Show Your Hope!

And now for a little fun…..completely unrelated to the theme of this blog….but still worth a share!

For Will’s birthday, we wanted to do something easy, simple, and fun.  Will is a HUGE fan of Mine Craft, so we decided to do a Minecaft themed party.  I dug deep into the internet and got a crash course in “All Things Minecraft” as, until that moment – I only knew it was a game on the iPad that Will, Sasha and Ralph play together.

First of all, let me tell you that I just can’t understand the draw to this mindless game that makes a killing off of sub par pixelated graphics…but, that’s neither here nor there….Will was thrilled about the theme, so I was going ‘All In.’

I finally settled on a cake I wanted my friend Michelle from Cakes by Michelle to make and the cookies by my friend Niki from Simply Sweet by Niki…you’ll see pictures on that later.  😉 Then, I decided upon the favors, decorations, and finally, the munchies.

While ALL of this was actually REALLY easy, simple, and fun….it was time consuming to execute given the absolutely CRAZY schedule we had the week leading up to his party…it was a bit daunting. You see, I didn’t quite think it all through when planning everything and didn’t take into account that we’d be returning from our stay in Myrtle Beach less than a week before his party AND that we’d be having 4 appointments in Boston that week also….which effectively left me with little time to get all of these things set up.

I am quite grateful for the help of my friends Shannon, Liz, and Jill, my niece Brittany, and anyone else who pitched in to help get it ready in time!

The best part about it all was that, while Will knew about the theme, he had NO idea what I was doing or what it was going to look like until the guests arrived and I called him down from his bedroom.  You see, I am a HUGE ‘Surprise‘ freak…I LOVE LOVE LOVE to ‘Surprise‘ people.  I love to see the smiles, the joy, the excitement….it’s just wonderful to be able to do something special for someone else with the expectation of nothing but joy in return.

SO, without further rambling (which I do a lot)….here are the pictures of Will’s “Minecraft” themed birthday party!

I started out by making the favors for the goody bags:
Use a simple small paper bag with a cutout of Steve’s face as the treat bag.  SUPER easy!

Inside the bag, I placed the following items in their own individual clear baggies:
Rock Candy for the ‘Ice’

Rolo’s for the Gold (Budder)

Twizzlers and Pop Rocks for the TNT

A chocolate bar (I used Hershey’s) with wrapped with a print out of ‘Minecraft’ grass and I  printed out a small picture of Steve and cut it out and taped it to the front (this did not need to be placed in a clear bag).

Rice Krispy Treats with Black food coloring as Coal.

I also created, printed, and laminate cute little Minecraft bookmarks

And finally, I printed small Steve and Creeper faces, cut them out and laminated them.  I punched a hole in the top of the center of each face and threaded some hemp through the hole to make necklaces for the goody bag as well.

I printed out labels for each of them, laminated, and then cut them up.  I punched a small hole in the corner of each of the labels, threaded it through a small piece of hemp and then tied the baggies shut.

I popped them all into a bag….and used a glue dot to seal it shut.

I took small square dark green, light green, and black plates and used some adhesive tacky stuff (I forget the name, but it’s safe for walls) and created a Creeper face on the wall.

For the door, I took a light green plastic roll of table cloth and cut it up to fit the door (I did both sides).  I then took black construction paper and made eyes, the nose and the mouth for a Creeper.

I purchased labels (that were excellent) for the water bottles from HERE that were customized for Will (we still have some in our cooler outside and they have held up well over a month since the party!).

I also printed, cut out, and laminated a banner that says “Happy Birthday” in Minecraft font – and secured the back of it with glue dots to some hemp.

Even the spoons had some decor – I took some of the leftover small Creeper faces, cut them out, laminated them and then used a glue dot to adhere it to black spoons. I used light green plates with dark Green napkins

The biggest PAIN IN THE BUTT was the cups – I thought it would be simple – but it was not!  Ralph actually took over this project.  He cut out black squares (you can use electrical tape or black construction paper) and arranged them to the green cups in the shape of the Creeper face – using glue dots to adhere them to the cups.

But it all looked nice in the end!

For the food, I took the many staples found within the game:
Carrots

Coal (Rice Crispy Treats with black food coloring)

Budder (Rolos)

Apples (sorry, no picture, but you can see it in the larger picture of everything together!)

Creeper’s Blood (punch)

Cookies (made by Simply Sweet)

Sticks (pretzel rods)

Trap Doors (Cheezits)

TNT (Twizzlers) – no picture of this alone, sorry!

Diamonds (Hershey Kisses in the blue foil) – no picture of this alone, sorry!

I also did ‘Earth’ which I also made from Rice Krispy Treats – but I Cocoa Krispies instead and topped it with green frosting for the grass

And the look on BOTH Will & Sasha’s faces when we finally let them downstairs to see it all was priceless!

And…the Minecraft Cake was a HIT (made by Cakes by Michelle)!

Will even got a visit from some of his Bentley Football Friends – here are just two of them…

This was such a great birthday party – and Will had SUCH a wonderful time!  We are so grateful to all who attended….

 

And, after all of the chaos of the day, we all went to visit Auntie Chelsea and have some good old fashioned snuggle time with her!

Thanks for peeking!

If you are interested in a Minecraft party and would like the printouts for this, feel free to email me at ivygirlz@aol.com or leave a comment here!  Some of the printouts I created and a few of them I found online, but I can’t remember where.

Love and Light,

Stefani