Angry Birds Birthday Party

My oldest son celebrated his 5th BIRTHDAY this weekend!  And what better way to ring in the BIG FIVE than with an Angry Birds themed birthday party?  Everyone had a blast, especially the birthday boy!

The "problem" about an Angry Birds themed birthday party is that the Angry Birds section at a party store is about 6 inches wide [I measured] and shares the space with WWE party supplies.  On top of that, it costs over $5 for a pack of 8 cups, or a pack of 8 plates, etc.  RIDICULOUS!  However, this type of "problem" means that I get to be super crafty, which I love!

I am so excited to share all of the super fun party details!!!  Thank goodness for Pinterest because I really feel like my creative brain is mush after having the baby... it's slowly coming back to me now ;-)  Feel free to steal these ideas so you can throw an awesome [inexpensive] birthday bash too!!!  P.S.  This party cost UNDER $300 including food, so it totally beat having a party at the local inflatable warehouse!  This was made possible by recycling the table cloth from our Tractor-themed birthday party in October (YIKES!  I just realized I never blogged about this one!) and all of the wood was left over from the construction of our fort (blog post on that to come soon) and cups from my sister's wedding over 2 years later.

INVITATIONS:  I downloaded a free printable and used Publisher to personalize it.

Free printable here!

FOOD TABLE:
These Angry Bird balloons made me so... so... ANGRY because they wouldn't all face the same way at the same time... so after 100 pictures, I finally got the majority of them at least semi-looking in my direction!

Angry Birds balloon faces template found here!

FOOD:

Bird food vs. Pig food = all of it was gone by the end of the party!

Bird food:  fruit on a stick and veggie cups

Pig food:  skittles, chips & salsa, cheese balls, popcorn, pretzels and trail mix

SIGNS/LABELS:

I found these little watering cans at the Dollar Tree and because they just HAPPENED to be the same colors as all of the angry birds/green pigs, I decided to buy them and use them.  I put a styrofoam craft block in the bottom and stuck a chop stick (also from the Dollar Tree:  $1 for 5 sets) in the middle.  I stuffed the cans with shredded tissue paper and printed little signs on the computer.  And BONUS!!!  I found a FREE download for the Angry Birds font "Feast of Flesh" here!  I got the stickers from Hobby Lobby...so much cheaper than the party stores.

Lesson learned:  putting fruit on cardboard/paper sticks is a bad idea.  The sticks absorb the moisture from the fruit and they bend.  But it was a really cool idea!  Strawberries (red bird), blue berries (3 blue birds), pineapple (yellow bird), green grape (pig)... all on a stick!

CAKE TABLE:
Cupcakes:  I am NOT a baker and am truly amazed by people who are able to make such cute things that are also edible, so I entrusted the bakers at Target to make the green pig cupcakes (however, they were quite confused about the whole "green pig" concept and made pink pigs at first... long story...).

Cupcake stand:  Bits of wood left over from our backyard fort that we just completed.

Cookie cake:  Half of the cookie cake was designed by the Great American Cookie Company.  I asked them to leave the top half bare so my husband and I could build piggy towers with nutter butters and vanilla wafers.  We used green gumballs to represent the pigs, and blue, red, white and yellow ones for the birds.  And because of the pink/green pig controversy (as mentioned above) we got the Angry Bird cake kit from the Target bakery to add to our cookie.

Cake balls:  My awesome friend Megan has a great step-by-step recipe for cake balls!  I followed her recipe and then immediately after dunking in the almond bark I added candy eye-balls from Wal-Mart and shaped beaks from bits of orange Starburst candy, then after they cooled in the fridge, used black gel icing for the eyebrows.  (1 box of cake makes about 40 cake balls... 34 if you ruin the first 6 ;-)

BACKDROP:  I recycled the backdrop I made for my husband's company family picnic to use for behind the cake table.  I painted over the flags and added some Angry Birds to jazz it up!

T-SHIRTS:  I used iron-on transfers to make their T-shirts.

PIÑATA:  My husband made it and I painted it; we make a great team!

SLING SHOT:  What would an Angry Birds party be without a sling shot?!?

Pigs:  I found these beach balls for $1 each at a local party store and the great big googly eyes at Wal-Mart!

WATER BALLOON EXTRAVAGANZA!!!
A few [hundred] water balloons (600 to be exact), a couple of sprinklers, a plastic pool... what more could a kid want in a birthday party???

FLAG:  Found at Wal-Mart in the tinsy tiny Angry Birds section.  This was the only thing (besides stickers at tattoos) name-brand that I bought.  I think it was $10... or around that.  It has now found a permanent home on the fort.

This party was such a blast for both kids and adults!  Not too bad for starting the party planning just 2 weeks ago!  It makes all the hard work worth it just to hear my big boy say, "Mom, this is soooo cool!"

HELPFUL HINTS:
1.  Latex Balloons:  Dollar store balloons break easily or have holes already in them.  I know this because every party I try to save money by buying balloons from there... BUT NOT THIS TIME!  This time I bought the really expensive ones from the party store, you know, the ones that come like 75 to a pack and are all separated by color?  BROKE MY BANK ACCOUNT!  But lo and behold... HOBBY LOBBY sells balloons in assorted colors and they are a good quality that don't already have holes in them!  So guess who went BACK to the party store to return on the balloons I bought from there?  So, spent a LITTLE more money than normal, but got more bang for my buck... or better balloons for my buck.

2.  Water balloons:  Party stores sell bags of water balloons with different amounts inside.  For some strange reason (probably because stores bank on our stupidity to earn more money), it was cheaper to buy packets of 60 balloons versus the ones with 250.  Be sure to check the math before purchasing them!


3.  Lesson learned:  Do not EVER serve gum or gumballs at a birthday party!  Kids do not know what to do with gum and either swallow it or spit it out in your back yard... or maybe it's just my kids since it was the first time they had chewed gum.


4.  Fruit on a Stick:  I am going to reiterate this one here.  Because we wanted to keep the fruit fresh until the very last minute, we did not test the fruit on the cardboard/paper sticks until minutes before the party started.  Still a really cool idea!  Maybe I'll get chop sticks next time.


5.  Cake Pops:  dipping the sticks first in the melted almond bark before sticking them into the cake balls helped the balls stay on the sticks... if not, they just slid down them.  Thank you, Meg, for your amazing tips and step-by-step instructions on all things cake balls!  (That's 2 plugs on my website).


6.  Reuse/Recycle:  Find whatever you can around your house (i.e. an already-painted sheet of plywood) to use/make over for the party!  You will save mucho dinero!