Supplies:

Use the aforementioned workout mats, small trampoline or a large one if you already have one, jump ropes, hula-hoops, a large mat or a mattress covered in a padded sheet, a balance beam, or tires.

*Novelty medals, awards or trophies for valor, honor, courage, strength, beauty, tenacity, balance, for being the best flyer or having the best cape…the sky is the limit!

See what you have lying around or ask parents to let you borrow supplies.

This is supposed to mimic a training facility or a boot camp.

Have the kids hop from hula hoop to hula hoop or from tire to tire, or have them throw a ball through a certain amount of hula hoops hanging from trees or suspended by adults.

Have a jump rope contest or race. Whoever jumps rope the longest, without stopping, wins. Allow them a few chances to practice before the actual game.

Have them walk along a balance beam or play music and see who can balance on one leg the longest without falling. The last superhero standing wins.

Have an older kid or sibling who knows how to tumble or who knows martial arts teach the kids a few moves or how to do forward rolls, headstands and cartwheels, as well as some warm-up stretches, exercises and jogging.

Have them practice flipping or soaring by running and jumping through a large hula-hoop onto a covered mattress.

They can practice flying by jumping on a trampoline or lying stomach-down on a tire or regular swing and ‘flying’ through the air. Take pictures for party favors.

Superhero Boot Camp

Supplies:

Use the aforementioned workout mats, small trampoline or a large one if you already have one, jump ropes, hula-hoops, a large mat or a mattress covered in a padded sheet, a balance beam, or tires.

*Novelty medals, awards or trophies for valor, honor, courage, strength, beauty, tenacity, balance, for being the best flyer or having the best cape…the sky is the limit!

See what you have lying around or ask parents to let you borrow supplies.

This is supposed to mimic a training facility or a boot camp.

Have the kids hop from hula hoop to hula hoop or from tire to tire, or have them throw a ball through a certain amount of hula hoops hanging from trees or suspended by adults.

Have a jump rope contest or race. Whoever jumps rope the longest, without stopping, wins. Allow them a few chances to practice before the actual game.

Have them walk along a balance beam or play music and see who can balance on one leg the longest without falling. The last superhero standing wins.

Have an older kid or sibling who knows how to tumble or who knows martial arts teach the kids a few moves or how to do forward rolls, headstands and cartwheels, as well as some warm-up stretches, exercises and jogging.

Have them practice flipping or soaring by running and jumping through a large hula-hoop onto a covered mattress.

They can practice flying by jumping on a trampoline or lying stomach-down on a tire or regular swing and ‘flying’ through the air. Take pictures for party favors.

Supplies:

• White or bright poster board
• Black permanent markers or poster paint
• Wooden stakes

Use these supplies to make the exclamatory comic strip thought bubbles. Write: Wham! Boom! Crash! Bang!

Use any word that conjures up the feel of a comic book.

Use a hot glue gun or a staple gun to attach the signs to the wooden stakes and post around your yard.

If you have leftover poster board, use it to make the silhouette of a city or a crude skyline.

• Inexpensive comic books (prizes)

• Workout mats, small trampoline or a large one if you already have one, jump ropes, hula-hoops, a large mat or a mattress covered in a padded sheet, tires

Use these supplies to make an obstacle course and a training facility for the superheroes. You can play the hula-hop game in this themed party.

• Foam Poster board
• Water guns or potato guns or sling-shots

Use these supplies to cut out ‘villains’ and monsters. Leave a margin of 4-5 inches at the base of the villain and use a craft knife to cut along the front and glue to another foam board or table so they will stand up.

Use the gun or slingshot in the game.

Have the child stand at a designated line or spot 1-4 feet away and try to hit the ‘villain.’ If they get all three or three out of 5 they win a prize.

Kids can dress up in t-shirts with sports teams names on them, numbers (homemade or not), football jerseys etc. May come looking like football players with various fun football accessories, or dressing as referees etc. Girls may come as cheerleaders, football players etc.

You could play sports themed movies or family friendly football type movies, play fun music that has a sports theme and more.

Party Food:

Sandwiches or cookies cut into the shape of footballs.

Chex Mix – either bought or home-made

Sodas, Juice, Kool-Aid or Sports Drinks (such as Gator-Ade)

Party Theme Games:

Football Distance Pass Contest – Have each guest see how far they can throw the football.

Football Accuracy Passing – Hang a tire from a tree or other supportive structure. See who can throw the ball through the hole from various distances.

Creative Catching – Throw the ball to a group of party guests. See who can catch it the craziest, the lowest, the highest, etc.

Freeze Catch – A combination of pass and freeze tag, this game has guests scrambling to catch the ball and then freezing once the ball is caught. Anyone moving after the catch is out of the game, and becomes a referee.

Obstacle Course – Place several old tires, side-by-side, in a line. Players run through the tires, placing a foot in each tire. Player with the fastest time wins.

Cheerleader Try-Outs – See who can come up with the craziest cheer and jump the highest. Remember – this is for fun, guys!

It can be difficult to get toddlers to take a bath; this party makes bath-time fun! The kids must show up in bathing suits

Supplies:

• 3-4 kiddie pools

• Bath-time rubber toys, squirting toys and animals and alphabet shaped sponges

• Rainbow foaming hand soap (artsy party)

• Small fishing poles or novelty fishing poles for the ‘Fishing Well’

• A carnival booth or a large television cardboard box decorated to look like a wishing well (use large permanent markers and poster paint to draw a well on the front of the box and hot-glue artificial flowers on the front where the 2-D hole of the well is drawn.)

• Clothespins

• Bath-time toys and soaps, colorful novelty towels, small water guns or small floating sailboats for “Fishing Well” prizes

• Bubble machines/bubble blowers and individual bubbles for parents and toddlers to blow bubbles

• Silver or iridescent white or clear balloons (tied together in groups of 2 and 3 and strewn about to resemble bubbles)

• 1-2 Sprinkler systems

• 8-16 cheap hula-hoops

• 2-4 clear shower curtains cut into 4-6 inch wide strips, but still the length of a standard shower curtain

• Small colorful buckets

• Small chairs or waterproof pillows for the fishing well

Rub-A-Dub Water Park Toddler Party

It can be difficult to get toddlers to take a bath; this party makes bath-time fun! The kids must show up in bathing suits

Supplies:

• 3-4 kiddie pools

• Bath-time rubber toys, squirting toys and animals and alphabet shaped sponges

• Rainbow foaming hand soap (artsy party)

• Small fishing poles or novelty fishing poles for the ‘Fishing Well’

• A carnival booth or a large television cardboard box decorated to look like a wishing well (use large permanent markers and poster paint to draw a well on the front of the box and hot-glue artificial flowers on the front where the 2-D hole of the well is drawn.)

• Clothespins

• Bath-time toys and soaps, colorful novelty towels, small water guns or small floating sailboats for “Fishing Well” prizes

• Bubble machines/bubble blowers and individual bubbles for parents and toddlers to blow bubbles

• Silver or iridescent white or clear balloons (tied together in groups of 2 and 3 and strewn about to resemble bubbles)

• 1-2 Sprinkler systems

• 8-16 cheap hula-hoops

• 2-4 clear shower curtains cut into 4-6 inch wide strips, but still the length of a standard shower curtain

• Small colorful buckets

• Small chairs or waterproof pillows for the fishing well

Activities/Set-up

 Rub-A-Dub Water Park

Instructions:

Get the hula-hoops and saw or cut off the bottom fourth of each hula-hoop and use 3-5 for each maze for the toddlers to crawl through to get to one of the pools or “Rub-A-Dub” water park.

To Make The Maze:

After the bottom fourth of the hula-hoops have been sawed off, push the ends into the ground and space them about 2-3 feet apart. Depending on how many hula hoops you purchase, you can have between 2 and 4 maze structures. You can place them in a zigzag or curving pattern. Each tunnel will lead to a different pool. In the center should be the pools and the sprinklers, as well as most of the ‘bubbles’ or balloons and the bubble blower.

So it should look like a spider or an octopus, with each leg being the tunnels.

Once the hula-hoops are in the ground. Get the clear shower curtain strips and hot-glue them to the hula-hoops; one across the top, and one along each side to connect each hula hoop so it looks more like a tunnel, so you should need no more than 3 to give it a tunnel effect.

Arrange each pool at least 3 feet in front of the tunnel so the kids can have room to stand up and walk to the pool. Each pool can have a different theme: sailing, sea animals, bath soaps and foams, or they can each have an assortment.

The sprinkler should be positioned in the center of all the pools so all kids get splashed from time to time and to add to the water park allure.

The bubble blower will make it seem like more of a bath-time party.

 Supplies:

• Spray bottles (approximately $.50-$1 each in cosmetic section or can be purchased from a craft store)

• White butcher paper (tape on the outside wall of your house or on the inside of your fence. It can also be spread out on the floor or ground for the edible finger painting for toddlers)

• Water

• Corn syrup if you want to thicken it slightly (1 bottle per 5 spray bottles)

• 2-3 boxes of Food coloring

Instructions:

Once the ‘wall’ has been created, lay out some paper or newspaper underneath to catch any run-off.

 Fill the spray bottles 2/3 of water and add enough food coloring to make a dark spray paint. You may add 1—2 tablespoons of corn syrup to thicken it, or add some viscosity.

 Make at least 2 of each color and have the kids share or take turns.

 This can be an activity for all children or a rotation station for a group at a time.

 If you have an artistic flair, write their names or draw characters for them to spray-paint.

 Supplies:

• Small plastic tubes with a hole for yarn or necklace (in craft or hobby stores) or small plastic containers with a screw-on top (bulk or whole-sale stores and catalogues)

• Pixie sticks (enough for each person to have 5 for the small tubes, no more than 10 per person)

How To Do It:

Pass out the containers and remove the tops.

 Hand out 1-2 of each color of pixie stick and cut off the tops.

 Have the kids alternate each color to create layers of color, which look like sand art, but it’s edible, tastier and a bit healthier than using decorative sugar.

Supplies:

• Edible Canvas (enough for each guest to have one with 5 extra for mishaps and for you to give a demonstration)

• Paintbrushes

• (5 bottles) Light corn syrup

• Food coloring

• Pixie sticks (the miniature kind)

• Paper plates

• Small wax cups/mouthwash cups

How To Do It:

Put drops of food coloring in the corn syrup to make the primary colors or any others you’d like (red, yellow, blue, orange, purple and this can be done up to 2 months in advance.)

Pass out an edible canvas, 2-3 small paintbrushes, each pixie stick color, and 3 wax cups.

Give each child a small squirt of the colored syrup in the wax cups and let them paint the ‘glue’ on the ‘edible canvas.’

Once they have finished, they can sprinkle the pixie stick ‘sand’ on the canvas in swirls, lines, or any shape they like.

Make sure to take pictures before they eat their ‘art’ out!

 Variation: Omit the pixie sticks ‘sand’ and use the colored puddings or yogurt on either the pie dough or sugar cookie canvas, not phyllo- it’s much too delicate. And use the brushes to paint the colored pudding on the cookie canvas.

Food Ideas for this Childrens Party Theme:

Pizza – Have enough pre-baked pizza crusts for each guest. 

You may also use a pita bread or half of an English muffin for each person’s crust. 

Before the party, cut desired pizza toppings into separate containers.  A Lazy Susan is handy for this party, however if you don’t have one, place the pizza choices in the middle of the table and encourage the kids to move in the same direction to build their personal pizza.  (You could play some fun Italian music here or some fun kids music)

Don’t limit yourself to the traditional tomato sauce; have some ricotta cheese sauce or a garlic butter sauce, also. 

 Some favorite toppings for pizzas are pepperoni, hamburger, sausage, ham or Canadian bacon, pineapple, onions, garlic, mushrooms, olives (green or black), spinach, etc. 

An alternative might be a dessert pizza – use a cookie crust, chocolate or butterscotch sauce and canned pie fillings, M&M’s, chopped fruit, Red Hots, nuts, etc as toppings. 

Instead of cheese, consider a sugar glaze to drizzle over the top-remember, its a dessert pizza-it is meant to be a sweet treat for the kids.

Drinks Ideas For This Kids Party Theme:

Milkshakes would be a fun idea (it goes along with the ice cream theme) and who doesn’t love milkshakes? There are a number of possibilities for fun milkshakes we will add as we get them.

Other Drink Ideas for This Kids Party:

Soda, Juice, Kool-Aid and Chocolate or White milk.

 This works great for an Artsy Party theme. You may however have another use for it with a small group of kids or preschoolers.

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of frozen phyllo/Fillo dough (found in your grocer’s freezer near pie dough and whipped topping/there are 20 sheets in a package) or,

• Sugar cookie dough or,

• Pre-made pie dough

• Baking or cookie sheet

• Melted butter or 2 whisked egg whites and 2 Teaspoons of sugar (whisk until sugar is dissolved and this used for the phyllo dough only)

• Natural bristle brush for baking or a clean sponge brush

Instructions:

Phyllo dough: Phyllo dough is extremely delicate so as soon as it is pliable, work quickly; if it starts to dry out, it will crack and tear. Thaw them overnight in the package, in your refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 F or according to instructions on back of the box.

Unfold the phyllo and place one sheet on a non-stick baking sheet.

Lightly brush a thin layer of melted butter over the surface and place another sheet on top, and repeat.

Use three-four sheets of phyllo dough and use a pastry cutter, a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife to cut the dough into fourths or in half, depending on age and budget.

Bake until slightly golden brown around the edges and crisp.

Keep away from moisture until kids are ready to paint on them.

They are best if used the day of the kids party.

 or you may use;

Sugar cookie/Pre-made pie dough:

Preheat the oven according to the instructions on the package.

Roll out the dough to 1/4-1/5 of an inch thick.

Use a decorative pastry roller or cookie cutters to cut out a 4X4 or 4×6 size ‘canvas’ for each guest.

Place on non-stick cookie sheet or parchment lined baking sheet, with at least half an inch on each side.

Dock or poke the dough with a fork so it won’t puff up while baking.

Bake until crispy or until golden brown.

These can be made 2-3 days in advance and stored in a dry, sealed container.