is what my sister in law said at the party. We had blue, and green balloons on the floor and also white ones for bubbles. I found a bamboo beach mat at the 99 cents store and used it for kids to sit on on the floor. Some lay down and pretended they were tanning. hehehe1!  

Each guest was greeted at the front door with Welcome to Bikini bottom and a lei that I made myself using drinking straws, string and flowers I had cut out and made with yep, more construction paper. This was what took the longest, I drew and cut out 400 flowers, each lei had 20 flowers. You can find how to make these online. We had an episode of Spongbob on TV. for the guests to watch while they were waitng for everyone to arrive. I also had SpongeBob coloring sheets and crayons on the tables for kids to color their fave character. Had printed these online. When everyone had arrived, (we ended up with 19 kids, 5 adults and two teenagers.)

We had our first game which was SpongeBob says. A Bikini Bottom version of Simon says. I had the kids do things like, Laugh like Patrick, walk like Mr. Krabs, do Karate like Sandy, etc... Then we made SpongeBob pictures frames. I purchased a kit from Walmart for $9.99 it had everthing you needed, you didn't have to use glue just stick on the SpongeBob themed stickers to the frame. Each frame had a magnet to put on the fridge and the kit makes 30 frames. This was a super craft! No messy clean up. Next we played Pin the pants on SpongeBob that I printed from Nickjr.com. With so many kids, after the first half were through playing the pin the pants game we started serving supper. I had ordered in two large pizzas, and a large garlic fingers from a local pizza place. It was enough for everyone. We also had chips, cheezies, SpongeBob cookies, red fish candy, pretzels, gummie sharks, Pineapple pop, orange soda,Coke and of course SpongeBob cake.

The cake had SpongeBob and Patrick that were slinkies on it. I found a SpongeBob Candle and replaced the SpongeBob on the cake with the Candle. The cake was $21.99 from the supermarket.My son was over the moon when he saw it!! We used just plain paper plates and cups why waste money on stuff you throw away. During the party games and eating I had SpongeBob music playing that I had downloaded online and burned off. Then we played "Wipe Out" while the song Wipe Out played the kids had to pretend they were riding surf boards, when I shouted wipe out they all fell on the floor as if a wave hit them, the music stopped until they got back on their boards.

Everyone had a blast with this. I never imagined the kids would like it so much. Instead of just handing out the loot bags. I had a treasure hunt. Using the same fish shape I used for the own's folk fish I had five special fish that had glittered fins placed throughout the kitchen, dinningroom, livingroom, entranceway and our hall. Each fish had a clue to the next fish and a silly activity you had to do like boogie to the kitchen etc... At the end I had a large SpongeBob gift bag that I got at the 99 cents store hid with all the loot. The "treasure fish" were posted on the walls along with the regular fish the kids followed the clues to find them.

For loot bags I used red mesh vegetable bags to look like fish net. Inside I had them filled with Suba snacks, SpongeBob cookies, small bottles of bubbles that had SpongeBob stickers on them, Sea Shells, gummy Krabby patties, lolli pops, candy and sea creature stickers. I had a small gift tag I made on the computer using the same SpongeBob clip art that read: Thanks! SpongeBob and Benjamin want to thank you for coming to the pary! I did off 12 per sheet and glued them to yellow consruction paper, hole punched them and tied them to the loot bags with a fishing string my husband had. I also printed off 4 thankyou notes for Nickjr.com and had my son sign them these we gave to the adults that helped out. It was a beautiful day so the kids went outside after the gifts were open to practice their bubble blowing.

 We had kids ranging in ages from 2 to 9 years. All the kids participated in each activity. I thought some of the older ones wouldn't but they loved them all! I did not have prizes because I hate when everyone can't win and kids get sad. The frames, leis and loot bags served as prizes for everyone. All in all this party cost me about $127.00, I started 3 weeks before the day but could of started earlier. My husband works away from home so I had to do most of it myself. I made most of the decorations when my kids were sleeping and I was watching TV.  Anyone can do this!  My son is still talking about it!