We celebrated Will's ninth birthday Saturday with a kickin' ninja party. Will had been talking about having his party at Laser Quest, and I thought this might be the year that we move the parties away from our house -- but at the last minute, he decided he'd really like to have a ninja party at home. So a ninja party we had!
You might recognize the invitation from Henry's ninja party in March. The best thing about repeating a theme for a party is that most of the work is already done. We did tweak the activities quite a bit and this party was even better than the last.
Ninja invitation
Welcome sign
Birthday banner
The first activity was finding your ninja name, Will was "Meikitatakikarin" and Henry was "Rikutoshifu."
Gene is always such a sport to dress up and lead all our party activities. In his introduction, he told the boys that he was a lawyer by day and a fearless ninja warrior (Jikutoku) by night and that he would be leading them through ninja training. The boys had to learn six ninja virtues: patience, dexterity, focus, agility, logic and speed before taking on the final task of fighting the evil floating ninja head and earning their ninja swords.
To learn the ninja virtue patience, the boys worked on origami.
Next up, to work on dexterity, the boys had to find a ninja toy hidden in a bowl of popcorn and pull it out using chopsticks.
The focus challenge was knocking down paper tubes with rubber ninja stars.
The agility challenge was an obstacle course.
Ninja Will
Ninja Henry
They had to steal a cup from an unsuspecting citizen (our good friend Matt was perfect for the role!).
One of the hardest challenges was logic. The boys were given a code and had to crack it with no clues. I loved watching them run around the house, trying to find a clue. They considered a mirror image, a number code, and even using the ninja name chart as a decoder. Will suggested that it could be a shift code and then they took off from there, with one kid writing down the shift and the others helping figure out the code. It was a true team effort and it was fun to see their brains working.
The cracked code: "You are almost a real ninja."
The final outdoor challenge was speed.
The boys had to run from the back wall to the fence while four adults threw balls at them!
I love Will's face here!
The final test was defeating the giant evil floating ninja head (ie, pinata).
The boys did so well with all the challenges and they all had such a good time. After all their hard work, it was time for snacks. I didn't get a good picture of the snack table, but we had sushi (California rolls), edamame, ninja swords (large pretzel sticks), oranges, chips, and cupcakes.
The happy birthday boy.
I can't believe Henry stayed in costume the entire time. It was so hot!
Nine (almost)!
After cupcakes, the foam swords came out and there was a brief battle in the backyard before our friends departed. Will opened his gifts and got lots of cool games, building toys, experiments and more.
In the end, I am so glad we decided to have another party at home. Will's ninja party was awesome from start to finish!
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