Spongebob Luau 6yr - Krusty Krab Awards

For my son's 6th Birthday, we had a "SpongeBob Lua," on Nov. 22, 2003.   I started the party planning at least two months in advance. Because my house is small I rented the local firehall for $35, which was a blessing because the kids (16 of them!) had lots of room to run around. 

For invitations, I made messages in a bottle. I saved water bottles, filled them with a little bit of sand and small seashells (from Dollar Tree). (This got my sons drinking more water!) I used fish theme computer paper to make the invitations, rolled them up and inserted in the bottle. I tied green and blue curling ribbon (for seaweed) around the top, with a tag that said: "When this washes ashore please deliver to (child's name).  The teachers and kids raved over them and my son loved delivering each one in school.  

For the tables I covered them with blue table dressing and had blue, green and yellow placemates. Each child had a coconut cup (from Oriental Trading) with a cute flower straw. I sprinkled SpongeBob confetti around the placemats and scattered the extra seashells from the bottles around the tables, too. I used star-shaped plastic trays and filled them with multi-colored gold fish for snacking. Also had Spongebob plates and napkins. 

On the food table and cake/presents tables, I bought grass skirt table skirts from OT, which really made a difference. The cake/present table again had seashells, starfish (saved from vacations), and a blow-up Spongebob and a small blow-up palm tree for decoration. I ordered a Spongebob cake and had a cut-out SpongeBob next to it for extra decoration. I also snatched up the kids' Spongebob plush dolls in their room and used on the tables.  

On the walls, I made a bunch of cut-out fish with construction paper (very easy to do!) and made a school of fish. We taped blue and white balloons around them to look like bubbles and I fanned the fish tails to make them look 3-D on the walls. Very cheap and easy to do for decorations!  

Above the food table I hung green and blue streamers for seaweed and made a menu of the featured items at "the Krusty Krab." We had Planktons (twinkies with green icing and black licorice for antennaes & arms); ocean punch (gingerale, strawberry ice cream, pineapple juice & sugar); Patrick Star Fish (star shaped Rice Krispie treats (add pink food coloring to the marshmallow before mixing, use a star cookie cutter, and add edible eyes for decoration!); Krusty Krab pizza (had delivered - no fuss!); SpongeBob cake; Sandy Sweets ice cream (bought individual cups, much easier than scooping it out); and pepperoni & cheese with little parasol picks (a box of 140 for $2 at Wal-Mart.) I also used a big plastic tub and filled it with soda and huggies. It was so cute watching them sip from their cocount cups and munch on the Planktons! 

For decorations, I bought a pineapple, cut a door and 2 windows and cut the bottom out. I carved the inside and placed a tealight inside for Spongebob's house. Placed on the back of the food table so the kids wouldn't touch, but they still enjoyed it and it lit up the table.   As each child arrived my older son dressed as Spongebob (wearing a Halloween costume) and passed out leis (from OT) to each child and parent that stayed. Then I had the child stand in front a huge 7-foot blow-up palm tree (also from OT) and blue & white balloons. I took their photos with a Polaroid camera and gave them the photos as they were leaving. The parents loved this. I also bought a beach music CD which was playing in the background and made "Welcome to Bikini Bottom signs," for the doors. My sons helped with this. 

For games we played Fish, Fish shark (duck, duck goose); musical chairs (using the beach CD); pass the wet sponge( hot potatoe); pin the pants on SpongeBob (printed out from Nick Jr. com); and saved the SpongeBob pinata for last. I passed out lunch bags for them to stuff their goodies in when it broke open. I filled the pinata with all of the leftover Halloween candy! I used a Spongebob pillow case from home as the prize sack (got prizes from  Wal-mart and dollar store).  

As a final game before they left, I put all of their names in a white paper bag, glued a photo of Mr. Krabs on it and pulled names for "Krusty Krabs Employee of the Month". This was easy and got rid of the extra prizes quickly!  As the kids went home, they got their photos and a SpongeBob treat bag containing SpongeBob cheez-its, bubbles, a little Play Doh container, SpongeBob krabby patties (miniature gummy candies), M&Ms, Hershey candy bars (with Spongebob on the wrapper) and candy bracelets. They also got to take their leis and cocount cups.  It was a fantastic party and I'm still getting raves on it. The kids all went home with big smiles, but the birthday boy was happiest of all!!