This post has taken me most of the day to write up, because there is so much I wanted to share. I have been on here on and off during the day trying to get it done, and here it is!!
I have noticed for about a year now that Gwen is pretty much over playing with Barbie's and other dolls. Her sisters, especially Georgia, try to get her to play, but she will only do it if it's a Merida doll or a Monster High doll, and sometimes she won't play period. So between that and last year's dinosaur party, I kind of figured Gwen would choose something a bit different this year.
As I mentioned, Gwen is into Monster High, which I think is because she so into monsters. Since she was about 5 years old she has enjoyed watching Ghost Hunters, shows on aliens, and shows on monsters. So when Rob and I started watching Finding Bigfoot a year or so ago, Gwen wanted to stay up and watch it too. We didn't let her at first, but eventually she saw it and her belief in and obsession with Bigfoot started.
So it wasn't much of a shock when she asked for a Bigfoot birthday party. I was at a total loss as to what to do for it until my friend Marissa sent me some links she had found:
She sent me a couple others, but these are the ones I used. First, the invite. I didn't have time to order one, and I didn't want to do hand made ones like we did last year, because I just didn't have time with preparing for Gwen's and Georgia's parties at the same time. So I downloaded a free program onto my computer that lets me edit and do all sorts of special effects to photos I already have, but it doesn't let me edit text or anything after I have already saved the project. So it let me collage these photos I found on a google image search I did, then I typed everything up and added the background to make it look like a note pad. I tried and tried to edit out the info so I could post it, but it wouldn't let me do anything like that with this program, and I have yet to install certain things on my computer, so I used a B in a white colored, set in bold font and "whited" it all out so I could show her invite on here. Gwen loved it.
I wasn't so sure what I was going to do for the decorations. One of the ideas I found on the bigfoot party site was to get some decorations that go along with camping, because a lot of sightings/encounters that people have with Bigfoots happen while they are camping. I thought that was a pretty good idea, so that's what I set out to do and that's partly what I centered the party around. The theme turned out to be a research team (all the kids) on a camping expedition to find evidence of Bigfoot.
So we left the Christmas tree up after taking all the ornaments off to use as a prop, and I used some brown packaging paper you can find in Walmart's envelope and packing tape section, and made some tree trunks (except for this one, which I wrapped with brown streamers), and blew up balloons and hung them at the top to look like trees. We had some big trees like this, and some tiny trees, all over the family/living room. Then we set up our tent, which took up the whole living room (or the play area as we usually call it).
Another view of the tent, with a camping sign in the background. I found those either on Oriental Trading's website, or US Toys website (think it was Oriental Trading though). I could have made signs like that, but it was getting to the point where I either made them to save money, or I saved my sanity and bought them. The need for my sanity won out, and thank goodness!!
I also found this little inflatable campfire on one of the websites above, and thought it was too cute and perfect to pass up. I forgot to take a picture before the party, so this is after all the destruction.
A couple more signs we hung up on the wall across from the tent (where we put the castle wall for Georgia's Rapunzel party).
I put this sign above the hallway that leads to the bathroom. Thought it was a pretty fitting place to put it.
Another big tree, and a vine, which was just a decoration I found at Hobby Lobby. I wish I had got more of these.
One of the things I had found on the party website were bigfoot signs. I really liked the bigfoot crossing and sasquatch st signs, but didn't want to spend money on them, so I google image searched them to see if they were available or if they were copyrighted. They were not copyrighted, so I printed them off, put them on foam core, and we put them on the entertainment center where the kids put their gifts for Gwen. The kids loved them, loved the tent...all of it. So did the parents that came.
I always try to find some quiet or easy activity to keep the kids busy while everyone arrives. I thought it would be fun to make Bigfoot bait, which just turned out to be like trail mix. Some kids did it...most went outside to play on our swing set while we waited for everyone. So it was a bit of a bust, but I think if there had been less kids, it would have worked out better. After every one got there I sat the kids down (and I wish we would have had enough room to sit in the tent, or sit around the campfire for this), and used information from the first website link above, and some random info I came across while looking for things, to tell the kids some of the legends and how to identify Bigfoot.
One idea that the party website had was to get monster feet stompers from Amazon and have the kids do a relay race. Well...I got two sets, and had planned on doing this with the kids, but we just ended up having too many kids, and our backyard has prickers/burrs all over the place, and I didn't want someone to fall and get a burr stuck in a finger or their palm, or even just fall and get hurt (especially with that many kids). So the kids just took turns using them throughout the party...it was really cute. They kept going around saying they were bigfoot, or asking if it was their turn to be bigfoot.
I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing games, because we just had so many kids there (our biggest party yet-5 kids from Gwen's class at school, 5 kids from church, our 3 girls, and 2 little sisters of 2 of Gwen's classmates-never again) and I was way too busy. One of the games we played though was pin the foot on Bigfoot (like I said when posting about Georgia's Rapunzel party, we usually do a pin the tail sort of game at every party). Robbie printed the picture off at work on one of the big plan printers (he got permission), I glue dotted it to some foam core, and we hung it up. I printed off some Bigfoot footprints that I found on a google image search (I used that a lot for this party), cut them out, and each child got one for the game. Two kids got the footprint right on the foot-and right on top of each other's footprint. They had a lot of fun with that.
Another thing I always do at the parties we throw are scavenger hunts. While I was looking around on the internet, I found one lady who had done a Bigfoot party (for a 2 year old though), and had posted about it on her blog. I wish I could remember her blog site, and I have been searching and searching and searching for it, but I can't find it. So credit for the idea for this next photo comes from her.
She had gotten little boxes like the ones below and put a sticker on each that said Bigfoot Field Research Kit. However, she didn't say what she put in them. I thought it was too good of an idea to pass up though. So once again, back to the google image search, found the two images, printed them on sticker paper, cut them out, and put one on one side of the box, and the other sticker on the opposite side. I then filled the goody boxes with what someone might need in a field research kit-a pencil (I sharpened all of them before hand...I'll tell you why in a minute), a notebook, binoculars, a compass, and a flashlight (Bigfoot is supposed to be nocturnal, hence the flashlight). I was just going to set them aside and give them to the kids at some point, but then I had the idea to incorporate them into the scavenger hunt, or as it later became, the hunt for evidence. So I hid the boxes in our coat closet, made up a bunch of clues that incorporated bigfoot facts, and stashed the first clue with my party stuff on the counter. I told the kids we were going to go on a hunt for bigfoot, and then gave them their first clue, which led them to their kits. They were so excited to have these kits to go search for Bigfoot, and immediately started outfitting themselves with their stuff.
The next part was something I came up with-go me! I thought that if they were going on a hunt for Bigfoot, they should find some evidence, right? So the first clue, which talked about how people think a lot of Bigfoot sightings are actually bears, led them to a spot in the girls room where I had some Bigfoot hair (fur fabric that looked close to what Bigfoot hair is described as) all cut up in small chunks, a photo of a brown bear, and some teddy bears. We talked about what the kids thought the differences between the two were, they wrote down some notes (which is why they had notebooks and I sharpened all the pencils), and then they got a piece of evidence.
Which they then put in these little evidence bags I made up. These are little bags that coin collectors use that I found at Hobby Lobby, and I used the same photo as the Bigfoot bait, just made up different words. The kids thought it was pretty cool that they got to take home some evidence.
They got their next clue when they found the hair, which said something about how a lot of people have reported a Bigfoot peeping out from behind a tree at them, and that they would find their next clue and evidence by one of our trees in the house. They found an 8 by 10 photo of a Bigfoot print (since the Bigfoot was there at some point peeking out at them hehehehehe) by our Christmas tree that someone says they actually found (I found it on a Bigfoot hunter's blog and printed it out), and we talked about the difference between human footprints, bear footprints, and Bigfoot prints. They wrote down notes, and then they got a copy of the photo for their own evidence and...
put it in another evidence bag. Robbie said the kids were coming up to their parents at this point and telling them they got actual evidence and how cool it was.
I got some really cool ideas from people for the last piece of evidence, but I just didn't have time to pull them off. So, when they read the next clue that they found with the footprint (which I can't really remember cause it was a bit of a stretch but it had something to do with a Bigfoot eating and drinking near rivers) they went to the bathroom and found their last piece of evidence-a Bigfoot tooth (or a long white bead)!! Quick note-I thought it would be fun to put the evidence in big jars, like they had actually been evidence jars where a researcher would put collected evidence. Anyways, the kids each wrote down some notes about how our teeth and Bigfoot teeth might differ, then they each got a tooth and put it in...
an evidence bag. The last clue that was found with the teeth led them to one final place. Our tent, because like I said, a lot of people report hearing sounds off in the distance of some strange animal, or see something massive walking through their campsite, or even have someone pelt rocks at their tent or shake their tent while they are in it. And inside the tent?
Our own little tent piñata. The kids grabbed their kits and went to town on it. Then we had some yummy burgers and hot dogs and fruits and veggies. They were a little disappointed they didn't actually see Bigfoot, but had a lot of fun searching our house and backyard for Bigfoot. We kept hearing kids run past us saying they were on the hunt for Bigfoot. It was really cute.
Gwen was just super happy with how her party turned out, and we got a lot of compliments from the parents about pulling off a party that isn't common at all.
My sweet peanut was so happy!!
On the party website link above, I saw a foot shaped cake that I thought would be fun to make. Robbie once again offered to do it for me-such a wonderful husband!! I showed him a picture, and since there were no instructions, gave him my idea of how to do it, and he went to town. He made the cake, froze it, made cupcakes, cut the large cake into a food shape, dirty iced the foot shaped part of the cake, cut up some cupcakes (or used the whole cupcake) to use as toes and dirty iced them too, froze again, then decorated the whole cake. It turned out awesome, and we had our own Bigfoot foot shaped cake!! Everyone loved it, especially Gwen!!
It was a total success, and totally worth all the hard work. We have already discussed with Gwen that next year we may not do a party because it's such a special year (8 years old...baptism) that we might just focus on how much of a spiritual time it is for her, but we also might take her and a friend or two to see a movie or something. We will see. However, this is the last time we invite so many kids. It filled my heart with joy to see how happy and pleased she was...so glad though that we could make our peanut so happy!!
