A Successful Robot Birthday Party

The birthday boy declared the robot birthday party a success.  Everything went great.  Below are some pictures and some tips on what I learned.  You can see the prep in my last post.



Be sure the bean bag toss can be moved.  You need to measure it for transport.  Our bean bag toss game will fold down flat, but my DH made it so it also could slide in whole to his truck bed.  He also made it so it can lay flat (like cornhole) with the image correctly displayed or stand up with the image displayed.



And make sure you put a backdrop or stopper behind a game like this. We lost a beanbag somehow in the nest of plants behind the game.  The kids loved this.  We line up by height, shortest goes first and they have to take steps away depending on their age. So the two year old is two feet away, etc...  And we awarded 2 points for going through the top hole and 1 point for going through the bottom.  Some kids went multiple times.



The banner and whirlygigs were great.  We ended up changing the ribbon out on the day of the party on the banner because I had used raffia, which just wouldn't hold up in the wind.  The curling ribbon was much better.

After the party, I kept the Happy Birthday part and turned this part with his name into a mini banner for his room. He seemed excited by that idea.

The whirly gigs were put on the front porch and around the yard.  They added just an extra touch of color.  I took the robot paper from Paper Source and cut out the individual robots for these, rather than stamping.

We set up the Create a Robot station and tried to be very careful to keep the magnets back from the edge. We also warned the parents about the magnets - we wanted to be careful that they weren't swallowed. 


Create a Robot station.



 



I thought I had plenty of supplies.  But, some items were more popular than others.  I glued everything to magnets.  I then set them up on cookie sheets, so the kids could see what was available.

So, there were feathers for wings or hair (or whatever the kid decided) and multi-colored pipe cleaners.  I also took apart an old keyboard and glued different letters and some of the word buttons onto magnets. The flat round items were mostly beer bottle caps. I kept the glue gun in the kitchen and extra parts available. I ended up mostly repairing parts that separated from the magnets and makeing more pipe cleaner pieces.



Some examples for the kids to see.  These were done with a glue gun, not magnets.



Another example I made for them.  This one was made using all magnets, just like they had.



The kids made a variety of robots.   And they kept coming back either tweaking their design or asking to make a second one.

We didn't focus too much on the food.   The mom had the kids help make chocolate dipped marshmallows and pretzel rods.  I did make signs.  The marshmallows and pretzels dipped in chocolate were called "Welding Rods."  We called chips - "Memory Chips."  We had some pasta salad we called "Nuts & Bolts."   We labeled the cooler of drinks as "Machine Oil." 



My BFF (the mom of the birthday boy) made these great favor bags.  She made coloring books for the bags, printable from here.  She included a small box of crayons and glow-in-the-dark bracelets. 





So a great day was had by all.  The birthday boy was happy and that is what it is all about.