Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

That one party every year that I am always the most excited about is Little B’s birthday party. It is almost my raison d’être for a quarter of a year.

The first thing to be decided for a birthday party is the theme. Theme is not essential for the party; however, I feel that it definitely makes the planning much easier. I want Little B birthday parties to look and feel different from her previous parties. Planning around a particular theme ensures that the party stays unique in this way.

We had The Cat in the Hat birthday party and a How to Train Your Dragon birthday party in previous years. After much consideration, the theme for this year birthday party was selected as “Rio.” It is one of Little B’s favorite movies, she loves the colorful melodious birds of the rainforest. Going to Amazon is on her bucket list (yeah, she has one!).

Rio is based around macaws. These birds are known for first, brilliant colors and second, vibrant plumage. I decided to stick to these two things for the birthday planning.

Invites for Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

Party invite was made by taking wallpaper from the movie and adding text over it using Picasa.

Door Sign for Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

The door sign was made using embroidery ring. I have started using embroidery hoops for many art and craft projects and I love them for the multiple things one can do from them.

This embroidery hoop was around 8 inched in diameter.  I painted the wooden ring yellow to start with. I cut macaw wings out of felt using the macaw pattern at the National Wildlife Federation’s website, you can find the patterns here.

The macaws thus made were stuck to the embroidery hoop. I also glued a couple of feathers to make the whole thing look a little ‘feathery.’

Badges for Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

I wanted each kid to have a macaw badge as they enter the party. I again used the macaw pattern above to make these badges. After preparing the paper part of the badge, a badge pin was glued at the back (I used silicon glue for sticking the metallic badge pin). Size of the badges can be adjusted as per the requirement.

Decoration for Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

Construction Paper Fans

To make this party decoration, choosing the right kind of paper is important. Thin paper might fold easily but won’t hold its shape; thick paper will hold the shape properly but won’t fold easily. The best is construction paper or scrapbooking paper which gives you sturdiness with ease of folding.

Just take three equal shaped rectangles of the paper. Fold each piece in the style of a fan or an accordion. Fold each fan in half gluing the ends in the middle together. Doing this would give you 3 wedge-shaped fans. Glue all three fans together to make a larger fan.

You can decorate the party place with these fans by making patterns out of the fans or by using them individually.

Rainforest Tree

I drew, cut and taped a bark made out of brown construction paper on the wall. Later inflated green balloons were added on top of the bark to give it a tree shape.

Macaw Cutouts and Candle Lanterns

Bigger size macaws cutouts were prepared using the pattern. I also had these hanging tea light holding lanterns that I had picked from a flea market in Goa. These matched the color scheme perfectly.

Food for Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

I wanted the food to be resemble bird food and so these were served –

Fruit Skewers

Twisted cheese sticks

Bird food (mixture of random finger foods like rice crisps, chocos, honey loops, small biscuits)

Bite-size club sandwich

Party Games for Rio Inspired Birthday Party for Kids

Bird Feather Head Band

I had cut a number of 1½ inches long stripes of construction paper beforehand. A head band was made by just bringing together and stapling the ends of the stripe according to the size of the child’s head. Children picked feathers according to their favorite colors. These feathers were also stapled to the headband.

Draw on Your Head Game

I found this game on Housing A Forest, just altered the game a little by guiding children to draw a bird and a tree instead of a snowman.

Musical Islands

The description for the game can be found here at Parents.com.

Post It Note Challenge

See the description at PagingFunMums.

Tissue Roll Bird Craft

We did this simple craft using toilet tissue roll, construction papers and feathers.

More pics from the day –

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