Ninjago Party - Ethan turns 9

For his 9th birthday, Ethan wanted a Lego Ninjago party. I searched Google and Pinterest for ideas and found some really inexpensive and easy ways to carry the theme out. His party actually fell on his birthday. The day started with his favorite breakfast, homemade pancakes. He requested an extra large one. Funny kid, likes them only with butter and nothing else.

DECORATIONS

 I can't take credit for these ideas...I got them all from searches on the internet.

We got balloons in red, blue, green, and black and made the eyes on yellow cardstock with a sharpie. Then we cut the cardstock out and taped them onto the balloons.

Rice Krispies Sushi Rolls - The boys loved these. Made with Rice Krispie cereal, swedish fish candy and fruit roll-ups. I served these and bottles of water that were wrapped in yellow cardstock with the ninja mask like we did on the balloons.

I asked Ethan if he wanted a cake or cupcakes. He chose cupcakes and I found this idea. So easy...Took yellow cake mix and then tinted white frosting with food coloring to make blue, red and gren masks of the ninjas. I left the middle of the cupcakes exposed for the face and then used black gel frosting for the eyes.

The frosting doesn't even have to be smooth because it looks like material.

For the favors, I bought red lunch bags at Michael's, used the same yellow cardstock template for the balloons and taped them onto the bags. We filled the inside with various candy and each boy got to take home a foam sword we found at Target for $1 ea.

 ACTIVITIES

Our first idea was to have someone come and teach the boys some basic martial arts moves but that didn't work out. So, the night before, Russ and I came up with this idea. On the cartoon, Ninjago Spinjitzu I heard them say to one of the Lego characters that he reached his "true potential". Makes me laugh but anyway....So, we came up with some activities the boys would have to do to train as ninjas and reach their true potentential. Each activity had to be completed that fell under these 4 categories we listed on a whiteboard. At the end of the party, they were then awarded, a ninja mask, black belt and a foam sword. It was the perfect amount of activities to keep nine boys occupied for two hours.

While waiting for everyone to arrive, the boys played the Lego Ninjago Spinjitzu game.

First event was tumbling as part of the Agility test.

Also under Agility test was a spin kick.

Ethan got a little too much spin on his spin kick and fell down.

The next event was for Balance. The boys had to stand on one leg, stick arms straight out and balance a cheerio on a finger of each hand for a count of 9. If the cheerio fell off or they put a foot down, they had to start over. I don't have a picture of this event.

For Discipline - I set the timer for 90 seconds and the boys could not talk or make a sound or the time started over. They did awesome! Don't think this would have worked at Rebecca's party. She was dying after 10 seconds and had to leave the room..no joke!

Rebecca led the boys in an oragami lesson to make ninja stars.

Luke, Ace, Logan , August and Ethan listening intently on next step to making their stars.

Once the Ninja stars were completed, the boys had three attempts to toss their stars into the basket. Every good ninja has to have accuracy. 

To make the ninja masks the boys were awareded, I bought a men's extra large black t-shirt and cut it into strips big enough to tie around their heads and a slit for their eyes. For the black belts, I had some thick black material on hand and cut that into long strips big enough to tie around their waists.

Then we gave the boys the foam swords and took them out to the backyard where they could use them to pop 9 bubbles with them.

Yummy cupcakes!

Lots of Lego and Matchbox cars as gifts...do they know this boy or what?

Noni and Papa gave Ethan this hilarious card of a dog that dances to "Jump, Jive and then you Wail". The boys cracked up!

Rebecca made this card for Ethan that made me tear up as he read it. The front says "To the best brother in the world." On the inside she wrote "Dear Ethan, I just wanted to tell you Happy 9th Birthday! You are the best brother in the whole world. Whenever I'm sad you cheer me up. There's a million words to describe how bright you are. Oh, look, I just did. Love you, Rebecca". So sweet!