Stop-Motion Video Party

Age of Birthday Boy: 11 years old
Age Range of Guests: 7-13 years old
Gender of Guests: Boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 6-14+ years, depending on specific focus & activities

This one was just plain fun!  We recruited some parents with cameras and tripods and some familiarity with video creation in a Mac computer to help us out and everyone had a great time. (If you have enough kids who have this knowledge you could run this party without as many adults as we needed. Actually, if we did this party today I think the kids would know more than most adults about this sort of thing)!

Invitations: The invitations were similar to this sign.  Instead of saying "welcome to..." it said "You Are Invited to The MacBeath Stop-Motion Studio". It was put onto black card stock and the movie reel image is actually a sticker found at Michael's Craft Store.  Party information was attached to the back.

Cake: So easy and it turned out great!  A 9x13 inch cake was tapered into the shape of a popcorn bag and covered with white frosting.  Red fruit rollups were used to create the stripes.  The popcorn label was created on the computer and printed onto paper to be placed on the cake. (You could do this all with fondant as well). We popped some popcorn and mixed it with with melted butter and melted marshmallows.  While it was still a little warm we shaped it onto the cake to look like it was overflowing the popcorn bag. Leftover popcorn mix was shaped into balls, wrapped in plastic wrap, and included in the goodie bags.

Activities: This party had one main activity: creating stop-motion videos using Lego as the primary tool.  As the party guests arrived they received a film crew ID tag to grant them access to the production set.

They were divided into 4 groups with an adult and a camera assigned to each group.  We ended up with three groups of boys and one group of girls who were siblings of invited guests.

They were given a brief demonstration of stop-motion techniques for those who had never tried it before (smaller movements between shots will produce a smoother look but take more time, ways to hide supports so it looks like a piece is in the air, keeping the background clean, etc).


Then they had time to create - approximately one hour.  Each group had a Lego base to work on, and a large pile of miscellaneous Lego pieces and characters to use in the video. The adults were instructed to step in only when needed to help keep disagreements to a minimum, to make sure everyone gets a say in the process, and to assist with camera work as necessary.  Basically though, they were the support staff.

The results were terrific and very creative!  We downloaded the videos to our computer while the guests enjoyed cake & ice cream. Then the groups took turns demonstrating their videos to each other.  A couple of samples are included at the end of this blog post if you care to see what they came up with in a fairly short period of time.

Goodie Bags: We used Dollar Store popcorn containers as the goodie bags.  Inside we put some Twizzlers, a chocolate bar, the sticky popcorn balls, and a bag of microwave popcorn for later.  They were also each promised a copy of the videos that were created at the party.

Horses!

Age of Birthday Girl: 9 years old
Age Range of Guests: 6-12 years old
Gender of Guests: mostly girls

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

When our daughter was nine she was in love with horses.  We managed to get her a few lessons but it is not easy around here and it gets expensive very quickly.  However, we indulged her interest by having a horse-themed party - no pony rides though!

Cake: We covered a 9x13 cake in green frosting for grass.  You could cover it with coconut flakes dyed green for more texture but we had two party guests with tree nut allergies so didn't go that route. The fence was found at a hobby store, but you could also just use popsicle/craft sticks.  Dirt inside the corral was made from chocolate cookie crumbs. The gate was part of a horse play set we already owned, as was the bale of hay & bucket.  The flowers are part of our Playmobil collection.  We found the horses and riders at a dollar store, all together as a set. We bought extras as party favors for the goodie bags.

Activities: Once again Dad put on a good show in working out party games.  The kids were asked to participate in a variety of activities related to caring for, or being a horse.  They pretended to be horses who were rolling around on the grass and competed to see who could roll down our front hill the fastest.  They scoured the yard to look for "hay" in the form of the longest blade of grass. They made sure there was enough water for all the horses in their care and had to count & cart water bottles from one area to the next.  The kids also completed an obstacle course jumping over objects to represent bales of hay, water hazards, fences, and other items in a horse jumping show.

(The water bottles were left over from a water shortage we had recently experienced when a major water main broke in our area - thousands were without clean water for drinking for a few days. All the large gallon jugs were sold out so we were left with individual water bottles instead.  They came in handy for the party which was, fortunately, after the water was working again).

Goodie Bags: Party guests received a cloth bag for their party favors.  Inside was a selection of candy, some plastic horses & riders from the play sets, a variety of horse stickers, a horse-themed self-inking stamp, and a plastic bracelet with a horse charm.

Music Party

Age of Birthday Girl: 6 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-12 years, depending on specific focus & activities

This party was before everyone had an iPod (remember those days!) and so the focus was on making or creating music, not just listening to it.  The kids ranged in age from 4-9 years old, and included both boys and girls.

Invitations: Unfortunately we have lost our photos of the actual invitations.  However, they were something very similar to this.

We took black card stock and attached pieces of sheet music to it. Then we placed a black music note on a smaller piece of white card stock, placing that on top of the music. We then wrote "you are invited..." in silver ink on the music note.  The back of the card had the party information for guests.

Cake: Using two 9x13 cakes we placed one on top of the other (with frosting in between the layers). Then we carved the front part of the piano shape out of the top layer, being careful to save some of it in decent shape for the piano bench.  Both layers were carefully shaved and shaped around the other end to form the grand piano profile.

The whole thing was covered in frosting - we opted for white because that is what our daughter wanted, but you could try for a black grand piano if you wanted to go that route.  The piano shape was outlined in pink frosting and we added a "6" for the birthday girls' age.  The piano keys were added with black frosting.  You could also use fondant for the keys and other accents for a cleaner look.

Activities: First the guests created some rhythm sticks to be used in later activities.  Wooden dowels were covered with decorative tape and ribbon.  They also created tambourines made out of paper plates. Ribbons were used to tie small bells to the plates through holes punched around the edge.

The kids used the sticks, tambourines, and their hands for clapping to create rhythmic patterns with their names, or favorite ice cream flavors, or favorite colors, tapping to the beat of the words.


Then the kids were given small instruments (shakers, bells, tambourines, etc.) and were asked to copy rhythms that the party girl's dad made more and more complicated with each repetition - they loved his crazy variations which ended with a complicated selection that went on for so long that Dad fell over from exhaustion!!

The kids watched the Do-Re-Mi sequence from "The Sound of Music" and then recreated a section of it as a group.  Each child was given a card with the note from the musical scale and a picture to help them remember which one they were given and then they sang along with the video, standing and sitting as their particular note came and went - a bit chaotic, but lots of fun!

Goodie Bags: The kids all took home their rhythm sticks and tambourines.  In addition they all received a shaker and musical stickers.  Pencils and notepads were included with music themes and the rest of the bag was filled with a variety of candy.