Creating a Last Minute Stranger Things Birthday Party!

My kids were recently introduced to Stranger Things. As such, my daughter wanted her party theme to be Stranger Things. However, I knew I might not be able to do too much as time was short when she told me what she wanted. But you know I was going to do some searching anyhow. And yes, I'm showing you what I was able to put together!

First things first!

I did my research. Season 4 has been out for a while now. So popularity has fallen. Which means you can't find much in stores and have to design your own things if you are low on time or order online if you can wait.  

My daughter designed her cake herself at Walmart. And we simply had her two figures in epic battle poses on top.

My best resource was HERE. This blogger put together a great list of things you can do yourself that will really look cute.  

So what did I make?

Glad you asked! I printed out the letters that have the Christmas lights along the top. This was an iconic moment in the first season. So how can I not incorporate it?! I printed out only the letters that would allow me to spell two words: Finally Eleven.

I had seen this picture someone posted of doing something similar. And since Eleven is the main character, or one of them, she had to have a part in the decorations. My daughter is turning eleven, so yeah. I had some string that I could put through the words and use to hang it all up. 

Funny note... So I was attempting to keep it somewhat a secret while having to put it together with my daughter coming into the room where I was working on it. I thought I was being smart by doing it with the letters turned down. Turns out... well, I'll show you how it came out. And let you laugh. 

My daughter thought it was supposed to be like that because of the Upside Down. I just couldn't leave it like that because of my OCD. No matter what the rest of the family came up with.

Next up!

I couldn't resist trying my hand at these cute little milk cartons. From what I'm seeing, they may be popular in the latest season at the High School. But they have Eleven on one of them and a Demogorgon on the other.  These were to be used on the table as decorations. So instead of making them from cardboard to actually hold things, I printed them on regular paper. You can find these at that link above. 

Who is missing?

I printed out two missing persons posters. One was for Barb and the other was for Will. These were hung up for decorations. I even singed the edges of Will's poster for a more dramatic effect. 

Creating a sign with a special font?

Did you know that there is a Stranger Things font logo generator that you can use for free? Online? Yep! So I made this little sign to hang up in her honor. Probably should have said 'strange' instead of 'stranger'. I thought I was being clever at the time. You can use that generator HERE. 

We had a fantastic time! I'm not just saying that. That's what she told me. Being 11 is one of those years between little girl and teen. Gonna be a fun year ahead of us! But we can take it one day at time. Starting with this epic birthday. 

An Easy Guide to Hosting an Out of This World Star Trek Party

My husband is a huge Star Trek fan. Or as they are known, a Trekkie! The perfect opposite to my own Star Wars obsession. As his Nana so poetically put it on the custom shirts she made for our family, "The Stars have aligned", when we got married. 
I was happy to finally be able to throw him a real birthday party this year! Now that we live near his family, it was well worth putting together. And if you have a Star Trek fan you want to party with, I'm gonna outline some tips to making it perfect on a budget! 

Decorations

Every great party comes with decor. You pick the theme and then you decorate to match. So for Star Trek parties, you need stars.

I found these great foil ones at the Dollar Tree. They come 5 per pack. I picked up a pack of the gold ones. My husband cut them to look like Com Badges. The sides that he cut off, he then made into mini com badges.

I used black streamers to make the hanging decorations with the big ones and then the little ones will be strewn on the black table cloth like confetti.

I had the black table cloth on hand already as I had a tendency to buy various colors on clearance when I could... And I was planning to use it for a Minecraft party. (My kids changed their minds though.) But if you need one, the Dollar Tree is a great place to look. They had a bunch of colors you don't see often with graduation styles currently in stock.

Plus other colors that they always have. You could use blue or red (colors of the shirts) and even yellow. I'm also planning to use the Galaxy Candle jars I had made and used for our wedding as decorations. I picked up silver party plates at the Dollar Tree as well. Pinterest was a life saver for getting ideas going. Click the previous link to see the board I put together. 

Party Foods

Pinterest really helped me get ideas for Star Trek foods. I didn't want to gross out our guests with the authentic foods. Like Rokeg Blood Pie and the one that looks like worms... So I decided instead to stick with a pizza shaped like the Enterprise star ship. We will also have Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pinwheels. 

To wash it all down, I plan to make Romulan Ale

and Klingon Blood Wine

(both non-alcoholic). I'll be getting Blue Hawaiian Punch for the first and picked up V8 Splash Berry Blend for the latter.

Party Fun

My Mother-in-Law helped me get these cool name tags printed. (My Pinterest board has the link to the PDF for them.)

Everyone knows that Dr. McCoy is constantly telling Captain Kirk what he isn't. So I thought it would be funny to see what everyone comes up with. And then we have Pin the Badge on the Officer game! And lastly, I'm going to make a Pin the Badge on the Officer game! Super easy, but should be lots of fun. To make one, tape some paper together and have a kid stand against to make your outline. Color in your "officer" and create a com badge to be "pinned" on. Voila! 

There you have it! Depending on how much you want to put into this, you can play Star Trek tunes in the background.

I've considered making a "Live Long and Prosper" banner too, but not sure I have enough supplies to pull it off. If nothing else, just making sure you say it at least once and share the Vulcan greeting hand sign!

When They Love Plants vs Zombies

My son turned 9 this month. And for his birthday, he decided that a Plants vs Zombies party theme was what he wanted. Of course we were 2 weeks from moving day when we started talking about this party of his. I always give them the choice of theme. But why does it have to be PvZ?! This is not in my comfort zone... Still, I do my best to create the party they dream of. Even mid-move! 

Planning starts with invitations. A party needs guests and since we are moving long distance, I had to give him a chance to hang out and socialize with his buddies near here before the move. After that... well, it might be a while before he sees some of them again. If ever. 

After the invitations, I decided to design his birthday cake. We agreed to make it ourselves to save money. But I didn't want to do the same one I had done for my older son. I made him the sunflower one. Fun and easy. Made from a round cake and Twinkies for the petals. No, this time I got a little ambitious. I mean, how hard can it be? 
At first I thought I'd make some characters using marshmallows. That was a mess. I had green fingers to show for it. And a perfect specimen for the show Nailed It. I was aiming for this guy and came out with...

Can't help but laugh. And then try something else! I figured I might have better luck creating paper ones that I can put on the cake using toothpicks instead. When I told the kids, they decided to do it for me! Can't blame them. After all, they saw my first attempt...

I also decided to use Golden Oreo cookies for the sunflowers. And grapes shooting green M&M's for the Pea Shooters. My daughter had some rectangular shaped graham cookies that I turned into headstones.

As for snacks, I thought popcorn, green grapes and watermelon bites would be perfect additions. They fit with the characters from the game. Plus, they are healthier options. Overall, I think it went well. He was thrilled with it all. Some of his friends came and celebrated with him. Quite the happy party!

In the middle, I used mini marshmallows, covered in green frosting to make the "bushes" that are in the game.