Ninja Birthday Party

So, my first born is now 8 yrs old and we had a super fun time celebrating him over the weekend. I always let my kiddos have input as to what kind of party they would like to have and then I take it from there and try to surprise them with the details.
They get so excited about birthdays and parties, making it even more fun for me to plan them!
Stone Man decided he wanted to have a Ninja party this year so I started searching the net for ideas and inspiration right away.

 I found a free download online for this fun ninja invite and then just made a few adjustments. I apologize because I cannot seem to find that site now!
I printed these on plain white printer paper in black and white, took a red marker to fill in the little star on the ninja's forehead and grabbed some of my red washi tape to seal them.

We stamped a Chinese character on the back of the envelope and used my wax seal to finish it off. I love my wax seal and had actually forgotten that I had it!

A black flat sheet and a red plastic table cloth covered the table. A pair of chopsticks rested on every child's plate and paper lanterns hung from above. We purchased the lanterns from Amazon in packs of 3. They are great because you can fold them flat again when you are done and use them again later.
However, I quite like them above my dining room table, even with the rest of the decor taken down. They may camp out there for a while, because they are fun!

We had strawberry cake (as requested by the birthday boy), icecream, sushi candy, and rice crackers.

I had so much fun making the sushi candy! I have made some like these before, but on a smaller scale just for my kids.
I got inspired all over again here and here. The kids LOVED it!
I made rice crispy bars as the base for all of the sushi; swedish fish on top and wrapped with a fruit roll up. The other sushi are made to be more like rolls. I simply cut a small square of the rice crispy bars, molded them with my hands into a circular shape, topped them with a dab of white icing, added a small piece of marshmallow that I cut and dyed with red food coloring to look like crab, sprinkled with shredded coconut and added some orange gel icing for the fish roe. Yeah, that's A LOT of sugar people! But that's how we do birthday's around here; they are a treat!

 I love to label food and drinks at parties with fun little cards. I just used white card stock, a stamp, sharpie, and black stamp pad to make them look a bit aged.

And our ninja birthday cake. I got the idea for this here. They did this same thing on cupcakes so I thought it would work for a cake too, and it did!
The slanted eyes are black licorice. 

These were hanging on the wall behind the table. I drew these out using paper from a large roll that I have. I wanted them to look like scrolls so the paper on the roll was perfect for that.
After drawing out my design, I grabbed my paints and went to work on the red and black scroll. I used a large mixing bowl turned upside down to trace a perfect circle and a ruler to draw the straight lines for the rest.
I searched online for Chinese characters and settled on this one meaning "happy." I grabbed my fine tip sharpie, and my laptop and free handed it.

On the other side of the table, I hung these super fun chinese takeout box lights over the doors. Daspri loaned these to us for the party and she has had them for a while so I am not sure if you can still find these or not.
However, there are lots of different lights available online that would go well with this style.

After everyone filled up on sweets and presents were opened, we sent the ninjas outside with their ninja swords.

I found this idea here.
The swords are made from foam pipe covers and electrical tape! You can find this foam in a long piece at your local hardware store (Lowe's, Home Depot). I paid .97 for each one. Then I simply cut them with an exacto knife and added electrical tape to one end.
Each pipe cover made 3 swords. They were super easy to make, affordable and well worth it. The kids loved them.
And let me say that they held up way better than I thought they would. Those swords were used in many ninja fights in the backyard and not one of them broke! And no one was injured because they are just foam. Perfect!

I also made ninja head bands for the kiddos too. I mean, you kind of have to have these. ;)
Again, very simple and affordable.

I bought some stretchy black knit fabric and cut it into long strips. I could have easily stopped there and they would've still been really fun, but I thought they needed a little something more.
So, I bought a package of iron-on stars too.

Each child left the party with a sword, headband, pair of chopsticks and a little thank you note.


The party was a huge success. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the birthday boy felt very loved!
Mission accomplished. :)
-Jenny

Related links:
Chopsticks
Paper Lanterns