Hello Kitty

Age of Birthday Girl: 4 years old
Age Range of Guests: 2-7 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-12 years, depending on specific focus & activities

Invitations: Invitations for this party used a simple cut-out of Hello Kitty glued onto pink card stock. The party information was included on the back.

Cake: We took a basic round cake and decorated it using the image of Hello Kitty that we found on some stickers as sort of a template. Frosting was used to make the face and whiskers, with jelly beans for the eyes, nose, and the flower in her hair. We added some sprinkles for extra color and had cupcakes with the candy in the flower shape. We also found some Hello Kitty candles which worked very well on the cake.

Games & Activities: We had a craft for the kids as they arrived. They each had a foam bookmark to decorate as they wished with stickers, markers, and ribbon.

Then we played a game of pin-the-bow-on-Hello-Kitty that we had created for the event. We drew a large Hello Kitty on poster board and then made bows with sticky tape to use in the game.

The other game was a version of Bingo using pictures of Hello Kitty doing various activities. We created the board games by cutting & pasting pictures on the computer into different sequences and combination on each card.

Goodie bags: It was easy to fill bags with all sorts of fun Hello Kitty items from stickers to pencils and erasers to jewelry, etc. We added a few candy treats as well.

Letterboxing

Age of Birthday Boy: 8 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 5-13+ years, depending on specific focus & activities

You could very easily do a geo-caching version of this party, especially with an older crowd, but that is an activity we didn't discover until later.

Invitations: The front of the invitation had a compass rose on it and the coordinates of our home. Inside were party details, a map, and a request to come ready to explore outside (socks or long pants, hat, sunscreen, etc).

Cake: The cake was very simple for this party. A round cake was turned into a compass rose design. Cupcakes in coordinating colors had frosting magnifying glasses on them with letters that spelled out a happy birthday message.

Games: The main event for this one was letter-boxing. Ahead of time we planted two letterboxes in a nearby forested area. We then created clues to help the party guests find the boxes. Once the guests had arrived we divided them into two teams (it happened to be older kids and younger kids).

The kids all got a letter-boxing pack which later served as their goodie bag. It was a simple drawstring backpack from Oriental Trading Company. Inside was a compass, a notebook and pencil, a water bottle, a small snack, and a rubber stamp of their choosing with an ink pad (washable ink). A grown-up in each group also carried extra water, a small first-aid kit, wipes for washing hands, and a cell phone to keep in contact with the other group to gauge progress.

The kids had to follow specific instructions to get to the forest and look for the clues to help them find the box once they were there. The two groups set off in different directions once we got to the forest. They would eventually find both boxes but started with different ones to make it less crowded as we walked.

Once a box was found each child stamped their own stamp into the notepad inside the box and left a note in the notebook. Then they used the stamp from the box to make a mark in their own notepad. We stopped for a snack when the two groups met mid-way between the two boxes. Once both groups had found both boxes we walked back home for cake & ice cream.

Goodie Bags: The kids each had their own draw-string backpack as their goodie bag. They got to keep it, the compass, rubber stamp, notepad, and pencil, plus we added candy and stickers once we returned home. In addition each child was given general instructions for letter-boxing and websites for their parents to look up if they were interested in doing it as a family.

This was a super party. The one event took the entire time making planning easy, and the kids loved the detective/exploring part of letter-boxing. For most party-goers this was their first exposure to the activity.