Ds wants an ARCTIC birthday party... HELP!

[jenL]

Ds, turning 7 in just over a month, wants an arctic-themed birthday party. He never comes up with something easy! :lol: He wants it to focus around the arctic animals: polar bears, seals, orcas, foxes, hares, etc.

 

I know there are some extremely creative moms on here... I'd love any ideas, please!!!! I'm not very creative, so I'm already stressing about it. FYI - It will be about 12 kids, ranging in age from 9 to 2.

[secular_mom]

Well, the cake sound easy- plain white frosting, LOL. You can dust it with sugar to make it look like a snowy tundra. You could add blue coloring to the cake batter, and do light blue sprinkles.

 

They can do an 'ice fishing' game, (like the games at carnivals where a kid throws a fishing line over a box and someone on the other side puts a prize on the hook for them); You can have an 'iceberg obstacle course' where you paint some boxes white; the kids can make polar bear masks out of paper plates (I'm sure you can get some ideas for that onlin); you can have a penguin waddle race. Hmmm....

[RobinF]

I had to make an artic cake with penquins one year for a birthday party. I made a regular sheet cake and left it in the pan. Then I took out part of the cake and made blue jello for water. Iced the cake with white icing. You could use some type of brick like candy to make an igloo too.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm not that creative but this person was: http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/winter_parties_8.html

[hornblower]

play pin the tusk on the narwhal - cut out a narwhal shape & stick to wall, make a big tusk out of cardboard

 

belugas are more arctic than orcas btw

 

play Raffi's Baby Beluga while you play musical chairs (or musical floor which is the non competitive version: everyone just sits where they're standing when the music stops)

 

get dry ice from a party or medical supply store & do dry ice activities; we used to do dry ice things at all of the kid's parties when they were younger

 

there's this game where you get a card with an animal on it pinned to your back & you have to go around and ask people questions about it & see if you can guess what you are. Might be too hard for this age but you could adapt it a bit.

 

serve only cold food

[Mrs Mungo]

I found a really amazing polar bear cake idea!

[mom2att]

Two fun games:

 

1. Ice fishing. Fill a cooler with ice and water. Buy rubbery "fish" in several colors in the bait section of Wal-Mart. Each child has a set amount of time to find the fish in the cooler using only their hands, with the difficultly being that only fish of a certain color count. Whoever collects the most fish wins, prize could be a box of gummy fish.

 

2. Melt the ice cube. Freeze a small plastic arctic animal in a cup with water. Kids stand in a circle and pass the frozen block, hot potato style. The child who can remove the animal first wins.

 

Of course these are best on a hot sunny day . . . we've done both with great success.

[Mergath]

You could do face painting. Get a few pictures of arctic animals and let each kid pick which animal they want to be painted to look like.

 

Arctic origami could be fun, too. Get some wintery-themed paper and teach the kids who are old enough to make a polar bear or a penguin or something simple.

[melissel]

OK, this sounds like a FUN party!!! Can we come? :D

[rose_king]

Love to scrapbook so....

Cover some big boxes in batting to make it look like snow. Sit each child in the middle holding a stuffed animal or fishing pole and rubber fish. Take their pics, print them out, send them home as a momento of the day.

 

Clear as mud? I have a picture in my mind. Just not sure how to get it across in words.:glare:

[Splungeman]

Turn the A/C up......WAY UP. :P

[Carol in Cal.]

You need two round cake layers, baked. You cut each in half, and stand them on the cut diameter, next to each other. You attach with frosting, and then frost the whole thing with white icing. If you want to get a little more authentic, you could use a squirter of brown or light gray icing for the lines between the 'blocks of ice'--all you would have to do is put it on in a large checkerboard pattern.

[happi duck]

make ziploc bag ice cream (cream etc in small bag sitting inside a large bag with ice and salt, wrapped in paper...kids pass it around and shake it up)

 

another non-competitive musical chairs type game is played with circles on the floor. We call it musical hoops. Place several hoops on the floor (we use hula hoops, plastic rings from and obstacle course game and tubing targets from a lawn game) Kids move around during the music and when the music stops must get one foot, at least, into a hoop. When the music starts again take out a hoop. Keep going until everyone needs to squash into one or two hoops (depends on size). You can have the kids move around differently each time, like a different animal. Also, when we play this with a new group of kids we don't tell them that we are removing hoops. DH can usually take away a couple before the kids realize it!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Ds, turning 7 in just over a month, wants an arctic-themed birthday party. He never comes up with something easy! :lol: He wants it to focus around the arctic animals: polar bears, seals, orcas, foxes, hares, etc.

 

I know there are some extremely creative moms on here... I'd love any ideas, please!!!! I'm not very creative, so I'm already stressing about it. FYI - It will be about 12 kids, ranging in age from 9 to 2.

 

Fill a large tub with water. Add some ice cubes. Add floating rubber seal toys or balls (maybe racket balls - although they might be too big). Kids bob for the toys like a polar bear.

 

Also, there was a Cub Scout theme on the Arctic and Antarctic a few years ago. Your local scout shop might still have books or "Den meeting in a box" kits for this. The title was "Poles Apart" There are some ideas for activities and crafts here at Baloos Bugle (click on the links in the sidebar on the left for more specifics. Pack and Den activities had some games.)

 

I also found some Arctic/Antarctic activities from the Navy Historical Center (the navy did a lot of the early expeditions).

Edited February 23, 2010 by Sebastian (a lady)

[mcconnellboys]

What fun! You can use shades of blues for balloons, crepe paper streamers, etc., too. There are tons of colors of ice in the Arctic! Wal-mart now has out those plastic animals that other places have had more expensively for years. If you find them cheaply enough, you might use them for party favors. I believe Target has some of these now, too. You could certainly decorate the cake, and/or table with them.

 

You could stack up those white frosted snowball cupcake things to make an igloo - or use individual ones for mini-igloo place savers, etc. You could use a blue-tinted drink and/or blue ice cubes in different shades.

 

Others have already given you a ton of great ideas! I think this will be terrific fun for a winter birthday! Have fun with it,

[jenL]

I KNEW the Hive could help me!!! These ideas are fabulous!!!! I've put the thread in my favorites, so I can review it repeatedly as we plan. I'm excited now!!!

 

Mrs. Mungo - that cake link was amazing! I wonder if I could pull that off?! :001_unsure:

[Mom0012]

Let each of the kids make their own sugar cube igloos with royal icing.

 

Lisa

[Starr]

We had a jungle themed party once but why didn't we think of this? We always have some sort of pin the something on. Dh draws the picture to fit the theme. The kids did for many years.

[helena]

Can you decorate in icy colors? Blue, silver, white? Use white tempra paint to make snow and snow men on the windows and sliding door? Is it to late to buy spray snow they sell at Christmas? Hang Icicle lights outside. Did you see the amazing snowflakes that Jilly (she's here on the forums) gave instructions for over the holidays? Those are neat and make a big impact.

 

For a craft you could make snowmen out of white styrofoam balls.

Insta snow http://www.amazon.com/Be-Amazing-SNO-500-Insta-Snow-Jar/dp/B000FA6APE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1266986963&sr=8-1

maybe with plastic animals? http://www.stuffedzoo.com/Arctic-Life-Collection-p-17334.html

 

For snacks, do you have an ice shaver? They're a lot of fun

http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-68010-Snowman-Shaver/dp/B00008IH9N/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1266987149&sr=8-8, you just have to be careful because there's a nasty blade on it.

 

For play, could you build an igloo? Here is a picture I found of one made with milk containers:http://teachers.net/gazette/FEB02/crafts.html (scroll down a bit)