Printer-friendly versionI had so much fun coming up with the favors and activities at the Hobbit party (see part 1 here) that at some point I just had to stop and say, "enough." It's not that anything I did was expensive, but you can only use so many favor ideas before it starts to get a little silly.
Of course, I had to use my idea for hobbit feet flip flops. And I was absolutely delighted that so many of the children eagerly shed their own shoes in favor of the furry, thematic ones at the party.
I turned bubble wands from Michaels into kid-friendly Stings for the little guests. Party activity and a favor all in one, score!
We're still in the bonkers-for-bubbles age range, but really, even the older kids loved them!
I had to hand-stitch Niamh's shirt, because I managed to break my sewing machine and it was in for repairs until a couple days before the party. That heavily influenced the gluing of rhinestones around the perimeter rather than sewing the edges down.
Drew came up with the idea of bubble pipes for the kids. YES.
General bubble-mania ensured that these were a hit as well.
The final favors that were just handed out were Gandalf's fireworks flashlights bought from Glowproducts.com. We have evening parties for our girls, since in May and October chances are it'll be pretty warm here in Phoenix, and we want the sun to set and the temperatures to fall. Light up toys are always a good idea for our night time parties.
The rest of the favors had to be earned as rewards for the different stages of the treasure hunt. I made a replica (customized, obviously, for 4 year olds) of Thror's map (the map Bilbo and the dwarves used to find the secret entrance to Lonely Mountain). But that's not all, oh no. The map told the kids where to go, but the moon runes told the kids what to do while they were there.
Under black light, special instructions appeared for each station. At Gollum's cave, they had to find a golden ring.
After balancing the narrow bridge to Rivendell, each kid had to find a glowing Light of Earendil necklace (also from Glowproducts.com. And yes, I skipped well past The Hobbit for this one, but the light up necklaces were just too cool to pass up!).
At Mirkwood Forest, the kids found a giant spider web made of painter's tape.
They had to throw rocks (made of newspaper dyed grey) at the webs, just like Bilbo did to save the dwarves.
And finally, the map lead them to the Lonely Mountain, where the moon runes instructed them to defeat Smaug (our pinata).
And what was inside Smaug? His hoard of Ring Pops, of course!
For the rest of the party, the kids had unstructured activities and play time.
Like decorating hobbit themed coloring pages and jumping in the bouncy castle.
We made pizzas in the wood-fired oven, and ate at tables and on blankets under the spreading leaves of the party tree.
Paper lanterns and twinkle lights provided plenty of warm light through the night.
After eating our fill of pizza, it was time to sing and cut the cake.
And see Smaug breathe fire, of course.
A magical time was had by all, young and old. I can tell it was a good party, because at least one guest wore a pinata on her head at one point. Any party where that happens has to be a good party, right?
Next week the tutorials start! I'll show you how to do pretty much everything for this party, step by step.
.png)