A New Path to Follow: How to Throw a Ninja Party

Friday, August 1, 2014

For the past three years I have put off having a ninja party. I have had no desire to throw one. But, when my middle son came asking again this year for a ninja party, I finally gave in. Especially since last year he had an art party due to some very strong suggestions from me. It's his party, right? So, this past May ( I know, I am WAY behind) we planned his party. His actual birthday is in June, but it fell the weekend that all of our expat friend would be traveling back to their home countries once school was over, so we celebrated a couple weeks early.

Invitations

I love how these invitations turned out. I found few ideas on Pinterest for inspiration
and I combined them into my own invite. I just used black construction paper, folded, tan paper for the face and red crepe paper for the headband. I just typed up the party details and glued them inside.

Decorations

Again, Pinterest was full of ideas on how to decorate. I kept finding so may fun ideas. I just kept it simple with a red & black theme. For the main background, I just covered our windows with red paper, made paper lanterns, and hung his birthday banner up using a Ninja font.

I loved the way the food table turned out. I made ninja head balloons and hung them from the ceiling.

I also added chop sticks for the kids to try out. This was also a great time to display our dragon fan that we picked up at the Umbrella Factory in Chiang Mai, Thailand and a carved dragon that was given to the boys as a gift. It's so much fun when pieces you have can be brought out and tied all together!

Games

After searching Pinterest for some unique games, I kept coming across the same few ideas. All of which I liked, but I was hoping for something a little different. I don't think the boys minded at all though. The boys first had to get dressed in their ninja gear. I found ninja masks at a dollar store and made them all headbands with their names on them.

The first game was to find out what your ninja name was. I printed up ninja name papers for everyone and then they wrote out their name and decorated their ninja name banners.

After they found out their ninja names, the boys had to search for the ninja mini-figs in the rice. They could only use the chop sticks to pick up the mini-figs.

We played a few rounds on "Sensei Says". This was super fun and the boys were laughing through the whole thing.

The had to knock the balloons down by throwing ninja stars at them. (I also found those at the dollar store.)

We ended the games outside with the ninja ropes course. The boys were pretending the rope was a laser. So fun.

Cake

After the games, we went inside for cake. I loved these super easy cupcakes. I saw a few different versions online. These had to be some of the easiest cupcakes I have ever made. Just cut the frosting off an Oreo to look like a ninja mask, add sprinkles, and you are done! Lincoln loved them!

Party Favors

All of the boys went home with their headbands and their ninja masks. I also found ninja weapon packs at the dollar store. I also made them a little container of "sushi". They thought that was funny! I made the sushi from swiss cakes rolls and rice crispie treats.

The party ended up being a really fun time and Lincoln was very happy about it. After all was said and done, I guess I changed my attitude towards the ninja party!

Actual Birthday

Lincoln's birthday fell on the last day of school. So instead of doing our school work, we spent the whole day celebrating him! He started his day with birthday pancakes.

The off to the mall to go bowling. They had a lot of fun!

Then lunch at Lincoln's favorite restaurant, Carl's Jr.

You may think all we do is eat, but after lunch we headed to Coldstone for a birthday treat.

Then, back home for cupcakes and presents. I love celebrating birthdays and look forward to them every year! Now, a few months off before I have to start all over again!