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Willy Wonka Party -8yr- Lickable Wallpaper

June 2006

Jennifer in Houston, Texas, USA

Special Mention

Willy Wonka Theme.  My son turned 8 and he chose a Willy Wonka Theme.  This site was invaluable in giving me ideas that I used and expanded on.  Thanks!

Invitations:  Wonka Bars with Golden Tickets, of course.  I found gold foil at the dollar store.  I downloaded the Wonka font and used the exact wording from the golden tickets.  I was able to print 6 tickets on each sheet of foil.  I used a laser printer and it worked perfectly.  For the candy bars, I used Kit Kat bars because I like the squarer shape - I unwrapped them and rewrapped them in regular foil.  I obtained an exact copy of the Wonka bar and printed wrappers onto glossy brochure paper.   So, the assembly began a foil wrapped kit kat bar, then a golden ticket, then wonka wrapper.  We hand delivered these. 

Decorations:  We used purple and gold for the table covers, balloons and plates/napkins.  The entrance to our house was made to look like the entrance to the factory.  We had a red carpet from the front door and an archway with "Wonka" cut out to walk under.  I lined the walkway with giant lollipops (Styrofoam and colored cellophane) and wooden candy canes (from my Christmas decorations).  Once the kids entered the house, they had to sign the contract.  I obtained the exact wording and we typed up a contract.  I took this to Kinko's and had it blown up to poster size.  We put this on our entrance way hallway, draped a "curtain" around it and put out a feather pen for the kids to use.  I also had vases of giant pixie sticks and purple and gold balloons on sticks to add to it.  Also, in the entrance way, my son and I made about 50 paper lollipops and also cut out candy canes and candy shapes from a die cut machine.  We taped these around the door frames for added "candy" décor. We made signs for the different rooms where the activities were held "Viewing Room" and the "Inventing Room".  We even made a sign that said HSAWAKNOW (wonka wash spelled backward) for the bathroom.  The backyard had large striped umbrellas set up with chairs underneath for parents to sit and catch up.  I purchased 50 punch balls (Oriental Trading) and blew these up and hung from the umbrella spokes and the trees and various other places.  They looked like giant gumballs.  

Activities:  We decided to base this party more on the original Wonka movie.  And since there were over 20 kids in attendance, I decided to create stations to keep the crowds down.  So to start - We ate dinner first.  I got "tv tray" plates for the kids to use.  This was the Mike TeeVee station.   Dinner was mini corn dogs, chicken nuggets and pizza.  The kids loved this.  They ate their tv dinners while watching the movie (could choose the old or newer version) and drank fizzy lifting drinks (the small soda cans with a paper label). 

By the time the kids finished eating, all the guests had arrived.  We then proceeded to the "Veruca" station.  This was a game of "Golden Egg" (or hot potato).  We made a huge golden egg out of paper maché.  It was harder to handle than you'd think.  We had the kids sit in a circle and we played the music that Veruca sang "I want it Now".  Every time the song said "now", we'd stop the music and the kid holding the egg was out.  The last one with the egg won a giant box of Wonka candy.   We played this game twice. 

Now I divided the kids into 3 groups.  All 3 groups visited the rest of the stations, but rotated through.  I had my older son and a couple of his friends man these stations.  They were the "Oompa Loompas".  I didn't have them dress up but they were willing. 

The first station was the "Augustus" station.  This was chocolate of course.  I had squeeze bottles of dark chocolate all melted.  I had lots of chocolate molds - some with lollipop sticks and some without.  The kids chose which molds they wanted and they could add sprinkles or decorations or whatever and they would squeeze the chocolate in.  I had this station close to the fridge, so the molds could be popped into the freezer and they were done in about 3 minutes.  They put all their chocolate in a baggie with their name on it and we put these in the fridge to take home later. 

The second station was the "Violet" Station.  Here the kids made homemade bubble gum.  I got all the stuff off the internet.  The kids loved this.  They rolled it out and used small cookie cutters or plastic knives to cut out the shapes.  These also went into a baggie to take home. 

The last station was the "Wonka" station.  This was all candy crafts.  The kids could make sand art using pixie stix candy to layer the colors into bottles I purchased at Oriental Trading.  The kids could make candy necklaces.  I bought 24 candy necklaces and cut them apart and had over 1200 pieces of candy jewelry - the kids just strung them on elastic.  And they could also make lickable wallpaper.  I downloaded some simple fruit cliparts (just black and white).  I made a strip of "fruit" for each kid.  Then I took jolly ranchers and put them in a child's plastic paint pallet (Michael's arts and crafts).  I melted one color in each "paint container" - took 45 seconds in the microwave.  The kids used brand new paint brushes to "paint on the melted candy" to make their own lickable wallpaper. 

After the activities, we opened presents and had cake.  We made a tower of chocolate cake and cut a groove in it and placed chocolate pudding in the groove to resemble the chocolate waterfall.  This was a mess to serve, but the kids did not care. 

Party favors:  I purchased a child's sized black plastic top hat (Wonka's hat) (oriental trading) for each kid.  This was their party favor "bag".  Inside was tons of wonka candy:  nerds, laffy taffy, shock tarts, tiny tarts, sweet tarts, wonka donuts, and an actual wonka bar (found a the 99 cent store).  The kids took home their bubble gum, their chocolate, their candy crafts (lickable wallpaper, candy necklace and "candy sand" art bottle), a punch ball, a giant pixie stick and a paper lollipop (we added our thank you note on the back before the party started).  We had a blast planning this party.  It was fun trying to find all the Wonka candy and to create the stations. 

The party lasted about 2 1/2 hours and the kids went home happy (and believe it or not, they didn't eat many sweets at the party - just when they got home!).

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