Planning a child’s birthday party can be overwhelming if you don’t have an exact plan of attack. All birthday parties take some advance planning, but throwing a theme party can be especially daunting when you need to make sure you pull it off with flying colors. SpongeBob is a huge favorite amongst most children and planning a SpongeBob themed party is a lot easier than you may think. I have some simple ideas to make this party a breeze. We can SpongeBob it up with very limited cost and effort and your child will be happy as a clam.
One of the first things that we all contemplate when it comes to a birthday party is the cake. It just seems so simple to run to the grocery store or bakery and order one. The cost to do this is usually outrageous though. Why bother with ordering a cake? Its just one more thing you have to pick up the day of the party and if you can find the time to make it yourself, it is super cost effective. As we all know, SpongeBob is a yellow sponge. He is also a rectangle. Buy a box cake mix in your child’s favorite flavor and simply bake a rectangle shape cake. After it has cooled you just turn it out on a platter and in minutes you will have SpongeBob. Take some white frosting, removing about a 1/2 cup for later use, and use some yellow food coloring to match the remaining to SpongeBob. After you have frosted the top 3/4 of the cake in yellow you will want to start on the 1/2 cup of frosting that you saved.
Take out a couple tablespoons and leave that white. This will be for his eyes, teeth, and shirt collar. Now take about a tablespoon and make that black with food coloring to do your outlines around the eyes, nose, mouth, and clothing. You will need about a tablespoon of blue frosting for the inside of the eyes and also a bit turned red for his tie and cheeks. Of course, do not forget to turn the rest brown for his pants. You could also use chocolate frosting on the bottom half of the cake for the chocolate lovers at the party. All of these measurements really depend on what picture you are using. I prefer a simple one with wide eyes and a smile with only the front teeth showing. It is all simple lines this way and is hard to mess up. After you have all your frosting colors made you will want to put them into frosting bags for piping, or my personal favorite, sandwich bags with the corners cut to the appropriate size for your lines. After you have piped your lines and you are looking down at SpongeBob you may want to add some divots to make it look more like a sponge. You can do this with the backside of a spoon. Just place it in the frosting and rock it back and forth a bit. It just creates a little texture for you.
Now that the cake is taken care of we need to think about the decorations. Since we all know that SpongeBob lives under water why not make it look the same way in your party room. Instead of the standard Happy Birthday banner why not cut out some things that give the impression of being under the sea and string them together for your own banner. I would suggest some simple starfish, seashells, clam shells, and seahorses. Once you have them hooked together you can leave them plain or you can write the standard happy birthday on them. Maybe add a little glitter for the real effect. Regardless, it is really cute and easy. Another decoration idea is to get your hands on anything nautical and just hang it and lay it out around the house. A net would be a great accent as well as a life ring or any other blow up beach toys. They all give the impression of the ocean, water, and the beach.
If you have decided to serve a meal as well as the cake, this can be fun. First thing I would do is take it easy on the plates and things. SpongeBob is full of simple colors so why not just follow that. I would suggest red paper plates, black plastic cutlery, blue napkins, and yellow plastic cups. Any variation of this would work great and goes right along with the color scheme. Now as far as the food goes, all kids want to eat real crabby patties. So some simple small burgers labeled as crabby patties would be all the rave. Put out a bowl of goldfish crackers to go with the patties and your all set.
Party favors are always a big hit at the little ones parties. One suggestion that is really cute is actual goldfish. Of course you need to check with all the parents first before you give their child a pet, but the kids would get a kick out of it. Another idea is to make some little baggies filled with SpongeBob related items. You can find these things all over. Pencils, erasers, key chains, candy, bubbles, small toys, and note pads are all great ideas.
All kids like to play party games at a birthday party. Instead of the traditional pin the tail on the donkey try a fun game of pin the teeth on SpongeBob. You may also want to have bobbing for sponges instead of bobbing for apples. You can also go ahead and download the theme music from the show for an exciting game of musical chairs. Simply taking your traditional party games and turning them into SpongeBob games will excite the kids and it will be something to talk about at school on Monday for sure. They will have a blast.
Remember when planning a birthday party you need to keep it as simple as possible. You are going to have a bunch of excited and sugar filled children and want it to be as smooth as it can be. If you try to complicate it with lots of games and glitz the kids will just be overstimulated and you have created more chaos than you need. Keeping it simple is the key to a good time and great memories.
