How is he 8 already? It’s crazy. My husband and I can still remember my water breaking plain as day. I mean, you don’t really forget something like that. Of course back then, I wasn’t sure what was happening and made my husband google it. Oh the laughs we had about that. But enough details about fluids. My oldest turned 8 and of course he wanted a Minecraft party. I didn’t want to throw a big party this year and you know how quickly themed parties can get out of control (ahem, Lego Dance Party complete with kid discoteque…). So instead, I billed this as a playdate and had him invite just his cousins and a few school friends over one Friday afternoon. It worked out really well. It was small, but still really fun and I know some of you are probably looking for cool Minecraft party ideas.
This kid. He’s super awesome. But gone are the days when I really get total say over his parties. He definitely has a point of view and I really have to sell him on some of my ideas. Oh, I kinda also waited until the last minute to pull this together so color me surprised when I figured out that none of our local stores really sell any pre-made Minecraft party stuff…Time to get creative.
I looked on Etsy but didn’t really have enough time to order any party decor. So I purchased some Minecraft themed digital papers and created a super simple Minecraft birthday banner with brads. I tell you what. No one else has that party decor so he thought that was pretty cool. I’ll tell you something else. Kid’s don’t really understand what Happy Cake Day means. But “birthday” was far too many letters for me to cut out. And saying Happy Birthday is just like, so cliche.
I knew I needed to add in more Minecraft touches. So I spent some time online browsing. I came across these cool Minecraft propaganda style posters and knew they would be perfect. I printed out a bunch of them and tacked them to the wall. The kids thought these were pretty awesome. And when the party was over, I let my boys move some of them in to their rooms. I felt like their graphic design was good enough to have it be art on their walls.
I thought about the creepers (do you know Minecraft? There are these things called creepers. and they are shades of green) so I used their color scheme in my kitchen area for the plates and cutlery. It really just helped to play up the Minecraftedness of the party…
We also decided to forgo the cake in favor of ice cream for the party. We used the black, white and green color scheme over here too. I did create a wall hanging above the table of what I thought were squid…but all the kids thought they were endermen. Either way. It was Minecrafty and it worked. I didn’t get a photo of it though.
We could have done just normal ice cream sundaes but we decided to do ice cream nachos instead. I mean, really that is just an ice cream sundae but my mom made waffle cones and we broke them up in to pieces and those were the chips. I also made mini chocolate cupcakes as a topping because how often do you see cupcakes as a topping for an ice cream sundae?
But how do you keep kids entertained? My husband and I watch Jimmy Fallon just about every night (well we tape them because we are too old to stay up late enough to watch them when they are really on) and he plays some really amazing games with his celebrity guests. So I tried to figure out which ones we could modify for the kids and to fill in any gaps I searched for “minute to win it” style games. These kept the kids really engaged and because each one was done in heats, they all hung around to cheer each other on. Another great part was they were super inexpensive! I presorted Skittles for the game above and two kids went head to head and had to separate them by color using only one hand. The first one done, wins. It doesn’t really seem like they would be that in to it but they seemed to really enjoy it.
Yeah, we played flip cup. So? Ok, so not the traditional drinking game flip cup but a more kid friendly version. I thought about using soda for a split second and then just realized we didn’t need any liquid. AND we started preparing them for their college years…
But the most fun game was water wars. I saw Jimmy Fallon play it with Li Lo and just knew the kids would love it! On the invitation I asked everyone to bring a change of clothes or swim trunks. I bought a cheap deck of cards (in case they got ruined from the water) and used plastic cups. All you do is split the deck and have two kids face each other. Each kid turns over a card at the same time and whoever has the higher number gets to throw water in the other persons face…so funny right?! I think my husband had them do best of 3 and then that winner advanced to the next round.
I can’t wait to do this again! I ordered some pizza for dinner (which I’ve never done before and it was SO easy!) and then it was time to send the kids home.
I had thrown around some Minecraft favor ideas with my son (like cool Minecraft socks!) but he was not in to it. So instead we went with these fun mustache glasses party favors from Target and a small water gun.
All my son wanted for his birthday was a Go Pro. And he got one. I really wish he would have had this before his playdate. Just think of the footage we would have had of the water wars! So I guess this is the least Minecrafty party you could possibly have. But it worked and still looked pretty cool.
Ice Cream Nachos! Please tell your son to invite me to his 9th birthday.
Consider it done Carmen. :) Do you like Pokemon?