Thursday, September 19, 2013

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Birthday Bash!

Wow - it has been a while since I've posted.  Our summer just flew by so now that we are back to a semi-normal schedule, I can post a great birthday party I had for my older son.  He is CRAZY about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, so what better way to celebrate with his friends then by having a SUPER COOL Diary of a Wimpy Kid party!!!! 
 
Having a memorable kick-butt party doesn't have to cost an arm and leg, just use your creativity to have a one-of-a-kind party
that your child will NEVER forget!!!
 
The fun started with an invitation that looked like one of the book covers to the series.  I found the blank invite by googling it and saved it as a picture and then just added a text box with the party info.  The wording was pretty cool too - "Rodrick may rule, but you know what's great?  Michael's turning 8 please join us to celebrate!"  And of course on the bottom of the invite, I had to add Rowley's famous line "ZOO WEE MAMA!!!!" 
Birthday Party Invitation


I made these bag toppers to put on the bag of candy that I put into the goody bags that we handed out at the end of the party.  On the other side of this bag topper it says "Thank you for sharing in my birthday!"


 
 
Then I went to one of my favorite stores, Michael's craft store, and picked up a mulit-pack of these DIY keychains (with a 40% off coupon of course).  I printed out pics of Greg and Rodrick and simply cut them to fit.
 
 
Then I picked up plain white bags (also at Michael's, a separate day with a coupon lol).  I attached the keychains to the bag with some cool ribbon, and attached a picture of Greg with each child's name to the bag - viola!  Instant goody bags that everyone LOVED!  And before everyone could pick up their goody bags, they also kind of served as decorations!
 
 
I also used printouts of the characters from the books all over as decorations. 
Below I simply bought some large clear bowls from my local dollar
store and attached pics of the characters on all sides. 
 
 
 
Then I bought a pre-made banner (see below), also from the dollar store, and simply attached all different characters' pics to the banner.  If you wanted to, you could also very easily make this banner by cutting out triangles and attaching them with ribbon or string.
 



To serve as placecards, I got sentence practice strips (I'm sure there is a better word for these, but that is what I call them lol).  I also bought happy birthday decorations and personalized them with pictures from the books.  All of the pictures can be found online and also on the Diary of a Wimpy Kid website.  There you will also find many more great ideas to add to your party.


If any of you have boys, then you know that they LOVE to be active constantly!!!  So I made sure we had plenty of games and activities to keep them going!  One of the games that everyone really enjoyed was Diary of a Wimpy Kid Matchup.  I used my extra sentence strips and wrote quotes from the books, and then I printed a bunch of pictures of the characters.  We split the kids up into 3 teams and it was a race to see who could correctly matchup the quote with which character said it.  There were plenty of laughs and cheering on with this game! 

 
After the Matchup Game, we had a scavenger hunt. I had 10 clues hiding throughout the house and outside (luckily the weather held up that day). After they all worked together as a team and got all 10 clues, they got tickets that they were then able to hand in for their goody bags! 
It kept everyone occupied and the scavenger hunt ended up outside
where we did cake and wrapped things up, so to speak. hehehe
 

All in all it was a wonderful party that my son and his friends still talk about to this day! I hope I gave you some thrifty ideas on how to host a great birthday party on a budget!!! Enjoy!!!!