Around the World Party - Plane Ticket Invite

My daughters have late November and December birthdays, so we have one big party for them instead of 3. Last year we had an All Around the World themed party. We decided to visit one country on each of the 7 continents. 

INVITATION: Plane Tickets. I read about the idea on this site so I searched online and found a picture of a plane ticket that I copied as much as possible. Each ticket had the airline name, Birthday Airlines, the passenger's name, gate location (the park's address), and included the ETA and ETD. The comments section stated that an in flight meal would be served and we also requested that each child bring a picture of themselves (which would later be used in the passports).

We asked that they please call ahead to confirm seating and left my cell phone number which I then added a new voicemail message, Thank you for calling Birthday Airlines, where our goal is for you to have fun. All operators are currently busy; please leave any confirmations after the tone.  

PASSPORT: I folded thick dark blue cardstock into the shape of passports and then stamped USA PASSPORT on the front. I also found a stamp of little children holding hands around a globe. I embossed them with gold embossing powder so that the design would be raised. Inside I cut and stapled a few sheets of paper one side for each country we visited and one side for their name and picture (if they brought one).  

GOODIE BAG: I bought medium sized brown craft bags and then glued a large globe onto the front that I made using a blue foam circle for the earth and then green foam pieces which I cut into shapes that looked like land masses and glued them onto the blue circle. The children used them to hold their crafts and goodies throughout the party.  

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: When everyone arrived they received their passport and a goodie bag. They then traced their hands on a piece of paper cut it out and taped it onto a piece of sturdy black construction paper. (We put tape only on the back but did not use double sided tape because we would eventually need to take the hand off without ripping the paper.) This would be used for the first country we visited. They then sat down at one of the tables until we started.

Prior to the party I researched and came up with 2 or 3 clues about each country and then had the guests (parents included) guess "where we were". I didn't make it too easy in fact after the party some parents told me they actually learned some stuff lol. I also found CDs with music from each of the countries that we played during our craft or activity in that country. I also ordered flag stickers for each country so we could place them in the passports as we visited each country although we ended up forgetting most of the time and had to add them after.We visited 7 countries.    

AUSTRALIA: I told them a little about Aborigines and how they painted and then we created our own Aboriginal paintings using the hand/construction paper and construction paper crayons.  They colored around the hand and we encouraged them to draw circles dots and lines like the Aborigines but of course some of them just did their own thing which was fine.  When they were done I had someone use a spray bottle filled with white watered down tempura paint and lightly spray around the hand. We then hung them up to dry. When the papers dried and the guests were leaving they removed the hand from the paper and wrote their name on the handprint. They really came out nice.    

JAPAN: I talked about how Japanese and American children play similar games and listed a few. Then we played a game called fukuwarai which is a spin on our pin the tail on the donkey. In this game each person gets a turn to try and put the pieces of a face correctly onto a face cutout. The trick is the person is blindfolded. I made about 6 paper-sized faces and covered them in contact paper so they couldn't get destroyed too easily and I cut out a number of eyes lips noses and eyebrows. The faces they ended up making were quite comical.    

ITALY: As I talked about Italy I mentioned that they are also known for their food so this would be where we stopped for our meal. I made spaghetti and meatballs and we ordered pizza. I also made salads and I bought dressing from Olive Garden. They also could eat the other things we had out prior to the party: chips and dips fruit and vegetable platters trail mix etc.    

EGYPT: I talked about how archaeologists like to visit there because of the things that can be found there which led to our activity. We had filled a small inflatable pool with sandbox sand and added some plastic rings snakes and bugs. We divided the kids into two lines and had them race one by one to run to the sand filled pool grab one of each item and then race back. The winning team was the one who finished first but they all won the same prizes the things they found.    

CHILE: I talked about the desert and how rain sticks were considered to be invented in Chile. We made rain sticks using paper towel rolls that I pre-covered with tan construction paper and foil that I pre-twisted. We had bowls of beans that they added to make the sound. Prior to the party I had covered one end and then pre-cut covers for the other end. After filling their rain sticks they then glued a cover on and wrapped it with a rubber band so it could dry.    

ANTARCTICA: This was our last stop before heading back home to the USA. I talked about how cold it is there and asked What do you think of when you think of cold someone said snow of course and then we made snow. We bought Insta-Snow and added some to a few bins prior to the party. We pulled out the buckets and then poured the water in (there is an exact measurement so we had to adjust to how much snow we ended up making)and boy where the kids excited to see the now form. We gave each of them cups to dig in and get some to play with and then take home. I think that was the most fun they had.   

USA: At our last stop we sang happy birthday and cut the cake. 

CAKE: The cake had a picture of a world map with the flags of the countries we visited on the border. (We had a large cake so I added the flags to take up space.) We then put flag stickers back to back of each country onto toothpicks and then placed the toothpicks in where the countries were on the cake.  

FAVORS: After the cake was served I also handed out a souvenir from each country Australia-plastic boomerangs Japan-fans Italy-soccer shaped yoyos Egypt: a really cool dig toy that I found at Wal-Mart Chile-cactus shaped notepads Antarctica-polar bear rulers and USA-earth shaped erasers. They also had the picture they made in Australia the rain stick they made in Chile the toys they dug up in Egypt and the snow they scooped up in Antarctica.  We had almost 50 kids at the party and we all had so much fun! There was quite a bit of preparation but it was well worth it.  Thank you so much for this site!!! "