For our 9th birthday party we chose a chess theme since we both love to play it. Mom made a chess board cake with chocolate chess pieces.  Everybody was amazed how good it looked! For a fun activity, mom created a giant chess board and gave each kid a "hat" which were decorated with different chess pieces. Dad was the supervisor for the moves, and drew a number (from one of the bottles), a letter (from another bottle), and a piece (from a third bottle).  Whatever the result was, the kid who had that hat had to make the move drawn.  If it was an illegal move dad drew another number and letter. It was pretty fun, our friends had a blast, even those who didn't know how to play. There was also a chess trivia game, where the person who knew the most answers got a prize, and a chess-themed Jeopardy, where the fastest to answer each question got a little prize.  We had lots of fun! Thanks mom and dad!