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Percy Jackson Party -9yr-Capture the Flag

December 2011

Victoria in Austin, TX, USA

Special Mention

My 9 year old read all the Rick Riordan books and his favorite series so far is The Heroes of Olympus (www.rickriordan.com). When his birthday party got close enough I started looking for ideas for a Son of Neptune or The Lost Hero theme party. NOTHING out there. There are some Percy Jackson ideas mainly from the movie. 

INVITATION: I printed a greek/grecian key on the top and bottom of a gold stationary paper, rolled it up and tied it with a gold ribbon. On the spine part you can see when closed I wrote Birthday quest". The invitation said: CALLING ALL DEMIGODS!!!! Come help _________(my son's name) on a quest to free Thanatos. I printed a map of the route we were going to take.

ACTIVITIES- GAMES: I told the parents to drop the kids at a playground where we had pizza blue liquids water of course. When the kids arrived they picked a card from "the oracle" (a fancy bag) to see which god will claim them. The Percy Jackson wiki website has great drawing of all the major gods(http://camphalfblood.wikia.com/wiki/Camp_Half-Blood_Wiki). I always tried to make them learn something too so I added god/ goddess names and what they are gods of. Also the name in Rome and Greece. If a planet of satellite applied I added that too. They surprised me when they started trading them (they had a lot of fun doing this). Nobody wanted Hades poor guy. I made noodle swords with duct tape ( which came out sooo cool). Cut round cardboard shields covered with black butcher paper. I hotglued the cardboard straps to the back which I don't recommend (they came off right away).

Next time I would do a string/rope through it THEN glue the black paper. They played with the swords and shields for awhile until pizza arrived.  After they were done eating and hydrating we divided them into two teams and played Capture the Flag. They asked to play this 4 times. You can get the rules online easily. I gave them purple and orange head bands (Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter). I made a purple (Camp Jupiter) and an orange (Camp Half Blood) flags with their logos (SPQR and laurels Pegasus). When they were done with the fourth game we were ready to head on the quest to free Thanatos. We met at a playground which has a trail that leads to my house so this part was perfect (around 0.25 miles).  Stations for the quest:

1. Stheno (medusa's sister). I made a big drawing of her and had a tray with plastic food next to her. She is the one that keeps offering food to Percy in the Son of Neptune. Under one of the pieces of food I taped the next clue

2.Griffin: again I made a drawing of a griffin and taped water balloons filled with air and in one of them was the next clue. They used darts to pop them (CAREFUL!!! They tried to do them all at the same time) make sure you make a line.

3. Basilisk: Polybotes shakes the snake looking things called basilisks out of his head. I streamed crepe paper of various colors from the trees and taped the next clue in one. Imagination is all. They had to use their swords to take them down.

4.Alcyoneus: I carried an old twin mattress covered it with a sheet put a head from my Halloween  decorations on top and voila we had a giant. Alcyoneus had to be dragged out of Alaska to be able to be defeated so I made them carry the giant across a little street.

5. River Styx: I gave all the kids a gold coin (drachma). I used pennies sprayed painted gold. They had to drop a drachma in a cauldron to be able to cross the River Styx (the street). I had a couple of parents helping with possible cars coming.

6.Thanatos: I tied a grim reaper figure I have from Halloween with ribbons to a tree. Each kid had to cut one and free him. So now they are carrying a giant and Thanatos to my house.

7:Golden Eagle: we ended at my house where I had hung a fake bird painted gold from a tree. Only one string would let it come down. Each kid untied one until the right one. You have to kind of guide them to the wrong ones so the first kid doesn't get it right away.

CAKE: After the quest was done we came in the house for some ambrosia and nectar for the wounds and tiredness to get better (just like demigods). I made a mixture of Nectars ( guava peach) ginger ale and of course apple juice. They LOVED it. The cake was a rectangular 13x8 cake three layers. White frosting all the way. Then I scanned the book cover and changed Percy's face for my son's and had it printed on rice paper at my supermarket. All the way around I wrote the greek key on green (sea weed color) and gold sugar sprinkles.

PARTY FAVORS: Again using Halloween things I had these favor bags with skeletons printed on them so I called it an underworld survival kit. Chocolate gold coins blue airheads some scary looking tattoos and other little things. They of course got to keep their shields and swords.

THANK YOU CARDS: Orange and Purple flag shaped construction paper with Thank you written in greek and latin for the different camps. I made a wooden bead necklace painted gold and I wrote Camp Jupiter for the kids on the purple team and Camp Half Blood for the orange team with flags on them matching color too. The beads were given for completing and surviving the quest just like Percy gets when he is in Camp Half Blood. I added the rules of Capture the Flag so they can keep it.  It was a lot of fun and can't wait to see what next year brings…."

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