One of the first things my mom said when I found out I was having January baby was “Oh, it’s tough to figure out birthday parties during the winter!” She was right, and for the last few years we’ve had smaller parties at the house, really done up the theme that Taylor chooses with the decorations, and tried to think of a good activity to hold the kids’ attention. For his 5^th birthday party, he really REALLY wanted a Ninjago theme. We didn’t have the characters at home at the time, so I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was so excited at the possibility that I happily agreed. My first stop was to the party store, where I struck out big time. Note to the licensing agent(s) for Ninjago: you’re missing the boat, people. So, I went to work online, trying to figure out what exactly these little characters are and do, and how to creatively decorate with it as a theme for a little kid’s birthday party (in other words, nix the swords). What in the world did people do before the internet and more specifically, Pinterest?  I’ll tell you now, this link will be your friend. Print off more masks that you think you’ll need, and you should be set to tackle the various projects below.

When the kids walked into the house, this was the first thing they saw – the sign for the birthday boy, the cake and treat boxes, and their personalized ninja headbands. I used the medium to large sized masks and a glue stick to adhere to inexpensive paper lanterns hung throughout the house. I used the smaller cutouts for the take-home treat boxes, which are available in many colors at party supply or craft stores. For the headbands I used cotton t-shirt fabric, cut into long strips. The stretchy fabric helped the headbands stay secure. I used stickers for the names. The kids loved having the headbands, and it was a good way for the parents to be able to identify all of the kids by name.

Cake and cupcakes by I Heart Cake, link here.

For the Ninjago suckers, I cut squares of black and red tissue paper, wrapped them around Tootsie Pops, secured with ribbon, and finished with the small Ninjago eyes cutouts (I used a glue stick to adhere, which worked well).

Super cute candy sushi. The snack’s appeal may have been lost on a bunch of 5-year-olds, but I couldn’t resist making these fun, easy, showy treats. I made a pan of Rice Krispie bars per the instructions on the cereal box and before they were fully cooled, cut them into the shapes above. For the round pieces I pushed Jujube candies into the center and for the rectangle pieces I set a Swedish Fish on the top. I wrapped the sushi with fruit roll-ups, which I cut into strips.

For the kids’ activity, they painted shirts that they could take home at the end of the party. I purchased sheet stencil plastic and used one of the cutout eyes for the pattern. I had the yellow base of the mask already painted, so that all the kids had do to was to paint the black eyes. One paint color (which I had in individual paper cups) and less drying time were keys to making the project a success. I labeled each shirt with the child’s name so that when they took them home at the end of the party there wasn’t any confusion.

Reality Check. Getting the house set up for hosting a birthday party of rambunctious 5-year-olds is tough. Hosting it is even tougher. The last few years we’ve been able to keep the number of invited friends pretty small, and have the party be as much for the adults as for the kids. What kids party isn’t made a little more tolerable with beer and wine? But as the kiddos grow bigger in number and in size, I think this may have been the last party we host at the house. We’ll need to opt for a gym, bowling alley, or bounce house of some sort. It makes me a little sad to think about that now but I suspect leading up to this year’s party, the day of, and clean-up after, I’ll be one happy and relaxed mama.