Tropical Survivor -9yr- Bamboo & Swamp Grass Décor

For my sons 9th Birthday I printed invitations that were a Tropical setting from my print master platinum. Palm tress and desert Island. They read, Can you survive Caleb’s 9th Birthday? Inside had palm trees and a Monkey and read “You are invited to be one of 10 castaways marooned at OUR ADDRESS, The adventure will take place on THE DATE. The challenge will begin at THE TIME. I printed this all in the Survivant font from FONTFACE.com. I also went to the survivor logo exchange and printed various survivor logos that I printed on sticker paper and put one on the outside of the invitation and one on the inside. I rolled them up and put them in 8 inch pieces of bamboo. I printed a small note on brown paper bag that had the name of the person and said ARE YOU A SUIRVIVOR? Put a small hole punch in that and tied it around the bamboo with raffia. My son hand delivered them.

I ordered a survivor theme cd from amazon.com, which played the entire time. I ordered yellow and red survivor bandanas from cbs.com for each person. I put burlap over a 6-foot table and tied a 15-foot grass table skirt around it for tropical effect. I also found a very large piece of cardboard behind a furniture store. I put grass skirt hanging off the edges of that and covered the top with the remaining burlap. My husband hung this off the wall over the decorated table to make a tropical overhang or palapa. Its sides were resting on two pieces of bamboo I got from pier one imports. 

I bought corrugated brown paper bags from Michaels stuck a few pieces of odd shaped orange and black construction paper with a Survivor sticker on that. We used those for the loot bags. I filled those with a survivor dog tag from cbs.com and a compass and mini flashlight from Oriental trading co. and Candy. I bought a monkey carved from some coconuts wearing a grass skirt (any party store in the luau section) and used that as a décor on the table but also immunity idle. I decorated with totem pole décor from a party store. Put Balloons on the mailbox and a sign that said Caleb’s Survivor party (survivor sticker enlarged). My Son picked out real tribe survivor names and made two flags the day before the party.

As children arrived we gave it a buff and I took a picture of them with Caleb under our makeshift Palapa. I sent the picture with our Thank You card.  After all the kids arrived I served Pizza and got the food out of the way. I then took them outside and asked who watches survivor? Explained that were just having fun and if you chose not to play that was okay. I explained that fire meant life and at that point we lit a tiki torch one for each tribe. Gave each tribe their name and flag. Took a picture of each tribe. Let the challenges begin!

Our first game we played HOT MONKEY (hot potato) to the Survivor Theme song. Then I put 20 items that a nine year old would want on a deserted island. (Candy, coke, trunks, gameboy, flashlight etc.on a try and gave them a minute to look at them. Then they split up and listed what they remembered.

Then we went outside where I had empty 24oz water bottles lined up in the tribe colors with each persons name on them. First tribe to rubber band shoot down all the opposing tribes water bottles down, won!

Then we had the gross food challenge. I had palm tree die cuts I wrote 1-10 and a food item, like smashed bugs (mixed vegetable baby food) candy coated cockroach (date) worms (gummy worms) tree branch (broccoli) etc. All they had to do was eat it and show their tongue, no time limit.

Then they had to line up and put a balloon between each tribe member and walk as fast as possible an obstacle course without losing a balloon. If a balloon was lost they all had to stop and pick it up and go again. First team across the line won!

We went on to a triple challenge. Their team had to wear oversized gloves on the wrong hand and pick up a sticky piece of pasta. Travel about 10 feet and put it in a milk carton, once their entire team completed that task they could move on together to all shoot one hoop, once their entire team completed that they moved on to the gunny sack race to finish.

Then each team member competed with their opponent to get and eat a gummy worm that was buried on a soft PAPER PLATE with chocolate pudding and cool whip. They loved this game!

The last game they did was again competing with an opponent to pop a helium balloon that is tied to their ankle. They were not allowed to use their hands. The balloon was flying above their heads because of the helium. Once they popped the balloon the winners team got a point, inside the balloon was one letter printed on a paper. After all the balloons were popped they went to separate areas to open all the printed letters from their balloons and unscramble them. They spelled out BIRTHDAY.

We gathered around the lit tiki torches and announced the winning tribe. They got to extinguish the other tribe’s torch and take a picture with the immunity idle. Everyone had so much fun. The games lasted an hour and I couldn’t believe it but they wanted to play more. We went in and opened gifts and ate birthday cake that looked like a tropical island and had survivor written on it. We then did the Palm tree piñata and everyone went home tired!