Organised a Minecraft themed party for Jare's 10th birthday last month. A theme he requested for. He started gaming on Minecraft last December, which of course gaming is on hold with school resumed. Since we are still in phrase 3 of a pandemic, it was a small and cosy party we held with his classmates at our home. Not more than 8 guests. It is so important that the birthday star picks his own party guests. I had some of my friends over for his 5th birthday party 5 years ago, and he's still raking it up to date that half of the guests were my friends and not his. Ok, fine. I will not repeat.
Back to his 10th party, most of the stuff were DIY since the group size was highly manageable. My only worry was how to keep the boys meaningfully occupied, rather than just a regular play date, where the boys would get on digital games the whole party. Mum woe of tween kids.
But first, let me share some prep work done. I bought most of the party decorations and goodie bag contents from taobao. Minecraft in Chinese search is ζηδΈη. I'll drop the links at the end of this post. In addition to the contents, we are thankful to have SGToysRock delighting the kids with Mighty Beanz and Hot Wheels mini maker kitz toys. Which we used them as part of the party games!
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| Mighty Beanz and Hot Wheels |
Goodie Bag
Here's the goodie bag for each child. Pencil case, pen, pencil, correction tape and Mighty Beanz. No treats because we had a pinata, and we left the sugar in there.
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| Goodie Bag |
Pinata
With the help of my kids, we DIY-ed a pinata. I'm sure party kids are very much delighted with it. Here are steps to the easy making of a pinata.
Gather:
1 balloon
Newspapers
Plain Flour
Crepe paper or Paint
Steps:
1. Blow a balloon to a good size that you think will fit all your fillings. And of course, there's this size that a balloon can go before it bursts. We went for its maximum limit.
2. Cut newspapers into strips.
3. Mix one part water with one part flour to create paste.
4. Dip newspaper strip into paste, squeezing off excess paste. Apply to balloon.
5. Repeat Step 4, layering newspaper on until the balloon is covered three
to four layers deep. Leave an opening at the top for fillings.
6. Let dry for at least 24 hours. Under the sun if possible.
7. Decorate with crepe paper or paint. Then pop the balloon and fill it with treats!
We used green and black crepe paper to create a character somewhat like that of minecraft. No, it's not a watermelon.
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| Layering the balloon with newspaper |
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Let dry for 24 hours |
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| Decorate it! |
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| Fill it! |
And we used the foam swords purchased from Taobao as tools to hit the pinata! Violent played in a safe way.
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| Pinata time! |
Games
Quiet games were needed to keep the boys down and entertained.
1. Minecraft Bingo
I printed minecraft bingo slips from CatchMyParty. And this kept them occupied for about 10 minutes. Prepare some pencils for playing and of course, prizes for the first three winners. Or more!
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| Game tools |
2. Hot Wheels Maker Kitz
Proceeded the boys to build their movable cars with the Hot Wheels Maker Kitz from SGToysRock. We did a review previously too. This kept them really occupied for some time as the building up wasn't as easy as it seemed. I rendered help to some of them. It was also a showcase on the boys' patience and resilience.
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| Building Hot Wheels |
3. Mighty Beanz Stack Up
Jazz thought of this game. She told us that the Mighty Beanz could be stack up! So we made it into a game by challenging the boys to stack up as many as they can. The winner emerged with 5 beanz up!
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| Stacked mighty beanz |
It's evident. We don't need mega big and extensive ideas, or props to wow a party. This is one simple Minecraft party we pulled together without massive preparation. And I could tell the boys enjoyed themselves tremendously. Don't forget, kids are easy contenders. 10 year olds inclusive.
After games was lunch, I prepared a simple fare for the boys. Macaroni cheese, chicken wings and baked cauliflower. Fruit was easy, watermelon. Party food has to be easy to give you more time organising the rest. Dessert was none other than homemade birthday cake, made the previous day. I made Tiramisu in a trifle bowl. Omitted the alcohol as I can't be sending tipsy kids back to their parents! I'll get caught for serving alcohol to the under 18 too. The cake was really easy to make, shared the recipe here some time ago. And again kids will not fuss about cakes. They'll just sing the birthday song and eat!
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| Tiramisu bowl |
I embellished the cake with chocs and macaroons. It looked a little more commercial after that. Glad to have put together this party for the second born's 10th birthday. A 2 digit leap from nine. So much thoughts that I had to dedicate a post to him here.
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| Happy 10th birthday, son! |
I hope parties and play dates like these are some good memories he will keep in his memory bank!
Here are the shop links of what I've carted out from Taobao:
Taobao links:
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