Penguin Birthday Party
July 31, 2009 by ThePartyAnimal
Filed under Party Themes
As per my daughter’s request she wanted a Penguin Birthday Party so it was my mission to give her one. She loves Club Penguin and at first we were going to do it based on that theme, but I decided to just go with Penguins and give her touches of the Club Penguin. So I am going to share with you all the things I did to make this theme come alive in the middle of summer. I have to say it was a very COOL party on a hot humid day!!!
To start I did not send out invitations, because I did a phone invite. I only did this because during the summer it is much harder to hand out invitations and I did not have all the kids addresses. You can find plenty of great Penguin Party Invitations out there so no need to worry.
I am going to start with my Penguin Decorations. Due to the lack of any Penguin Party Supplies I chose to make all my own decorations – which I love to do anyway. Not only does it save money, but it makes it more personal I think. I made a Happy Birthday Penguin Sign (photo above) using black, white and orange poster board as you can see in the photo. I first cut the Penguin shape from the black poster board and then cut out an oval shape to fit on for the belly from the white and also a heart shape for the face. I love using glue sticks so I used one to glue it all on. Then with the orange I made a beak – I folded the paper and cut a triangle so when opened it was like a diamond shape. I glued it on so the triangle faces down and the top part sticks out and makes it 3D. Next to the beak I took some of my blush (makeup) and with my finger I made rosy cheeks next to the beak. I then made two circles with a black marker for the eyes. Then I cut out some feet from the orange paper and glued them on. Last I wrote my Birthday Message in the belly and being I love BLING – I added some pretty glitter on the lettering to make it sparkle in the sunlight. So simple to do and absolutely adorable.
I also made a bunch of smaller penguins (for these I used regular construction paper) doing the same thing as above to hang around the party area – the only difference was is that I glued on Google Eyes to make them more fun. I also took plain white paper from my printer and cut out Paper Snowflakes. Well I should say my sister helped with that one – for some reason I am not the best snowflake maker. My colors for the party were Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black and Silver with snowflakes hanging to give it that winter feel. I used Blue Table Covers on all the tables.
I also made some fun signs to hang around like Penguin Crossing, Amberarctica (Amber is my daughter’s name), Glacier Springs and Arctic Circle leading up to the pool. Just added some extra fun and I had the left over paper to do it – so again – money saving decorations.
Now no Penguin Party would be complete without an Igloo. So I went into my garage and found a cardboard box and it then became my Igloo. I laid it out and cut an Igloo shape. Around the opening I added a rim and placed Styrofoam blocks behind it so it pooped out a bit. I took some some white spray paint I had and sprayed it white. When dry I drew on ice blocks using a big black marker. I then attached 2 garden stakes to the back so I could put it into the ground. This was made not only for decoration, but for a great photo op of all the kids who came to the party.
Now for my balloons – I could not find any Penguin Balloons so I decided to make my own and it is so easy to do. I got Black latex Balloons and ahead of time I cut out white oval shapes for the belly, white heart shaped faces added the beaks, eyes and rosy cheeks like I did above and cut out orange feet. When party day arrived I took some tape and taped all of those parts to the Black Balloons to create my Penguin – they were so cute and the other parents and kids loved them. I then bunched one penguin with 2 dark blue balloons and 2 light blue balloons and had 5 bunches to hang around.
I also had some light and dark blue crepe paper with some silver foil strips bunched and hung off my patio as well. Then I took a couple of my daughter’s stuffed penguins and placed them around and I was done. It may have taken some time to make my decorations, but they looked great and the cost – MINIMAL.
For my plates – I used regular paper plates and paper goods. We had an evening party because my daughter wanted to make a fire and make smores and fires are better at night. So for food I kept it simple (I am all about Simple), I had Hot Dogs, A Pasta Salad, Typical Party Snacks (like Chips, Pretzels,Cheese doodles etc..), Goldfish, Cheese and also Watermelon. I had some Frozen Ice Pops in the cooler as well for the kids to grab. Nothing over the top – half the time the kids do not eat and parents tend to put out too much. The kids took what the wanted and ate in breaks on their towels in between activities.
Now for my Party Activity/Party favor I had the kids Stuff 16″ Penguins which are available at my website: The Party Animal.The kids loved doing this and were so excited – how could you not be they are so cute. And again this Plush Penguin also doubled as part of the party favor they took home from the party. The Plush Penguins are also available in 8″ Size.
Now lets move on to the Penguin Party Games I came up with and created.
Ice Fishing: I made this game by cutting out fish shapes from Poster board and then I had my kids color them in fun colors. I also created one fish that was a Cat Fish. I did that so the guest who was the one that caught the cat fish when fishing one a prize. I then made a fishing pole from some pole that was going to the garbage in my garage – I taped on yarn and at the end I taped on a small magnet. Then on each fish I added a paper clip to the back fin. This way when fishing they can catch them with the magnet. Then what I did was find a bucket I had laying around and I added a piece of Styrofoam to the top like it was the ice. I cut a hole in the top to make just enough room to get a fish out – but made it so they had to work it out. So it looked like a hole cut in the ice. I set up the bucket by the igloo and just like ice fishing the had to sit while fishing with no peeking. This was the kids favorite game. (see more pictures in the slide show at the bottom)
Musical Ice Bergs: For this game I got some big Styrofoam sheets from a retail store my sister works at – they were used for packing. I then took a knife and cut them with fun edges like an Ice Berg to each one. You will need one less than the amount of kids at the party. We then played the game as you would musical chairs, but being it was Styrofoam I had the kids place a foot on the Ice Berg instead of jumping on it because they break. Well they did it anyway – lol. Ice Bergs break up too. We kept going until we had a winner. (see more pictures in the slide show at the bottom)
Save The Penguin – Now this game had the kids working and it was new to them and really cooled them off in the heat. Days before the party I took tall plastic cups (one for each guest) filled them with a measured 1/2 cup of water and let that freeze. Then I placed a Gummy Penguin on top of the frozen ice in the cup and placed another measured 1/2 cup of water on top and placed them back into the freezer to freeze. When they were all frozen I peeled off the cups and stuck the big block of ice into ziplock bags with each guests name on them. At the party I then gave them to the kids and the game was that they had to save the penguin from the ice by melting the ice and the first to get the penguin out won. The ice stayed in the bag and they were allowed to do whatever they wanted besides smashing it on the ground to free them. The kids sat on them,rubbed them on their heads, rolled them on the ground and each had their own methods – it was so fun to watch. By the way – my son won and freed his penguin first. Then I let the kids smash the ice on the ground which for some reason they loved doing.
Feed The Penguin: This is another game I made. For this I used a heavy Foam Board and added a Penguin I made like I made above for the sign with the poster board and glued it on. I then took an Exacto knife and cut a large circle opening through it as you can see in the picture. I also taped on a garden stake to the back so I could stick it into the ground outside. I wanted to get a rubber fish to throw in the mouth, but could not find one. So my sister made a bean bag fish using popcorn kernels and some orange felt sewed it up and we had a fish. The Kids took turns tossing the fish to see if they could get it into the mouth of the penguin.
That is all the games we had time for – I did have back up and I froze a big chunk of ice to play pass the Ice Block, but the kids were busy swimming in the pool and sliding on the Slip N Slide and running around.
For Cake time I made Penguin Cupcakes. I did a whole separate blog post on How to make Penguin Cupcakes since I made 2 styles and I walk you through step by step instructions – they are so easy to make and the kids loved them. No need to cut cake and like I said I am all about keeping it simple.
Once the sun set we made a fire at our fire pit and the kids toasted Marshmallows and we also made Smores another fun treat they enjoyed – well so did I and all the other parents who were there.
Now last, but not least is the Penguin Party Favors. For me I like to make my bags, so i used some Kraft bags I have for my business, took some fun penguin clip art, added each guests name printed and cut that out – glued it the bag and drew on some snowflakes. While the kids were playing I took their Plush Penguins they stuffed and put them into their bags.
I also had in their bags Chocolate Covered Rice Krispy Treat Penguins with a Thank You note attached to each. See my blog post to read all about them; Penguin Party Favors.
In addition to that I like to add in some education to my parties – So what I did was add in a Fun fact sheet about Penguins, I also put on there a Fun Penguin Crossword Puzzle, a Penguin Joke and a page on how to draw a Penguin. So it was 3 pages – I stapled them together and hope they learned something about penguins maybe they did not know before. I can tell you when putting that together I learned things I never knew.
“Penguin Photo used on Tag & Bags designed by Jen Goode“
My sister also picked up some Penguin Charms from Ebay that we attached to some thin ribbon and added to the girls favor bags that they could put on their Plush Penguins or wear as a necklace. Then as the kids got ready to leave I let all the kids who won games pick from the prize bag that I filled with little useful prizes that cost me less that $.50 each – it is all good shopping folks. They were only allowed to feel in the bag – no peeking. I made sure I had a prize for all the kids – so everyone got a little something extra.
And that concludes my Penguin Birthday Party – just one more successful party under my belt, but all that matters is that the kids had a great time and they will remember all about that party they attended for my daughter that was all about Penguins. I think they will. Heck I know they will. Now that was one COOL party.
Now enjoy some great shots of the kids having a good time: