Around the World -5yr- Austrlian Fairy Bread

For my son's 5th birthday party my husband and I put together an "Around the World" party.  The kids visited one country from each continent.  This is how it went: 

I made the invitations to look like airline tickets.  They read: Passenger:  Maddie Burns, Date: March 8, 2003, Arrival Time: 2pm, Departure Time: 4pm, First Class, Flight#: 5, after visiting the Seven Continents of the World, we will have cake and ice cream.  Please Confirm your Reservation at (our phone number). On the party day as the guests arrived I took their photo with one of those tiny poloroid cameras with the sticker backing.  Before hand I made passports out of navy blue paper on the outside with white pages sewn in with clear thread.  On the outside I wrote "PASSPORT" in gold ink.  Also I wrote info on the first page like "AROUND THE WORLD", Russell's 5th Birthday Party, the date and the child's name. 

Then I stuck their new poloroid inside the first page.   Also before hand I found black boxes which my husband put rope handles on to act as the kids luggage, and in it they put all of their souviners from each country, and I bought stickers for them to put on the outside of their luggage.  They were mostly landmarks from each country.  My sister, who is a real flight attendant, wore her uniform and had all the kids board the "airplane" which was two rows of small chairs I borrowed from church. 

My husband wore a safari vest and acted as their travel guide.  He was so enthusiastic, the kids loved it. Each continent had an activity, a souviner, a stamp in their passport, an interesting fact about that country, and a sticker for their luggage.  I decorated the rooms specifically for a different continent.  

The first was North America since we started out there.  They all got some play money to take on their trip, and a landmark sticker.  Just getting them all situated on the plane was enough activity for that country so the kids "flew" to South America.  They picked up a rope down the isle of the plane and carried it around with them to each stop. In South America my husband talked to them about blowguns used by the Amazon people, and he used drinking staws to simulate a blowgun and all the kids shot frozen peas at a row of my sons army men knocking them all down.  They loved that too. 

They were given a samll, plastic dart frog (which is where the poison comes from for the blowgun) for their souviner, and a rain forest sticker for their luggage.   The "stamps" in their passports were of that county's flag. Next the kids flew to Asia.  I set up my coffee table (they sat on the floor like real asians) with a place setting for each child with chopsticks (I got them at a chinese restraunt) and in the center of the table was popped popcorn.  The game was to see how many pieces of popcorn you could pick up with your chopsticks and put on your own plate.  The kids actually did very well.  The also got a fortune cookie, and a sticker.

For Europe the kids played musical statues since there are so many statues in Europe.  We played french childrens music and all the kids danced around, and when the music stopped they had to stand like a statue.  A couple of the kids could count to 10 in Spanish and French so they did it for the rest of the kids.  Their souviner was an authentic European coin (leftover from a trip we took).

Antarctica was in our kitchen.  I had frozen penguin rings in ice cubes and the kids took them outside to watch them melt in the sun.  It kind of took a while so they left them until after the party.  They got a penguin sticker for their luggage. They went back to the chairs and sat down for a peanut service.

Off to Africa, the kids favorite.  Once they went over all of the wonderful animals in Africa my husband told them they were going on a crocodile hunt.  We had bought a crocodile pinata and hung it from a branch in our backyard.  So they all went outside, found it and started the whole pinata ordeal. 

They loved it. Finally, Australia.  I wanted them all to taste a tiny bit of Vegemite on a cracker.  Vegemite is a favorite of Aussie children.  Of course all of the American children thought it was gross, but it was good of them to at least try it.  Then they made another favorite of Aussie kids which was "fairy bread": white Wonder bread, spead with butter and sprinkled with those colorful tiny round sprinkles used on cupcakes and cakes and cut into triangles.  Yummy.  And they enjoyed doing it themselves. 

The souviner was a clip-on koala to their shirt. I used green and blue balloons, and had a silk screening of the world map put on the cake by my local grocery store.  I stuck flags on toothpicks around the cake. It was a lot of detailed work, but well worth the time and effort!  All of the kids (and parents) still keep talking aobut it.