Help me! adult birthday party with 'childhood' as the theme

[darby24]

A fun post to get your mind off the state of the world. Please let your inner child come out! :-)

Think adult birthday party but with 'pin the tail on the donkey' and a piñata. That's what I'm going for here.

I'm working on my sister's birthday and have worked my way to this theme, if you could call it that. It started when we saw some Sesame Street napkins and she mentioned how her DS would love it and how she would think they would be neat at her birthday.

I'd love some ideas as there is plenty of people here who grew up in the 70's and early 80's. We're going for an adult meal, but with a candy bar :9 (licorice in glass flower vases, jelly beans in big glass containers, etc.) to go along with birthday cupcakes.

I've got a sesame street tablecloth and will buy some appropriate napkins (some kid theme). I saw and picked up the traditional pin the tail on the donkey game and have plans for buying (perhaps making) a piñata. Lots of balloons and streamers as well.

Any other ideas out there? 25 to 30 people, mainly adults, informal and I'm looking for this to be a party that everyone remembers as being fun with plenty of laughing.

of course this is a surprise, so I can't ask my sis what she'd like or what she remembers!


edit to add;
sorry, I just wanted to take my details off the top few lines, I don't want my sister coming across this! Oh and of course it's short notice, just a few days to get final preparations done.

[MarisaSF]

I think your ideas are great and are probably enough for a really fun party, but totally train of thought, thinking out loud here's what else I remember from childhood parties...

-musical chairs
-"dance party" or whatever that game is where you boogie-woogie and ya don't stop till the music stops and then whoever is still moving is out
-wrap gifts in the Sunday comics.
-goodie bags
-set up childhood pics of her or play old home movies?
-play kiddie music
-lip synching contest
-balloon animals, face painting
-hokey pokey

Of all that, I think this would be most fun and do-able: That game where you put a name on your back and you go around asking people "who am I?" yes-no questions. You can do it with retro stuff like Strawberry Shortcake, the Fonz, Mr. T, Mary Lou Retton, etc.

Can you ask the guests to dress retro? I'm thinking I'd hairspray out my wings. Or put on my winnie-the-pooh party dress. :)

Have fun! I bought my BF a grover cake for her bday last year. We brought it to a bar. Rock on.

[kijip]

I agree- you need goodie bags and musical chairs. Also maybe have everyone bring a phot of themselves as a tot and then everyone can guess who is who and the most correct answers wins a prize...like a Big Bird puppet!

Maybe decorate the cake or cupcakes with a Sesame Street theme.

I can send you some Sesame Street leftovers (a table cloth and whatnot) for free...just send me an email. We did Sesame Street for Toby's party, complete with a Big Bird cake a decorated.

[MarisaSF]

oooh- that photo game is a great idea! I actually did play that at a childhood party. We were in 6th grade and thought we were soooo old that we couldn't figure out who the "babies" were. Turned out to be pretty easy. :)

[trentsmom]

That sounds like a great party! How about some balloon games? I remember one where we had balloons tied to our ankles and had to step on other people's balloons while trying to keep our balloons from being stepped on.

How about an orange relay? (Don't know the real name of the game.) Two lines of people, the object is to pass an orange from person to person without using your arms. Reminds me of the movie Charade with Cary Grant trying to get the orange to or from an uncooperative woman beside him!

[August Mom]

Twister could be fun too. How about a game of Red Rover or Duck, Duck Goose? Do people bob for apples anymore? I remember doing that at parties in my childhood. You could play telephone. That always used to be a fun game.

You should have some Jello mold. Jello was really "in" then as I recall. (Or, you could do a Jello salad - Jello with veggies or fruit in it, put in a 9x13 pan and cut into squares).

For some reason, I was thinking about candy back then and several things came to mind - Bubble Yum, Wrigley's gum, those candy cigarettes and the ice cream cone candy (where it's mini cone with some sort of airy sugary concoction on top of the cone).

Also, we used to have farmers sodas - vanilla ice cream with red pop over it.

I'm sure it will be a fun party!

[August Mom]

I thought of 2 other things - Shrinky Dinks and the Easy Bake Oven. It would be fun to have little Easy Bake Oven cakes.

[darby24]

Thanks so much Marisa, Katie, Chantel and Chanda (it is Chanda, isn't it? I hope so!) What wonderful ideas! So many ideas, and so much food to drool about! :9

Now only if the party was three times as long! Here's hoping I get some people in a willing mood to participate. I want to play all the games mentioned, maybe I'll be the only one!

I'm a late planner, the party is today (Sunday). Just finished the cupcakes and am putting the piñata stuff together (all of which my nephew happily picked out.) :-)

Thanks again for all your ideas, I knew I could count on all of you!

[darby24]

Katie, thanks so much for the kind offer. Of course I'm a late planner since the party is today (Sunday)! Well, the party was planned, I just hadn't gotten down to these nitty gritty details.

Thanks again so much for the offer, it was very generous of you :-)