Want to help me? 7th Bday Party

[sproutmd]

We are having a Minecraft themed home party. I want to keep it simple and cheap because I get stressed easily when we host, and we will also have our 2 year old at home. I also work full time, and the party is on a Friday night for 2.5 hours. There are 12 kids invited, and I'm unsure at this point how many will actually show. Can you tell I just want to get it out of the way? Ha. I'm accepting all suggestions.

Food
Pizza (one cheese, one pepperoni)
Pretzel Sticks (Sticks in the game)
Watermelon (Melon slices in the game)
"Creeper" punch (green punch)
Cupcakes
Single-serving ice cream cups
I might have a few more candy options with the food print-outs if I'm feeling ambitious. 

Games
1. Minecraft will be available to be played during the entire party, but only 4 kids can play at once.
2. Pin the tail on the pig (we will have to make this in advance)
3. Help? We also have a toy room in the basement that they may just want to play in rather than play organized party games. I don't know...

Table by the door for favors (Minecraft key chain & bookmark), party will be in the basement. What am I missing? Any other suggestions? Will they get bored?

[ECB]

Will 2 pizza's be enough? And I'd either get 2 cheese or 2 cheese/1 pepperoni. The last few parties I've been to, while a couple kids might do pepperoni, cheese is always the preferred pizza.

[sproutmd]

Actually, no. I will likely buy 4-5 pizzas. I'm not sure if we will have some lingering parents since we don't know most of the children invited.

[6fsn]

I think the food is fine, but don't forget drinks. Can you borrow another minecraft game and maybe run a tournament? (I don't know this game at all so this may be dumb)

[jeaniebueller]

how about some type of art project where they can make their own Minecraft Steve or Zombie guy? Also, please, please post pics of this party after. My DS loves Minecraft and I would love to see your ideas!

[sproutmd]

Mar 10, 2015 9:39:53 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

how about some type of art project where they can make their own Minecraft Steve or Zombie guy? Also, please, please post pics of this party after. My DS loves Minecraft and I would love to see your ideas!

I will try! I don't know how to PIP, yet. They have great ideas on Pinterest and whatnot, but the crafts and games require a little more prep time and patience than I have to devote to the party. 

[Deleted]

If you've got up to 12 kids, the chaos should be self sustaining. Eating will take up about half an hour. Maybe decorate swords for a craft? www.orientaltrading.com/diy-swords-pcs-a2-57_6714.fltr?Ntt=minecraft

[thefield]

I agree with your plan to order 4-5 pizzas. Other than that, everything sounds good.

I will admit that we had 7 kids for a 7th birthday party last fall. We'd hoped to sustain them with outdoor games and activities, but they weren't having it. Ultimately, we let my son open his presents and the kids ended up playing with the presents for the last half hour or so.

[Deleted]

I maintain that going to the dollar store and getting a dozen pool noodles, then encouraging them to beat the shizz out of each other with them, could kill an hour with that age group.

But only if they can play outdoors.

Don't ask me why pain-free beating is the game of choice of most boys. It just is. I have no idea how to minecraft-theme it, though.

[elocrates]

Your party plans sound good.

We just did a 7th birthday party for DS1 at home (lego theme instead of minecraft). I planned a bunch of party games...and they didn't play any of them. The party was 2 hours long. The kids (8 of them) spent the whole time playing with legos, other toys we had, coloring (printed out some coloring pages in lego theme), and telling eachother jokes. There was no time to open presents (fine by me, since we didn't plan on opening them). For the "gift bag" for each kid, we bought a bunch of little (< $10) lego sets (spent more on these than we normally would for a party since we were saving a ton of money by having the party at home). The kids spent the last 20 minutes building their own lego sets. DS1 had a blast.

We went super simple for food (for 8 first graders, a 4yo, a 2yo, and two adults), the kids were pumped that they got pizza and ice cream in the same day, haha:
Two cheese pizzas and one pepperoni pizza (we just did frozen pizzas and cooked them at home)
Grapes and strawberries
Carrot sticks and ranch
Lemonade, water, milk
Ice cream sundaes (ice cream, strawberry and chocolate sauce, sprinkles) (no cake)

[rootbeerfloat]

Do you have any box heads? You could make some in advance or have them make them as an activity before wearing them to "battle." If there are toys in the basement, I think they will entertain themselves.