Survivor Party
We held a survivor party for my daughter's 9th birthday. I download the survivor logo and then printed the invitations on brown craft paper I had cut into 8.5 X 11 sheets. I used the survivant font, which you can search for on the internet it is very similar to the font used in the logo. We had 16 girls. As each arrived, they each drew a bandanna out of a basket to determine which tribe they were in. We had 8 red and 8 blue bandanas. I played the survivor theme song, which can also be downloaded from the internet (I have a writeable CD drive and could burn a CD, but you could also just play in from the computer). We had tiki torches lining the driveway, which were great for atmosphere. We moved them to the backyard once everyone had arrived. Obviously, there was no voting involved, we used the tribes as teams for the challenges. We did 7 challenges the party lasted 5 hours and we were busy the entire time. The first 5 are patterned after challenges on the actual show. 1.Obstacle Course #1 4 team members had a time had their wrists tied together with bandannas and had to run the course. The girls did this one twice they enjoyed it so much. 2.Obstacle Course # 2 2 team members were blindfolded and 2 other team members had to direct them. We had the girls fill up a bucket with cups from a larger bucket. 3.Balance Test The girls had to stand on 1 foot on a short stump with their eyes closed (my husband spotted them in case they fell off backwards). We had 4 groups of four and then a winner's round for the ones who lasted the longest. 4.We nailed 160 paper plates in a 10 X 16 grid in the backyard. Each girl chose a plate to start on. Each took turns stepping to another plate in the grid. As they moved, we marked off the plate they were standing on. You could only move to an adjacent plate without a mark on. If you couldn't move, you were out of the game. 5.Match Game We collected 15 matching items through the house (trolls, coke cans, rubber lizards, etc). We hid them under paper bags and the girls selected two bags at a time. Matching items scored a point for their tribe. 6.Luxury Item memory game. We had each girl bring a luxury item (item they would most want if stranded on a deserted island). I laid all of the items on a table and then brought the girls in to look at them for 2 minutes. They then had to go to the other room and write down as many items as they remembered. 7.Theme Song Challenge. I downloaded 20 different TV theme songs from the internet and burned them on a CD. The girls had to write which show they went with as I played them. I tried to use shows that were geared to their age group or that they would have heard before (Sesame Street, Rugrats, Brady Bunch etc.) I made a survivor cake using an idea I saw on this web site sandy beach cake with a fire and skewered gummy rats. For the sand on the cake (I think the original just used sand-colored icing), I colored sugar a sand color (a little brown with touch of yellow) and sprinkled that over the sand-colored icing it looked very authentic. To color sugar you can use food coloring mix well and then spread out on a piece of wax paper to let it dry. For my fire I used chocolate icing to cover pretzel rods. I stacked them in a little teepee and then used red/orange icing for my fire. I then used plastic lizards and snakes on the cake and fire for the finishing touch. Along with the pizza and sodas, we served rice and skewered gummy worms, lizards and caterpillars. The rice was a big hit, which was a little surprising. I cooked some just to be funny (that's all they had to eat on the Australian version of the show), but most every girl there ate a paper cup full or rice. The skewered gummies were a big hit. I was surprised out how many 15 girls ate. It was a tiring birthday party, but all of the girls had a blast.
