Here's our party crew with the Po (a.k.a. Kung Fu Panda) I drew for just such a photo op.
Blue's been into Kung Fu Panda since we moved into this house (May 2010) got a free HBO trial, and DVRed the first movie. He's seen the 2nd movie in the theater but he's never watched the Nick show. Blue asks to watch the first movie about once a week, but I pick and choose when I'm up for the boys to watch it, because afterwards there is always their attempt at much... uh, Kung Fu.
In November Blue started an after-school program at his preschool where, once a week, he has karate, so you could say he's been preparing for this party for awhile. :-)
My plan was to have it at a Martial Arts Studio and when Blue joined karate I went with the studio who sends their instructor to Blue's school. Because I didn't want to go with their usual pizza plan and wanted to supply all my own stuff, they charged me half what they usually do per kid!
Decorations:
By having it a dojang, the decor was what it was, but I did draw my Po. (Just white paper from a teacher supply store. I drew him out in pencil, did his shorts in crayon and the black with paint.)
And then I decorated the tables in their party room:
Those are crispy noodles from Panda Express in the bowl. The containers are just things I had at the house, but covered in black/red. The marker holder is a peanut container covered in black cardstock. The crispy noodle holder is a round Christmas container covered in tissue paper. It's all just stuff I had. Even the red ribbon sat in the mix of a big container of ribbon I keep in my craft area of my laundry room. The 5 is left over from when I was making the invitations. At each seat was a panda picture I bought from Oriental Trading Co for the kids to color.
And here you can see the balloons.
Because what's a party without balloons?
They had a black shelf along the wall that I used as the buffet. If I'd been really annual I would have draped something down so you couldn't see the contents of the shelf. I didn't bother.
Food:
2pm party so the goal was ample snacks, not a meal. We had veggie spring rolls, cream cheese rangoons, and chow mein noodles (The noodles were a must for a Kung Fu Panda party) from Panda Express. I also had black, red and white candy, cookie cake, cupcakes. Drinks were the small water bottles, small soda cans, and then a pitcher with punch (gingerale, cranberry juice, and a can of frozen lemonaid).
The birthday boy's plate:
Activities:
The studio surprised me by having face painting. Here's Blue's scary face and Kaden's not-as-scary snake face:
Then of course the main activities were the Martial Arts activities. First the kids learned high blocks:
And hopefully they were quick learners because Blue was then ready to whack them:
Next they had an obstacle course:
(Hey Blue, can you block while crawling? Toby's added an obtacle to your crawling obstacle!)
The course ended with having to do a kick that popped a balloon.
Towards the end the kids practiced how to break a board.
And moved on to breaking boards, which, if they did, they kept as souveniers.
The kids also had the panda coloring sheets if they wanted to go do this. Most did when we ate.
There was no opening present time because instead of presents for the birthday boy we had our friends bring presents for the animals of our local humane society. People did a great job with presents for our furry friends and also brought cards for Blue, which was great because we like to display birthday cards on the birthday boy's bedroom door for a few weeks around a kiddo's bday.
Oh and one other activity was cutting the birthday cake with a sword. This is why I made the cookie cake. My mind was made up on the panda cupcakes but it seemed silly to me to cut a cupcake with a sword. I mean, could you cut this guy with a sword?
So here's Blue cutting his cookie cake with a sword:
Party Favors:
The party favors were a small black box like a mini version of a Chinese take-out box. Inside were a few Kung Fu Panda stickers and a fortune cookie with a Bible verse (from Oriental Trading Co.)
"There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the 'present.'" --Oogway
Thank you for being part of our "present" and sharing Blue's special day with us.
Fun times! Happy 5th Birthday to Blue.
Who, of course, has already starting an abundance of sentences with, "When I'm 6..."
Never ends, does it?
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