Minecraft Party

I can't believe it's been a week since we hosted our daughter's Minecraft themed birthday party for her 8th birthday.  It was such a fun adventure planning, building, and executing the event.  The party was a hit.  18 kids joined us in making a Minecraft world come alive for our daughter: the Minecraft enthusiast.

The initial party planning phase was researching on the web for ideas on how to make it an amazing celebration for my daughter and her guests.  After the research phase, my husband and I made a game plan with what we pinned and bookmarked from other parent blog sites who were kind enough to share their experiences and printable material.  We were thankful for these sites since Minecraft party supplies are very hard to find.

Our game plan:

Piñata - Our daughter is obsessed with Herobrine so I decided to tackle making her the Herobrine piñata.  This task took 2 days of constructing and decorating.  You can visit my previous post for step-by-step instructions on the making of the Herobrine piñata.

Treat bags - To match the theme of the Herobrine piñata, I made Herobrine treat bags.  I used brown lunch bags and cut them down to a more uniform square shape and pasted brown tissue paper squares for the hair and beard and assorted skin colored tissue paper squares for the face. I used white construction paper rectangles for the eyes. I also made creeper bags.  I found green treat bags at the Dollar Tree and cut them down to match the shape of the Herobrine bags. I used a creeper sticker similar to the one on this link that I had on hand for the pattern.  I took construction paper and an exacto knife to cut out the pattern and then drew each one in with a black sharpie.  I considered using paint or spray paint however I did not have them on hand though I am sure they would work as well.

Treat bag goodies - We bought Brach's caramel squares, Dubble Bubble gum squares, Twizzlers, Pop Rocks, and Swedish fish for the goodies.  We included dinosaur erasers that we found at Target with a pack of 8 erasers for $2.00 (my daughter assures me that there is a dinosaur mod in the game). We also made special keepsake treats.  

• Stickers - On this particular amazing blog, we found many printables to use for our party.  We went to the local print shop and printed out stickers and cut them.(Link to stickers)
• Bookmarks - On this same site, we found printable Minecraft bookmarks and had those printed at our friend's printshop on custom card stock paper.(Link to bookmarks)
• Chests - We also decided to make mini chests to include in the goodie bags.  We printed those on card stock paper in color.  Since my husband is the detail oriented crafter, he was in charge of cutting and assembling the chests.  These were a little more time consuming but well worth it.  We found this chest papercraft from Google images but there are many others you can try. 

Once the crafting and treats were done, our next goal was to organize the party activities that would keep the children entertained during a 2-3 hour time frame.  Our daughter was more than happy to put together a playlist on Youtube because she wanted to hear her favorite Minecraft parody songs during the party.

Minecraft party playlist:

The party schedule:

• Free play/snacking: 30 minutes while the guests arrived.  There was a huge grass area for the kids to run around on and a playground.  We set up 2 tables; one for the food, gifts, and cake and one for the crafting activity and lunch time.  We set out snacks and drinks for the kids and labeled the table with Minecraft food tags (unfortunately, we do not have pictures of this set up as our photos of the table were inadvertently deleted.  Talk about a blogger's worse nightmare).

The food table:

• Deviled eggs - Gold
• Black olives - Coal
• Yellow apples - Golden apples
• Veggie tray - Carrots
• Twizzlers - TNT
• Swedish fish - Fish
• Birthday cake - Cake (Not for snacking)
• Water
• Juice boxes
• Musical Minecraft:  For this activity, we printed out coal blocks on card stock paper and set them out in a circle, one for each child minus 1.  We played "Minecraft Style - Parody of Gangnam Style" and played it like the classic musical chairs but instead they had to be standing on a coal block when the music stopped.  The kids went wild over this game.
• Minecraft Papercraft - We printed out papercraft characters and mobs in the game for the kids to choose their favorite character.  We brought kid's size scissors and glue sticks for them to assemble their 3D papercraft.  For those that did not finish before lunch, we handed out bags with their names on them to take home the pieces and finish them at home.  Here is the link to the site where we found the printables.
• Lunch - We served pizza for lunch.  My daughter requested specialty ordered pizzas:  Bacon and pineapple, black olives and pepperoni, and cheese pizzas.
• Cake - Auntie made a Creeper cake.  She used green fondant icing with chocolate cake and chocolate chips.  She calls it "Death by Chocolate" Creeper cake.  She also baked a Minecraft pig, TNT, and ocelot out of clay and hand painted them for the cake toppers.  It was a great cake.
• Pin the tail on the Ender Dragon - We printed out the Ender Dragon game on glossy photo paper and pasted it on a white poster board.  We also cut out the individual tails.  When we handed each blind folded child their tail, we wrote their name in chalk and stuck double sided tape on the backs so they would stick on and stay.  Game board Tails
• Piñata/Treat bags - We did the traditional smallest to biggest child in line and the birthday girl was first up.  All of the kids were able to hit it at least once and due the sturdy box material, we had to help it along a bit for the treats to come out.  We filled it with fruit snacks, granola bars, snack sized cookie bags, and lollipops.  We then handed out the treat bags and each child got to choose between Herobrine or Creeper.

Game Prizes:

• Minecraft stickers left over from the treat bags
• $1 Target bin treats
• TNT bundles - We made these by bunching 16 Twizzlers and wrapping them with a TNT label.  We then cut pieces of gummy candy and stuck them at the bottom of each Twizzler piece. We then poured Pop Rocks inside the Twizzlers and then capped the other end with a gummy piece of candy.  This created a pop on their tongues simulating a TNT explosion.

That concluded the party. Mom, Dad, and birthday girl thanked our guests for attending and said our goodbyes.  It was an exciting day and the feeling of actually making your own the party favors and treats really makes the experience much more fulfilling.  Our daughter expressed how much she enjoyed her party and said it was the best party ever.  We hope this post helps with your party planning and hosting.  

*Stickers, bookmarks, Pin the tail on the Enderdragon game and tails print outs are the property of and hosted by http://ichooseawesome.wordpress.com/.