Spongebob Party 10yr - Sponge Race

For my son's 10th birthday, we had a sponge bob party. I am a girl on a tight budget, so I had to make it nice and cost effective.We invited 10 kids and three infants.

Invitations: I bought paper from the craft store with a bubble background at 29 cent per sheet, then I made some copies of a picture of my son with sponge bob and Patrick that we took a few years back at Universal Studios, (the copies were also 29 cents each) and I printed from my computer ----'S TURNING 10!! COME ON DOWN TO BIKINI BOTTOM AND GO JELLYFISHING! I put all the party info on it, and at the bottom, I glued the picture of my son with sponge bob and Patrick. I put the invites in a regular white envelope, and with a blue marker, I drew bubbles on the envelope to set the theme.

We had the party in my back yard. I have some tents that I invested in, since we have family gettogethers a lot, but I did rent tables and chairs (cost 30.00) I decorated the inside of the tents as a underwater/ beach theme. I bought 2 50lbs bags of sand at home depot (2.50 each) and used some of it to use as table centerpieces. I also bought a basket of shells at the craft store(1.00) and put the shells on the tables with the sand. I arranged the sand on the tables in a way that it would not be on people's food.

Also, I bought some vases at the dollar store that were tall and multi-colored, I filled those with some sand also, and put in blue, green, yellow and orange balloons on balloon sticks. This really saved me money, because a helium tank is pricey, and they looked so festive! I poured the rest of the sand on the floor, (very easy clean up too) and placed two treasure chests with jewelry and riches on opposite sides of the food buffet table. We had hot dogs, nachos, salad and juice for food.(The treasure chests were two styrofoam coolers that I bought at smart and final for 2.99 and then spray painted them a copper color, I bought bags of play necklaces at the party store (for 1.50 for a 12 count bag) I hung jellyfish" from the "ceiling" of the tents.

The jellyfish were paper lanterns (from the dollar store) that I only opened halfway and glued party streamers from the bottom. They really did look like jellyfish! Next I made my own "mobiles" I printed up pictures of spongebobtreasure chests hamburgers and all his friends etc and glued them to cardboard and glued curling ribbon to the bottoms and hung those along with the jellyfish. I bought a sponge bob birthday CD for the party and that was the music at the party. We played several games pass the octopus (hot potato) my son has a stuffed plush octopus that we used for the game. We played "Build your own krabby patty" ( bread rolls cut in half and play dough to make the inside of the patties all from the dollar store)the person who could build the patty to my request was the winner. Then we played musical chairs. It was so much fun that the grown ups played on their own while I was entertaining the kids!

We had a sponge relay race the first team to fill half a cup with water absorbed from a sponge won. The prizes were things like sponge bob stickers to sponge bob mac and cheese boxes. (also from the dollar store) because I was on a tight budget I made the cake myself. It was a half sheet cake that I decorated myself. I bought a hollowed out half coconut shell from the pet store (2.95) that are used for hermit crabs that was patrick's house and I bought a small plastic pineapple that I cut the bottom off of and used it as spongebob's house. (79 cents) I piped a door and a window on the pineapple and it looked like spongebob's house. I used sponge bob and Patrick toys that my son had and used those for the cake too.

The party favor bags were the kids' favorite. I bought a pack of brown paper bags with a handle at the craft store (5.99 for 12) I printed up a pic of plankton and glued it to the bags as well as writing: "----'s Chumbucket Special" and with a white crayon made bubbles all over the bag. Almost everything in the bag was from the dollar store. It had mini bubbles(12 for 1.00) squidward's clarinet(16 for a 1.00) a small treasure box that I filled with nerds candy (12 for a 1.00). Sponge bob rings (2 for 45 cents at a cake supply shop)sponge bob bouncy balls (3 for 1.00 at walmart)Spongebob dip and lick lollipops (6 for 1.00)Then I made a small bag with swedish fish and gold coins that had a label that read "Mr. Krabbs Bag of Loot"(candy also from the dollar store) Spongebob sticky note pads (2 for a 1.00 at walmart) and I made copies of the CD we played at the party. The kids loved it!

We had three kids under a year old for them I made the same bag but instead it read:"---'s Jr. Chumbucket special" it had a Spongebob sippy cup(a pack of three for 2.99 at Target and an infant car seat toy(dollar store) and two packages of travel size rice cereal(2.00 for a pack of six at Big lots) We had a small pinata that I bought for 9.99 at a party store I filled the pinata with sponge bob gummy fruit snacks (dollar store)the parents liked that Idea because the kids were not going home with a lot of candy. My son had a wonderful time and I didn't spend much money at all. "