What do you do when your 7 year old comes to you and asks for a Bat Party?
You wing it! INVITATIONS: I printed the invitations using Printshop with her photo in her bat costume (from Halloween) and of course using our address as the Bat Cave. DECORATIONS: We have a storm door in the front and I painted it with acrylics to look like the batman signal. Then I blew up 50 black balloons and scattered them about the house. The balloons are always a must because the kids come up with their own games and imagination. I used black crepe paper and strung it from all corners of the great room. I used black construction paper and cut two pieces out to look like a bat. I then stapled the two pieces together and stuff the excess paper inside to give it that 3D look. The bats were hung from the ceiling throughout the house as well. Our garage is also decorated with a black curtain streamer entrance, big ball lights in an X formation on the ceiling, black material to cover the garage door, and a couple of refrigerator boxes to help to cover both sides of garage. I just happened to have a couple of frige boxes we use every year which are cut out like a picket fence. My girls redecorated them with black flowers and black balloons. The garage is also used to collect crumbs so we decorate the table out there in all black. Right above the table we hang a disco ball so when it's time for cake we turn off all the lights and leave a flashlight focused on the ball. The kids love the reflection of light and this turns into another game out there. Who can step on all the little lights on the floor? FOOD: We keep it simple, five bucks, five bucks, five bucks pizza, juice and of course a Bat Cake. For the CAKE: I used two 9 inch round cake pans and cut a scalloped edge 1/3 the way down on both of them. With the unused pieces I made the head and ears of the bat. GAMES: Besides the games already listed above we had Pin the Bat on the Batgirl. This is really fun because the Batgirl is a blown up, laminated photo of the birthday girl. Kinko's will enlarge a black and white for about $10.00, another six bucks to laminate. This is so worth it! I still have my older daughter's photo when she turned 4 and I will drag it out for her 16th, shhhhhh. We played a form of musical chairs with a twist. I used pillows on the floor and once the music stopped the child sits on one of the pillows. Instead of removing the child I remove a pillow (note to oneself: use big pillows) and the children end up sitting or trying to sit on the remanding pillows. We ended up two piles of children on two pillows. It's a fun game but you have to be careful. One of our larger guest thought it would be fun to run and jump on the last two pillows and elbowed a 6 year old. My daughter's birthday is around Halloween and we played the wrap the Mummy which ended up being a free for all. A little messy but the kids were having a blast. To calm them down before the presents I read Stellalunať. Lastly, we sat the children in a circle and played pass the present. Once the music stopped whichever gift the birthday girl was holding was the gift to open. Goodie bags were hidden throughout the house and each child was given a clue to find their bag. Then away went the little bats. Hope this helps you!
