It’s all ‘Ninjago’ in Casper’s world at the moment. So when I asked him what sort of birthday party he was thinking of, I shouldn’t have been surprised when he said a ‘Ninjago Party’ — and that there wasn’t even an option for an alternative! I’m not the biggest fan of this Lego line myself (I prefer the old-school Lego, where it was all about building your own marvels instead of creating something following a booklet — and then never taking it apart again!). But alas, a Ninjago Party it was!
It was a bit of a challenge to figure out what to do without reverting to commercial and disposable Ninjago partyware. I like my kids’ birthday parties to be sweet and creative, and simple (‘homemade’). But once I discovered that Ninjago is all about the yellow face and the angry eyes (and I mastered drawing those!) I was all set and on a roll!
First — the Ninjago Party invites. We cut the Ninjago eyes out of an envelope and inserted a yellow card on which we drew the eyes (and wrote text on the back). Presto!
Then we prepared Ninjago lollipops (wrapped in coloured tissue or kite paper, secured with masking tape cut in half lengthwise, and with yellow Ninjago eyes glued on it).
Pim made the table decor — Casper’s name in Lego blocks and decorated with Ninjago guys!
And Sara decorated our yoghurt pots with Ninjago eyes and a little felt headband. To be filled with yellow lemonade later!
Instead of cake, I made cupcakes (I always use this carrot cake recipe!) and used yellow fondant and a chocolate icing pen to make the yellow Ninjago eyes.
I downloaded a free Ninjago font and printed the children’s (and our!) names on iron-on paper, to make Ninjago headbands. Here’s my team of helpers!
On the day of the party, we gave all the children a Ninjago headband (and wore ours too, of course).
The party decor was simple — Ninjago balloons, the cupcakes, and the cute Ninjago yoghurt-pot glasses, with Pim’s beautiful centrepiece on the table, of course!
We gave everyone an activity card for around their neck, with a Ninjago guy drawn in the middle and numbers around it for all the activities. Children always love these kind of cards and to collect stamps or stickers for each completed activity. : )
The first activity was calm. We put crayons and felt tips on the table and let the children create a Ninjago artwork. We had cut white drawing paper to size beforehand to fit in simple frames (which we bought). I had drawn simple Ninjago shapes on the paper (you could copy them on if you’re not able to draw them, but I had become quite an expert by this time!). They loved this activity!
As a next activity, Sara gave a quick Yoga workshop (warrior pose!) on the terrace.
The third activity was an obstacle course in the garden. Throwing, crawling, jumping — this is always a hit!! (We were lucky with the weather, but we’ve also done an obstacle course in one of the bedrooms before.)
Using thick yarn, we had created a lazer room of Sara’s bedroom. In the room, we hung keys with the names of the children. As a fourth activity, they had to find the key with their name on it — avoiding the ‘lasers’, of course! With their keys, they could open the locks of Pim’s treasure chest (in which we hid the lollies!). This is a bit of a puzzle, because we used all sorts of different locks!
Now that all the activities were completed, it was time for the Ninjago ceremony! The children were all knighted a Ninjago by our in-house Ninjago Master. And they each got their own Ninjago Diploma to take home (together with their selfmade Ninjago artwork, another Ninjago lollipop, their headband and a little Lego Ninjago surprise bag).
Waiting to be picked up, we let them watch a little Ninjago film. They were pretty worn out, haha! I think they had the best party. (I love how they are still wearing their headbands!).
xxx Esther
PS Do you remember Pim’s Lego party? I used some of those ideas for this Ninjago Party for Casper.
Comments (8)
Zo leuk! Ik kan ook helemaal los gaan op kinderfeestjes, vaak kom je van het ene op het andere idee, met de kindjes als grootste inspiratiebron 😄
I love this idea! And happy birthday Casper! All of your birthday party posts have been so inspiring! We just had my daughter’s 4th birthday, and, like you, wanted to make it special and homemade. Ours was a unicorn theme with unicorn coloring sheets, unicorn/rainbow tattoos, a pin the tail on the unicorn game, and everyone had homemade unicorn headbands 🙂 We also had unicorn food (a fruit rainbow with yoghurt cloud dip, special rainbow punch, carrots and dip, etc…). My daughter loved it, and I think the fact that most of it was homemade made it extra special! x
What a lovely idea! I’m definitely keeping that in mind for Ava’s next birthday. She LOVES unicorns!! xxxx
Oh Esther, you’ve done it again – what amazing ideas! You really were made for this stuff! So inspiring.
And hip hip happy birthday to Casper!
Wat een superleuke blog, heel veel inspiratie voor het feestje van mijn zoontje binnenkort. Een vraagje: van wat voor materiaal zijn de hoofdbanden gemaakt en waar koop je dat? Lijkt me super om te gaan maken! Groetjes, Yvonne
Hoi Yvonne, ik heb ze gemaakt van ongebleekte katoen die ik nog had liggen. Maar een oud laken bv kan ook. Succes!
Hi there, I am just getting ideas for my son’s party and LOVE the headbands. I have downloaded the Ninjago font. Can I ask more details about how to make the headbands though please? I can have names printed with an inkjet printer on to iron-on-paper … then did you transfer to headbands? Did you have to print names “mirrored” so that it reads on headbands? Or am I overthinking the process? Cheers, Andrea