whee!!! wii party with two dozen kids
A recent conversation with my oldest son:
Me: “What do you want for your birthday party this year? How about the science museum?”
My son: “Hmmm. Maybe.”
My son: “Yeah, bowling. No. I don’t know. Wait! I know, I know. Wii bowling. I want to have a Wii party.”
Me: “A Wii party. Huh. Okay, so we could have a few of your buddies over and play Wii and eat cake. Sounds great.”
At this point I am getting excited about this low-cost, low-impact idea. Why with only a few kids coming over, I might even attempt the Martha Stewart Wii cake. Nah. Get real. Who has time for the Martha Stewart cake? Still, I am daydreaming about it when his next sentence snaps my head back.
My son: “Yeah, and we need to invite my WHOLE CLASS. And Will. And David. And Caleb. And…”
Huh is right. There are 23 kids in my son’s kindergarten class, not to mention the other friends he wanted to tack on. We have one Wii and one TV. After a few days of panic, many Web searches and mommy-friend conversations, here’s what we did to do the party and still try to keep it low-cost and low-impact.
1) borrowed a Wii from a friend and a projector from work to set up two Wii stations on opposite ends of our family room — do not be fooled, setting up Wii with a projector is not easy because of where you need to place the sensor etc. eHow has some great tips.
2) made name tags for everyone that went around their necks so we would know everyone’s name and so we could track of how many turns everyone had.
3) Evite for the invites because it was cheaper, greener and easier.
3) did a “make a Mii” craft table for kids not interested in Wii (as part of playing Wii you make an avatar-like character called a Mii). we cut out a bunch of construction paper in the shape of a Mii, and put out glitter, glue, stickers, etc. This is where most of the girls hung out the entire party and they made some amazing Miis. I was inspired to do this craft by Treasure Box Parties who actually makes Mii dolls if you want to go all out.
4) had a baseball and soccer pinata in the backyard to get them away from the screens for awhile
5) did not make the martha cake. instead bought a Cars cake because that’s what my son requested (and it was easier, of coursel). I saw some amazing Wii cupcakes — maybe next time. Also, we just set out a variety of kid-friendly snacks, including vegetables (which some kids actually ate) and water bottles with everyone’s name on them.
6) gave away books instead of trinket-filled goodie bags so the parents would know that I was still a good mommie even though I condone video games
It was our best kid party ever.