4 year old Hippo Birthday

You may recall that G recently turned 4.  For his 4th birthday he chose to have a Hippo themed party.  He was set on this theme and I was not going to change his mind regardless of how many different tactic I tried!  For the record, I only tried to change his mind because I thought it would be rather challenging trying to find items for a Hippo party.  I was, however, WRONG . . . there I admitted it.



Invitations and Thank you notes:

The outside

The inside

I put a wallet size picture of G from the party on the outside of the thank you note.  The note was written on the back.

Email me at uniquelyerinnicole@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing invitations or thank you notes.

Utensil holders:
I removed wrappers from cans of fruit and washed them out.  I then wrapped covers around the cans that had hippos stamped on them along with the hippos I made for the invitations.  The covers can be removed and the cans can be recovered for another party.



Activities:

Binoculars:

First we made binoculars to use on a hippo hunt.  We glued 2 toilet paper tubes together and wrapped card stock around the outside of them.  2 holes were punched to attach yarn.  The kids decorated them with stickers.

Hippo Hunt Song:

After making the binoculars we put them on and sat down for a song.  I googled 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' and found a YouTube video with song.  We sang the song and did the movement with the song.  We said hippo hunt rather than bear hunt in the appropriate places.

The Hippo Hunt:

We followed clues in search of a hippo.  The clues lead us to several different areas both inside and outside.  The hippo was hiding in some grass!

Showing the hippo some love

Hippo Toss Game:

I used a poster board to create this hippo.  My husband used wood to make the stand to attach the poster board to.  It can be removed so we can create a new poster to use with future parties.



Cake:

I was so surprised when I was able to find these hippo plates and napkins!

Party Favor Bags:

I stamped 'Thanks' on the outside of a white paper bag along with a stamp of a hippo.  I took G to the dollar store to pick out some goodies for his friends.

Woody from Toy Story (4 years old)

I have previously shared my son’s love of the Toy Story movies resulting in a total of 4 Toy Story themed birthday parties.  This love began with his 3^rd birthday party which I have also already shared.   When his 4^th birthday approached he informed me that it must be a Woody theme, because the previous year was Buzz Lightyear.  As he said this to me the tone of his voice practically said “Well duh, Mommy!  Why wouldn’t this year be a Woody theme?”  Again, I created invitations along with matching Thank you notes for the party.  I also made a cake and came up with kid friendly activities to match the Woody/Cowboy theme.  Keep on reading for more details!

4 Year Old Woody Party

For my son's 4th birthday he chose to focus on a Woody theme. Again, at the time of his party Toy Story had not been re-released so I had a difficult time finding Toy Story items to use for his party.

Invitation

I used cowboy patterned paper and brown cardstock to create his invitation. I also found an image of the gang online and copied it onto cardstock.

Front

Inside

Thank You Notes

I used the same paper from the invitations to create the Thank You Notes. I always like to include a picture of the birthday boy at his party on the Thank You Notes. I have wallet size pictures made at Sam’s Club and they are inexpensive.

Email me at uniquelyerinnicole@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing invitations like this.

Cake

For his cake I made a cowboy hat. To create the hat I used the Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl to bake the cake in. Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye action figures, Twizzlers candy were used to decorate the outside of the cake.

Activities

Bullseye Horse Races

What you will need:

Poster board

Paint

Paint brushes

Construction Paper

Yarn

Number punch outs

Putting it together:

Front:

Trace the image of Bullseye on the Construction paper.

(I copied an image onto transparency film and then used the overhead to do this.)

Paint the image and cut it out.

Punch 2 holes in the top and 2 at the bottom.

Back:

Glue the number on the back of the construction paper.

Punch 2 holes in the top and 2 at the bottom.

Use the yarn to tie the Bullseye face to the construction paper.

Directions:

Create a starting and stopping point. Line the runners up at the starting point. The first runner to the finish line win!

Panning for Prospector Pete’s Gold

What you will need:

Rocks (I got some from the dollar store)

Gold Spray Paint

Sand

Large Container (I used a large storage bin)

Foil Pie Tins

Putting it Together:

Put the rocks on newspaper and spray paint them gold. When they are dry turn them over and paint the other side.

Pour the sand into the large container.

When the rocks are dry hide them in the sand.

Directions:

Have the kids search through the sand for the gold with the pie tins.