Only 8 Once: Webkinz v. Angry Birds, Plus Pastapalooza

Can’t resist the Angry Birds cake.

For my daughter’s 8th birthday, she couldn’t quite settle on a single theme. She’s currently fascinated by Webkinz (she and her brother have an embarrassing number in their collection) and Angry Birds.

They’re both games you can play online. But that’s pretty much where the similarities end. So melding the two into a party was a little bit of a challenge.

We opted to focus overall on Webkinz for evites, an activity and two games, but had an Angry Birds game and an Angry Birds activity worked in. Then, the big surprise, an Angry Birds cake that was practically playable.

The cake was the star of the party. I actually hated to have to cut into it. But I did, before the kids started to dig in on their own. As it was, I counted at least five spots where eager kids couldn’t resist swiping a fingerful of icing.

The cake, the creation of my good friend Jen, was a surprise to my daughter, and even to me. I’d seen some of the characters develop on Jen’s blog. But I had no idea she was going to recreate an actual game set. It was awesome. The look on my daughter’s face when she ran in to take a look was of amazement.

She was even more amazed later when she realized that Jen made all the birds and pigs out of edible gum paste. Jen warned that those pieces wouldn’t necessarily taste good. But that didn’t stop kids from biting down.

Highlights from the Webkinz/Angry Birds Pastapalooza:

Make Your Own Treat Bags

I made treat bags out of old t-shirts then the kids used fabric markers to decorate. Throughout the party, the kids “earned” the treats for their bags.

Draw Your Own Webkinz

We set up a table with templates for four Webkinz and let kids draw their own.

Evakinz Scavenger Hunt

Kids were given a list of eight Webkinz, each of which were hidden throughout the house. Once they completed the list, they were to turn it in for a lollipop.

Angry Birds Parachute Toss

The idea was to keep one of the Angry Birds in the air as long as possible. I think the record may have been three seconds. It wasn’t the best executed game. But the kids enjoyed being outside. My daughter didn’t much like this game and ended up absconding with the stuffed birds a couple of times.

Balloon Darts

This is a physical recreation of a game kids play online with Webkinz. In the real-life version, we used plastic-tipped darts. If a player popped a balloon, they could reach into a grab bag for a prize. No looking. If they didn’t like their prize, they could trade. Those who didn’t pop a balloon got a piece of candy for their effort.

The kids had a great time with this one. My daughter would have had more fun if she’d been able to pop a balloon. But one of her sweet friends kept playing until she won something for her.

Make Your Own Angry Birds

We set out a few core Angry Bird colors of polymer clay and let the kids fashion their own birds, pigs and other game pieces. I didn’t have time to bake them. And I’m glad. (Some of the figures were really thick so I had to bake them for an hour. Longer baking times mean more fumes.) Instead, I had each artist write their name on a piece of paper and place the figures on a tray. I baked them this morning and will distribute them this week.

This was my daughter’s favorite activity by far and seemed to be a party favorite.

Pastapalooza

My daughter’s favorite food is lasagna. She had a couple trays of it last year for her Garfield party and wanted it again this year. But she also wanted her guests to have spaghetti and meatballs, and the option of cheesy spaghetti (which is our version of mac-n-cheese with spaghetti noodles instead of elbow macaroni).

So her finished menu, in addition snacks on tables:

Lasagna; spaghetti with marinara sauce and meatballs (all separate to accommodate finicky eaters and vegetarians); cheesy spaghetti; bread; grapes; salad (which no one touched); and sliced heirloom tomatoes (which no one touched).

I agreed to the pastapalooza before I realized how distracting it would be mid-party to finish the pasta. Also, it was a challenge to serve all the kids on my own. I’m thankful Jen and Sim pitched in for that part too.

We had hoped all the kids could eat outside since the weather was perfect. But by mealtime, we had a sudden infestation of small flies outside. I have no idea where they came from but the kids were not going to eat outside, so we switched gears, quickly cleaned up the Angry Birds clay and they chowed down.

The Cake

The cake was fantastic. There’s little doubt Jen is actually a game fan because she had gamer attention to detail that had the kids oohing, ahhing and gasping as they examined the cake from every direction.

That was after they called out and laid claim to each birds, pig or element they wanted on their respective slices of cake.

Best part was that the cake wasn’t just for show. It tasted delish. Chocolate with chocolate frosting on about 3/4 of the cake and white cake with vanilla frosting on the stone mound where Pig King reigned (before he was eaten).

All around, it was a great party…or in my daughter’s words, “my best birthday ever.”