A Penguin Party

Lydia has been big fan of penguins for quite some time now.  Last year around her birthday we started talking about how she would be 5 on her next birthday and therefore could have an actual party with non family members. I mentioned something about how a winter theme would be fun since her birthday is in January and she took that and ran with it.  I was really happy with how the party turned out and Lydia loved it.

It was fun to look up party ideas online and at the same time I had to tell myself a few times to not go overboard with all the fun ideas.  There were so many!  We made cute penguin invitations together and Lydia decided she wanted a penguin ice cream cake so Mark would take care of that.  I looked up some fun winter themed games and then had Lydia pick the ones that sounded the most fun to her. I wanted to give out a non candy party favor since there would be zero healthy snacks consumed at the party! Instead we made some sparkle play dough and put together a snowman play dough kit and gave out snowflake rings.  We did throw in a small handful of marshmallows but that was it.  They were super cute.  We blew up lots of black and white balloons and didn't worry about many more decorations than that.  Again, so many fun ideas out there. I was proud of myself for not going crazy with all the ideas.

 While we waited for all the guests to arrive the kids played with the balloons which was great because there were no instructions needed, easy!  They just played until everyone arrived.  We then went down to the basement to make a penguin craft.  After our craft we played our winter games and then headed back upstairs for our snack and opening presents.  Then we went on a scavenger hunt to find their party bags.  I think scavenger hunts are an awesome party activity, the kids loved figuring out the clues and running all over the house.  We went all throughout the house and then headed back upstairs for cake.  The timing went smoothly and it seemed like everyone had a great time.  Lydia now has an awesome penguin collection!

Onto the pictures.

Lydia specifically chose this outfit so she could look like a penguin.  Silly girl.

Games:
Fill the snowman up.  The idea was to toss cotton balls into the cups to fill the snowman up with snow.

Marshmallow "snowball" transfer

Each child had a plate with marshmallows, a straw, and a cup. The goal was to move marshmallows from the plate into the cup only sucking on the straw.

 

Next we did snowball transfer.  I'm not sure why we didn't get any pictures of it. Oh well. You sat down with an empty bowl on your head and a bowl full of cotton balls in your lap.  You had one minute to transfer as many snowballs into the bowl on your head using a spoon.

Lastly we did penguin races.  The kids took a balloon and stuck it between their legs then had to waddle across the room and back like a penguin.  I was upstairs putting the food out but my Mom and Mark said it was really cute and fun.  It was fun to hear them giggling while they played.

 

So blurry! 

Our snacks were:  snowflakes made out of pretzels and marshmallows, baby gold fish, and snowman heads.  They kids put together their snowflakes and made the snowman heads. Both were cute and fun. Mark made candy cane hot chocolate because what is a winter themed party without hot chocolate?

Gifts:

Scavenger Hunt and Cake:

A penguin huddle to hear the first clue.

First clue

Found them! 

The kit had play dough, 2 little felt scarves, orange and black beads for the face and buttons and twigs.

The cake.  The first ice cream layer was brownies and the second was peppermint bark.  I wanted to have some penguins on the cake and found a cute idea to make some out of marshmallows.  Their idea was way more complex using dipping chocolate. I took the easy way and bought edible markers and drew my penguins.  There were a few that didn't look very penguin like but in the end I got 6 adorable penguins and was really more proud than I should have been with how they turned out.  I loved them!

 

I was really so happy with how everything turned out.  It was fun to plan the party, Lydia had an awesome time but we are still standing by our designated year parties.  Jared is turning 8 this year so he will have an official party too.  As of now he wants a killer whale theme party.  I may be crossing my fingers that he changes his mind or just repeating a lot of this party!