ET's Monster Themed 4th Birthday Party!

ET celebrated his birthday with the daycare kids on Thursday of last week. He had a hard time choosing a theme for his birthday this year, so I just picked a monster theme for him (mostly because there is a ton of things you can do with this theme). After choosing the theme, I went to the party store to look for monster themed items to decorate with, but I didn't find a thing. I wasn't too disappointed because I still had a lot of activities planned. However, a couple days later I stopped by Target and you can just imagine my excitement when I came by an entire monster themed party line of supplies!!!! This is when things may have started to get a little out of hand for me. Jay said I might just be losing it. :)

I bought nearly everything they had...


So here are all the "scary" details of the party...

First, the birthday boy needed the appropriate monster attire. I saw this iron on monster kit at Target as well. ET got to create his own monster for his shirt. He chose what eye(s) he wanted, what arms he wanted, mouth, etc.


ET packed party favors for his friends. Each bag contained a monster pencil, a monster finger puppet, monster slime, and a monster sticky/stretchy hand.


The night before the party we decorated. I had bought two monster tablecloths. Instead of using them on the tables, I decided to use them to make a fort. We called it the monster cave! :)


We started out the morning with an unexpected visit from K's new little monster! :) She brought in her new little puppy! She was so adorable!



We made monster pancakes for breakfast! The kids placed chocolate chips where they wanted eyes, nose, etc. Then we sprayed Redi-whip for crazy hair or for whatever they wanted really.
Side note: They also had a banana and milk with this overindulgent breakfast. :)


The teacher in me wanted a few learning activities as well. I got these ideas from a site called Oopsey-Daisy. We had monster stick puppets showing all different emotions, monster songs, and a monster "say & clap." I gave the kids clues as to what monster themed word I was thinking of (ex: Oscar), and then we clapped as we said the word to see how many syllables each word had.


I also made homemade Jello playdough (non-edible), and hid colored googly eyes in each ball of dough. The kids had to search through their ball of play-dough and sort the colored eyes by placing them on the matching colored monster picture.







Little bro' had his own agenda for what he thought was fun! :)



Then with a little colored hair spray and make-your-own monster masks...



WE TURNED INTO MONSTERS!!!! Aaaahhhh!



Trying to scare Nate (key word: trying...Nate never had a problem with anything).



Next up...a good old-fashioned game of "Tape the arm and eye on the MONSTER!"




Then a monster DANCE PARTY with songs like "The Monster Mash!"


Everyone brought their own flashlight from home, and we danced with the lights off. Our friend A--- even brought in colored ring lights to share with everyone! :)



Everyone had worked up quite a "monster" appetite so next up was... make-your-own monster pizza burger!

ET's pizza...









There is no better party food than PIZZA!


When Jay came back from work for his lunch break, he took some time to sing ET "Happy Birthday" with his guitar. Look at the picture! Don't you love seeing a grown man sitting in such a small chair! HA! I made him sit on this side of the daycare because the "monster cave" was set up near the rocking chair. Poor guy, but seriously...what a great dad! :)

He also read one of ET and Nate's favorite books...



ROAR! Here comes the TICKLE MONSTER!!!!


Before heading off to nap, we all sat in the monster cave and read all the monster books that I could find.



For snack monster cupcakes were a must!







By the end of the day everyone was pretty tuckered out. I had the perfect gift for ET and all the tired kids...


We watched Monsters Inc. until moms and dads came to pick-up. It was the perfect ending to a great day!

All in all the day was a success. I just forgot one important thing...

EARPLUGS!

WARNING...If you have a monster themed party for your little one, be prepared for A LOT of screaming! :)