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Backyardigans Bash -4yr- Scavenger Hunt

May 2007

Amy in Pittsburgh, PA USA

Special Mention

My 4 year old is in love with the Backyardigans and was so excited to do a Backyardigans themed party!!  Here are our ideas: 

INVITATIONS:  We did them on our computer using Publisher.  We found clip art online from NickJr.com and used some scanned and reduced pictures of the Backyardigans to put on the front cover and used the words from the theme song when they introduce themselves for under each picture (Hi I'm Pablo.  My name's Tyrone" etc.) After Austin (the last one introduced) we put in a picture of my daughter and wrote "And I'm <birthday kid's name>".  Underneath that were the words "And we're..."  On the inside we wrote "...inviting you to <name's> Backyardigans Bash!"  (Ok most of the older kids and grownups invited didn't get the references that we worked so hard on but that's ok because my 4 and 7 year olds did and LOVED it!!!)  Under another Backyardigans picture we wrote the pertinent info and on the back in small print at the bottom was a small picture of Pablo and the words "Join us for a snack!" 

DECORATIONS:  They now have Backyardigans party ware available--we got ours from Party City and I think birthdayexpress.com carries them too.  So we bought cups napkins plates etc. from them.  We used a printed tablecloth printed to look like a grass lawn left over from a football party for our "backyard" table.  In the center we placed a vase of roses and propped my daughter's 5 Ty Backyardigan stuffed animals in a circle around the vase.  Balloons galore were present in the Backyardigan colors:  Pink (Uniqua) Blue (Pablo) Yellow (Tasha) Purple (Austin) and Orange (Tyrone).  We bought a few mylar balloons too. 

Kids loved the super big Pablo mylar balloon we found on Ebay.  I printed the coloring pages from the nickjr site and copied them for the kids to color as well as for decorations:  I copied each character onto a clear transparency and used an overhead projector to trace the characters onto white roll paper (butcher paper would work too) to make "lifesize" (about 3-4 feet) large characters.  We colored them with markers and paint and taped them around the room.  My daughter LOVED having her Backyardigan buddies come to her party!  We also printed out some of the song sheets and other printables available on the nickjr site to decorate the walls with.  Wikipedia.org has a write up on the Backyardigans (just print backyardigans in the search box) that describes the character of each Backyardigan. 

The write ups kinda cracked me up so I printed them out in big letters and pasted them near each lifesize character so that those who didn't know the show could read about them  (we had quite a few adults/family as well as about 8 kids).  In our yard we used lg foam rectangles in the Backyardigan 5 colors with a colored picture of each character glued onto them.  Then we cut out cartoon "talking" bubbles to glue on next to the pictures that said things like: Tasha says "Happy Birthday <name>!" and "Hi! I'm Pablo!  Welcome to the party!" etc.  We attached them with duct tape to dowel rods and stuck them at intervals in our yard to get people into the party spirit even as they approached the house!  (Overkill perhaps but so much fun! :) We also bought some BYigans hanging decorations BYigans Happy Birthday Banner and a Uniqua pinata.  She has some other Backyardigans toys that we sat out as well.  The BYigans CD was going in the background also.  We decided not to show the DVD because it was too much chaos. 

FOOD:  If you want to do snacks only here are the snacks that they have when they go back to someone's house at the end of the show:  pretzels and juice hot chocolate choc. chip cookies brownies cheese and crackers apples graham crackers waffles applesauce granola bars strawberries grilled cheese sandwiches cinnamon toast PB and J s'mores pumpkin pie orange slices blueberry muffins and carrot sticks (What a smorgasbord!!)  We had a meal:  pulled pork sandwiches (frozen trays of the meat from our local Sam's Club that we cooked and put in a crockpot) hot dogs for the kids chips pretzels cheese and crackers a veggie tray and rainbow parfaits (my personal fav.) that were made with the BYigans 5 colors:  Orange/Tyrone cantalope bites layered with pink/Uniqua strawberry yogurt Blue/Pablo blueberries Purple/Austin raspberries Yellow/Tasha pineapple bits granola and whipped cream just for fun!  CAKE:  There are BYigan cupcakes and a Pablo cake on the nickjr site in the recipies section.  We did the Pablo cake and a regular rectagular cake with pink icing (White tub icing mixed with pureed strawberries).  The non-Pablo cake was for the grownups who might not be excited about eating a blue cake!  The Pablo cake was fairly easy to make and we just added some fun candles and a number 4 candle to the pink cake along with "Happy Birthday <name>!"  (Seemed a little odd to plunk a candle into Pablo's forehead!) 

GAMES:  Coloring pages for when everyone was arriving.  Purchased the Pin the Bowtie on Pablo from our Party City.  We also did a scavenger hunt outside based on the "Key to the Nile" episode:  They were split into teams and given tea-stained and burned edged "scrolls" that told them to find the 3 presents for the Sphinx (that was me).  In turn they would be told the secret of the Nile.  The first present is "The jewel of the waters" (I hid several blue stones from a craft store in the sand box.)  The second is "The yellow lotus flower" (Large yellow silk daisies from craft store pushed into bushes.)  The third is "A drink of water from the secret oasis" (A cup next to a bucket of water hidden on the side of the house.)  When they found all three items they were to bring them to me for the secret of the nile:  saying the magic words of please and thank you for their prize...a la the episode. 

We also did an obstacle course outside:  At intervals they ran through the obstacle course.  We were supposed to time them and the one with the best time won but they were having so much fun they would get to the finish line and want to go again so I just gave up and let them run themselves silly!  Course:  Jump over the "Gobbly Goo" from the episode "The Tower of Power" (a tub of cornstarch water and green food coloring); jump from stone to stone over the river from "The Heart of the Jungle"...at least the book version (garden stones scattered over streams of blue streamers); Yeti stomp through the balloons from "The Yeti" episode (blown up water balloons in a kiddie pool you have to break one to move to the next station); walk the plank from the "Pirate Treasure" episode (a 2x4 across two concrete blocks with lots of adult supervision) and swing on the vine from "The Quest for the Flying Rock" episode (a rope tied up over a strong tree branch...also with lots of parental supervision!)  Everyone got a prize when they were finally tired out! 

GIFT BAGS:  Prizes from the games (giant BYigans stickers--Party City and Pirate gold chocolate coins) Backyardigan bubbles--birthdayexpress.com (or maybe allaboardtoys.com...I don't remember) BYigan blowouts BYigan fruit snacks and the candy from the pinata (which I bought as a pull string...seemed kinda cruel to bash Uniqua about!) 

THANK YOUS:  Small snack size candy bars wrapped in paper printed on our computer with a BYigans picture and the words "It was sweet of you to come to our party!" on it along with a short note of thanks written by me and signed by my daughter.  Everyone had a great time and my kids and I had a BLAST putting it all together!  "

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