Wizard of Oz Party -7yr- Dorothy's Beauty Bar

Magical Wizard of Oz Party - 7 year old  For my daughter's 7th birthday she wanted a magician, but not with a magic theme. We enjoyed watching the Wizard of Oz so we decided to use that as our theme, with a magician as "the wizard". It was a big hit and this party could have accomodated either a large or small group of children. 

INVITATIONS: On card stock gave the verse: Fly over the Rainbow and Follow the Yellow Brick Road to _____'s 7th magical birthday and then listed where, when, etc. For decoration on the card used glitter glue in colors of red, yellow, green and blue to make a rainbow at the top of each one.  

DECORATIONS: On the sidewalk leading to the house we made a yellow brick road with sidewalk chalk; made a rainbow arch of balloons easy to make with your own can of helium, balloons and a string; and had a curtain of silk flowers in rainbow colors hanging in the doorway for kids to walk thru. (look in the Luau section of your party store). Once in the backyard, we had a playhouse where we made witches legs by stuffing tights with tissue paper and then painting black rings around the tights (to look like the witch's legs), adding an old pair of red sparkly slippers, and placing them sticking out from under the playhouse. We also placed flower pinwheels around the yard (Oriental trading); had balloons and streamers in all the colors of the rainbow placed everywhere; had a bubble machine blowing bubbles (does one contain Glinda?), had music from the Wizard of OZ playing on the jambox; had silk flowers (on clearance) and had tissue paper flowers around seating areas for the moms.

I had tables set up for the cake, a craft, beauty activity and presents and I had a plastic disposable table cloth in a color of the rainbow on each. I also hung red balloons in a tree to look like apples and had apples on the cake table in a basket. A scarecrow was in the yard, a lion (large stuffed animal that we already had) and a tin man that I made. I made him out of poster board which I covered in aluminum foil and then just rolled up two sheets long ways for his legs with a dowel in each leg for support, one sheet sideways for his body and head, and 2 half sheets longways for his arms. I then cut out a piece in a circle to make a cone for the top of the head and a rolled up piece on top to resemble a funnel. Very easy and inexpensive to make and the end result was very cute. Both of my children also drew many pictures of the characters and we "mounted" them on construction paper and taped them up.  

PARTYWARE: Used plates, napkins, forks and spoons in the colors of the rainbow. Before hand I rolled up the napkins with the forks and spoons so we could just hand a little bundle to each child. I would put a different color combination together in each such as a red napkin, blue fork and yellow spoon, etc. I also stacked the plates beforehand so that with each piece of cake we handed out we would have a different color red, blue, green, etc.  

CRAFTS/ACTIVITES: When the children arrived I painted their faces with a rainbow on the cheek. I also had mazes for them to do (Wizard of Oz theme I found online). I made Dorothy's Beauty Bar a table with nail polish, hair accessories, that sort of thing. We set up a bean bag toss into a dog dish for the kids to play with if they wished and of course the backyard swing set was available! I had Wizard of Oz Trivia sheets for the moms to do while the party was going on which consisted of 10 questions with answers on the back. An example of a question - Which child actor was the first choice to play Dorothy?   

GAMES: After about 20 minutes we played games. These were STICKER TAG -hand a sheet of round colored stickers from the office supply store to each child. When you say go they have to run around and tag as many people with a sticker as possible. To make it more fair for the smaller children (younger siblings) we said you could not put two stickers in a row on someone. As soon as the first person had used all their stickers the game was over and we looked to see who had the least number of stickers on them. HOOLA HOOP RING RACE we divided the children into two lines and the children in each line held hands. The lines then raced as to who could pass a hoola hoop down the line without letting go of hands.

Next we did a RELAY RACE with our two teams children had to walk several paces on ruby slippers (large pieces of red posterboard decorated with red glitter they could only step on the slippers to walk so with each step they would have to pick one up and move it forward to take their next step), next jump over a witches broomstick (oriental trading), next stuff a scarecrow (I had a bale of hay and the kids would stuff a big handful of hay into a pair of jeans before moving on), next melt the witch (throw a water balloon at a picture of the witch which was drawn in waterbased markers so the witch melted) and then on to the next team member. The kids loved this and cheered throughout.

I had two more games planned, but didn't need to use them. I always plan more games than needed just in case they go quickly and you need more things to do. The other ones I had planned to play were WICKED WITCH ARE YOU HUNGRY all the kids are on one side of the room, yard or whatever. An adult is on the other side. The kids ask wicked witch, wicked witch, are you hungry?, to which the witch would reply No come closer and they would have to take a few steps closer, or Yes!! And she would chase them and try to catch them.  Also, we planned to play CATCH THE LION'S TALE where everyone holds hand in a line and the person at the front of the line tries to catch the person at the back of the line!  

MAGIC SHOW: I asked the children who Dorothy wanted to see, and everyone said the wizard I then explained that a wizard is often a magician, and at that point we were off to see the Wizard!! The children sat down and enjoyed a magic show. 

CAKE:  We served with ice cream and juice boxes. Throughout the party a table was set up with snacks of chips served in witches cauldrons and a water pitcher with cups.  The cake was a rectangular cake covered in little flowers and a yellow brick road, with edible glitter on it. We bought the little enesco figurines of the characters and the birthday girl placed them on the cake herself. Also, at the end of the yellow brick road was a rainbow made out of a round cake layer, cut in half and standing on it's side to be an arch.  

PINATA: We made a Rainbow pinata out of balloons, shaped into an arch and decorated with crepe paper (that we fringed) in the colors of the rainbow. We filled it with plastic hearts, balls, pixie sticks and starbursts (rainbow colors), and kisses.  Favors: Cute multicolored bags from the party store (in rainbow colors) filled with a magic coin trick, jacob's ladder (in rainbow colors), inspiration bracelet (the bracelets that you pay $1 for various charities, but these said courage on them for the lion), an hour glass, a swirled lollipop (like the Lollipop Guilds) and a magic wand (all from Oriental Trading or U.S. Toy). I also included a child sized plastic drinking glass there were available in rainbow colors at the store on clearance (16 cents!) and were great to put the lollipop in to protect it from getting broken in the bag.  

PARTY SCHEDULE: 2:00 Arrival (Face Painting, activity Sheets mazes, Beauty Bar, Bean Bag Toss); 2:15 Games (Sticker Tag, Hoola Hoop Ring Race, Relay Race, Are you Hungry, Catch the Lion's Tail; 2:45 Magician; 3:20 Cake/Ice Cream, Presents; 3:45Pinata ; 4:00 Pass out favors/Party ends  This was a wonderful party, with lots of fun decorating options. Good luck!