Wednesday, February 09, 2011

A Minecraft Birthday!


So my baby Birdie turned 9 just last week, and she wanted to have a
Minecraft themed birthday party. Minecraft is a computer game that is all kinds of fun, her new obsession, and the source of several very important life lessons for her. Maybe, if she gives me permission, I will tell y'all that tale... but suffice it to say, she got a good lesson in giving out info online, Griefers, using her mama's YouTube account without permission, and general Internet safety and protocol. Luckily, no actual damage was done during the experiencing of those lessons, and I am quite frankly glad to have had that lesson so well learned at such a relatively low cost.

Anyways... the Bird-day! First off, the invitations: the top looked like this...


That's a Creeper, one of the monsters that you battle in-game. It hisses, then it blows you up. This is clever, I promise.

The inside of the card said:
My name is Birdie, I am turning 9!
You are invited to my party
being held in a Mine.
We will battle spiders and zombies
and creepers so sneaky
we will eat cake and slime balls
you might think it's geeky
but it's really a
MINECRAFT PARTY!


Next, even though in the game Minecraft, you can actually make a cake that looks like this, what she wanted was a Creeper Cake, so after much planning and research I made one. It took three 9x13 cakes, and two batches of buttercream frosting to do the job... but I did it!





(Pearl loves Creepers too! Especially French Vanilla Creepers!)

I used a can of spray-on food coloring to make the subtle block pattern on the frosting, and a little bit of store bought fondant dyed black for the face and toes. The homemade fondant tastes so much better, but I was already up to my ears in stuff to do.

Next I used some electrical tape to turn our kitchen table into a Minecraft "Crafting Table" where the cake was consumed and also where the kids made their "sword", "pick", and "torch" for using down in the "mine."



(also pictured are an example of a pick and sword)

Let me tell you how the party went.... Yes. You do get the blow-by-blow account because I am excruciatingly proud of this party that was a labor of love by all of us in Chaos, mostly Birdie and I.

First, the guests gathered, and since not every one on the planet knows what the heck Minecraft is (the game is still in it's Beta mode) we let the kids watch a short, introductory clip about how to survive your first night in the game. The clip also was a good explanation for how the party proceeded. First, we had them go into the kitchen where they harvested a block of wood (a piece of brown paper from the "trees" on the wall), which they then took to the crafting table to trade for a packet that included a cardboard pick head, a cardboard sword and four craft sticks.




They covered the pick and sword in foil and then we "crafted" the items using the covered cardboard forms and some of the sticks with tape and leaving one "stick" left over.

Next we went to the "coal" pinata that I had made by filling an empty Costco size Cheerio box with crumpled black paper bits of "coal" and some packs of Poprocks, just for funsies. (Hint: next time I would skip the poprocks! Messy! Garrr!) Since it is February and cold as the dickens out there, we tried to minimise the damage of doing this indoors, and so did not blindfold the kids for this activity!



(the green box is a Zombie Helmet used for Zombie Tag)


Afterward, the kids traded their last stick and their bit of "coal" for a dollarstore flashlight and some batteries. Viola! Torch! And the kids got to use all these items for the party and take them home as well.

Next, we tanked them all up on cake and milk drunk from silver cups (metal minecraft buckets), and green slime balls (scoops of lime sherbet) to replenish all of our energy and "life" before we ventured downstairs to "mine" and "do battle" with the monsters down there.

There was Zombie Tag, Pin the Skull On the Skeleton and Spider Races.


(Birdie made the Skeleton game herself!)


Open gifts.
Lots of leftover cake.
The End.
Except for Lilac's birthday party that is next week. Zhu Zhu Pets. Whuf.

45 comments:

Maecy said...

Gonna have to check this game out if it is such a muse for creative parties. You da bomb, and well, you pretty much be-kickify the carp out of party planning.

bon said...

Ya know... carp be-kickifying IS one of my talents!

This is actually a game that I WISH I could play, only I get motion sick from the movement in-game.

bon said...

Fish-kicks.

Superwoman said...

Cookie is literally standing over my shoulder getting all the ideas for HIS minecraft party in September. lol. You are seriously one amazingly talented lady! Good for you and you may just be getting a call from me in the middle of August asking how you did all this. Because I am not ashamed to use your great ideas!

pretty darn prosaic said...

Be-kickifying carp! I'll be saying that all day. Carp, I be-kickify you! Makes an awesome motto.

The party did totally and completely rock!

elizasmom said...

I don't know anything about this game but I am impressed at the way you managed to tie every single element of this party into your theme. Between that and your cake decorating and face painting talents, you do realize that you possess pretty much the entire skill set needed to be a carp-kicking party planner, right? I would hire you!

Mama D said...

This is all very, very, VERY impressive. The collective creativity contained within your household could save the world. Sounds like an AMAZING party. No matter how much work it was, I bet in was incredibly rewarding to see it turn out to be such a success!! You are the best!

Aevum Dicessio said...

happy birthday wishes to your little one :)

LSharkey said...

Inspiring! I love how your cake turned out. I'm going to be attempting a Minecraft party in the near future. You did a great job!

Adrian said...

Holy Moley, that's amazing! Great job!

Adrian said...

Just noticed you said the game makes you motion sick, have you tried turning the "View Bobbing" option off? You may try turning the view distance down as well, I don't know but I suspect you'll find it easier if you don't have the difference in "scale" between near and far things. Good luck!

annenahm said...

I was just thinking about you, bon! Hope you are doing well.

bon said...

Adrian... that's a very good idea about the distance! I notice that I am good for watching Dadguy play when he's underground, it's the above ground adventuring and going up and down things that kill me off! I have tried messing with the View Bobbing, and it does help. I now wander if I did the both together if I could play.


I am doing OK Anne.... promise! My life has just about killed me off, what with the kids and the new church responsibilities!

bon said...

Woo... just re-read my last comment. Spell much?

Marius S. Moe said...

You made me want to have a minecraft part. I'm a 27 year old guy. You and Birdie rock! ^_^

Unknown said...

You are a minecraft momma goddess! Great ideas. I hope you don't mind that I plan to usurp all of them for my son's birthday party this summer. I think I'll stick with a minecraft cake, though.

Kara said...

My son wants to have a minecraft party in may and I had no idea how to make that happen!!After your blog I have more ideas...thank you for your creative ideas and for sharing!!

Nick said...

Hah, that's wondeful! The coal piñata is a stroke of genious!

I should do something akin for my birthday coming up; I may be turning 31, but my friends and I all love the game. I could make a mineable cake out of little cake cubes.

I've been wanting to pick up wood working as a hobby, now I'm tempted to make a crafting table crate.

bon said...

I am delighted to have been any help in all of y'all's party planning, that's a good potion of why I detailed the party so closely other than my usual cake pics (since that's my fav). As far as crafting a crafting table? VERY good idea!. I didn't mention... but the electrical tape stripped a bit of the finish off my table in little lines when we removed it! BAH! Good thing I am not too touchy about my 11 year old covered-in-marker-and-paint table!

Nse topper said...

Good post

Anonymous said...

My son loves this game and wants a minecraft cake for his 10th bday party. So I started looking and found ur site.You did a great job! I am going to try an make the cake. lol The party is in 6 days. I would love to suprise him with all the things you did but i just don't think I could pull it off in such lil time left. But I will copy your cake:) Thank you very much for the ideas!!

Anonymous said...

great cake and just at the right time... party this weekend!

annenahm said...

Hi chica, you are missed!

va drug rehab said...

There wont be any left overs if i attended. :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so very much for sharing the details of your daughter's birthday party. My son and I were so excited when we found this page! He's a huge fan of minecraft, and actually wants to have a Minecraft birthday party. That's when all started. Thanks to you, I made it through the planning process, and got wonderful ideas to grab from. You are an inspiring, generous lady!

MnKMama said...

Awesome! just went over all your ideas with my 8 yr old so he can have a minecraft pary in 2 weeks. wish me luck!! it will also be a sleepover with 8 boys :P

Anonymous said...

Thank u so much for posting! I'm planning a mindcraft party for our son:). How did u get the squares spray painted on the cake so perfectly? A stencil tool? Any help tips would be greatly appreciated regarding the amazing cake you created!

bon said...

Oh! Yeah... I left that out. I cut a few square and squares-combined-to-make an-"L"-shape out of cardstock with an xacto knife, and used that for a stencil on the cake. I varied how heavy a spay to get the pattern... and in a few places I overlapped where I sprayed in order to get the various levels of green.

Bethanie said...

Ah! You are my hero! My son (who is turning 12) wants a Minecraft party for HIS birthday and I didn't even know where to begin! Thank good ness for your post! Love it!!

-Bethanie

MnK mama said...

minecraft slumber party last night was a HUGE success! I didn't have much time to prepare but did do trees on the wall, crafting table, plus swords and pick axes. the kids embellished them with black and silver tape and aluminum foil. some combined their torches, swords and axes to make uber tools! we did not do a piñata but instead made a spider web on our whole back porch out of white yarn they had to crawl thru to get to the "coal" and "diamonds" (crumpled black and blue paper). Ended with the creeper cake- I used black sugar paper, green frosting and green spray and it turned out AWESOME. We only had 9 kids so I made it out of 2 sheet cakes. The legs and head were not as 3 dimensional but still impressive. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE IDEAS!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for documenting what you did -- my son is turning 9 and wants a minecraft party. I was in desperate need of ideas - yours are fabulous!

Anonymous said...

thanks so much for posting this, i LOVE it, my son wants a minecraft party and this was a great help to spark some ideas for things to do, awesome creative job!!!

kristimom4 said...

My son is turning 11 and is obsessed with the game and he was so excited when I showed him what you did. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to work with you him on this Minecraft birthday project!

Anonymous said...

I'm attempting your Minecraft cake today for my sons 11th birthday. It's going to be a surprise. He is completely obsessed with Minecraft. If it turns out 1/2 as awesome as yours...... I will be a happy Mom. He is going to LOVE it! Thanks for the idea!!

Anonymous said...

Whoa, i so applaud you for all this effort and research, clever lady!!!
Hope you don't mind if i steal some of your fab ideas, my son's 10th is coming up in June, and he is OBSESSED with it, I have some very good tips now, thanks so much!! xx
Gilly, bucks

Lori @ InDesign said...

Awesome Work! Thank you.
I've got my son's entire party planned from this one post.
...i dont understand the whole minecraft addiction, but there's no killing, so i'm good with it.

Anonymous said...

Amazing! Thanks for all the ideas!

Me and Jorge - Amber said...

Working on Minecraft party myself! Thanks for the ideas!

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much for sharing your ideas, my sons love minecraft and the younger one wanted a minecraft birthday party for his ninth birthday. Now we are all excited to plan the party together, using your great ideas! thanks!

Marilyn said...

When my 11 yr. old said he wanted a Minecraft party I had no idea what I'd do for it. Trust the internet (an you!) to have the answers. Thanks so much.

heidikins said...

You are a godsend!! My 9 year old announced last week he wanted a Minecraft party and I had no ideas - thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

My 6 year old wants a minecraft cake. Yours is amazing. I think we might just do the head since it is a small group. Great blog!!

Anonymous said...

I AM obsessed with Minecraft and wanna say, great job on the Bird-Day! You inpressed me with so much creativity, hope you can keep up the Good Work!

Anonymous said...

How did you play zombie tag? What were the rules?

benilhalk said...

These are outstanding little boy’s birthday party ideas! I am in love with the first one. My boy would love such a great outdoor party and thinking to host this party at one of our favorite venues in Chicago. Hopefully, will be able to plan things to perfection.