Groundhog Day Festivities

No matter your age, have a groundhog day party for some silly fun. If you would like to make predictions or watch coverage, this works well as a sleepover. Alter activities depending on the age of your group. 

Activities

Shadow Pictionary

Play this game at night with a flashlight and a blank wall. Divide into teams. Players alternate teams and take turns using their hands to make shapes or animals. Their teammates have to guess what they are making in thirty seconds. If they can't guess, the other team gets twenty seconds to try. Whoever gets it right gets a point; the team with the most points wins. 

Hooray, it's spring! Relay

Provide two coats, scarves, mittens, wooly socks and a hat for each team. Divide into two teams. One team member dresses in the gear. On the count of three, both team members undress as quickly as they can before passing the gear onto the next teammate, who must dress in all the clothes before then taking them off again and giving them to the next player. Coats must be buttoned/zippered, scarves must be tied (at the very least, looped over and under) and socks must fit (no "elf socks"). The winning team is the first to finish. 

The other players who aren't getting dressed should watch the other team member get dressed. If they are caught leaving something out or not putting something on all the way, the offending team incurs a 5-second penalty.  

Shadow Tag

Avoid making a shadow in this game! Turn out the lights (making sure the room isn't completely dark). Play some music, then have a dance party. Pick one person to use the flashlight. If it lands on you, you're out! 

Seasonal Silliness

Play games depending on what season you're hoping for. 

-Have a snowball fight with rolled up socks or cotton balls

-Have an Easter egg hunt, inside or out

Groundhog Day viewing

Older groups can watch the movie. Don't forget individual popcorn---whoever finds the groundhog burrowing at the bottom of their bucket gets a prize. 

Groundhog Day Dance

You'll be thinking it's definitely Groundhog Day with all the repeating you'll be doing. One person is the dancer and does a few moves. The next person imitates them. If they get it correct, the dancer adds another move. The first person to mess up, including the original dancer, is out. 

You can alter this game in several ways. For example, play verbally: "I'm going on a Groundhog Day picnic and bringing apples, bananas, and cupcakes" with the next player repeating and adding a word, etc. 

Phil's Predictions

COMING SOON Print out copies of this game and have guests make predictions. See who gets the most correct. 

Grounds/Hogs

COMING SOON Each answer has either the word "ground" or "hog" in it. Older groups might have fun with it if you divide the team into two, bring one person from each team up at a time, and have them race to be the first to say the answer. 

Raffle

In Pennsylvania, Gus is the second most famous groundhog, and is also the spokesperson for the lottery. When each guest arrives, they predict whether the groundhog will see his shadow or not (if this is a day party, ask guests to give you their answers beforehand). Guests who guess correctly are entered into a raffle. Set out a basket of scratch-off lottery tickets (if lots of those are too expensive, also add gold coins and a stuffed groundhog).  

Food

Phil's Hole Pflapjacks 
Make groundhog-size silver dollar pancakes and serve with pools of syrup. Or, use one larger pancake and two tiny ones to make a groundhog's head. Use chocolate chips and whipped cream for his cheeks and eyes.

Groundhog Cupcakes 
With frosting, place two candy eyes on one end of a Nutter Butter cookie. Use shoestring licorice for his mouth and decorator icing for two teeth. Nibble off the bottom of the cookie and place inside a cupcake---white frosted for snow and green frosted for spring.

Spring or Snow Sundaes

Allow guests to make their own.

Spring: chocolate ice cream topped with coconut colored green and Cadbury M&Ms to symbolize an early spring!

Winter: vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, white chocolate chips and/or crystal sprinkles

New Elf on the Shelf Goodies for 2021

Welp. This post partied a little too hard at the Christmas party. I think it may be drunk in a corner somewhere.

In the meantime, check out the Elf printables you're looking for at the link above. See ya there!

New Elf on the Shelf Goodies for 2020

This post is stuck quarantining in 2020. Will it ever come back?

Never fear, because the printouts have just moved. Click the Elf on the Shelf link above to visit (in the menu if you're on mobile)! See you there.

Blue's Clues Party Ideas

The reboot means its time for a party! Whether your child knows Steve, Joe, or Josh, this party is sure to suit them.

These ideas as well as borrowed recipes and resources for paw prints can be found on my Blues Clues Pinterest board.

Invitation

Super Party Planner Edition: Cut purple invitations in the shapes of mailboxes to look like Mailbox saying "Mail time!" Glue the open sides down except for one, which you will snip off of to create a mail slot. Include party details on an index card or other small card that fits into the side of the slot.

Not ambitious? Paste some pawprints onto a Word document to make stationery and write party details in Blues Clues font (this can be downloaded). 

Decorating

*Paint faces on salt and pepper shakers, shovels, pails, side tables, soap bars, and even your mailbox. Make sure they're in a prominent location. You might also paste a star onto a yellow ball like the one in Blue's yard and stick it on the front lawn.

*The adult host should wear stripes and khakis; or dress like the host their child is familiar with. 

*Find a dark shade and light shade of blue to use together for paper plates, napkins, streamers, and balloons.

Games

Before you begin anything, set up a video so you can sing and dance to the opening song.

*I think the best use of time is to play a game of Blues Clues by hiding pawprints in the vicinity of basic activities. Here are a few ideas that can be altered. This will dictate most of your activities if you choose to play.

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Food

*Make green punch to look like Steve's shirt (or blue to look like Josh's). Recipe on my board. Put out strawberry and dyed blue milk for Blue and Magenta Milks.

*Pawprint Birthday Cakes: Frost cupcakes with white icing. Draw a large circle in blue decorator icing near the bottom of the cupcake. Place 4 blue M&Ms around it to make a paw print. Or, make a large one-layer cake frosted blue with four blue cupcakes around it to make a pawprint. 

*Eat sugar cookies shaped like bones dipped in blue frosting.

Favors

Fill red pails (with faces painted on) with:

-blue candies

-striped socks

-bubbles 

-notebook

-crayons

-stickers

Before sending guests home, don't forget to play and sing the ending song!

Hogwarts Alumni Reunion

You don't have to be a kid to appreciate the spell cast by Harry Potter, so says a book review of the famous series. Conjure up an adult party that's just as fun. Picture this: it's ten years after your Hogwarts graduation, and the time is right for the class reunion.  

You can visit the full board here. It will have everything you need from tutorials to activities to invites and decorations. 

Invitations
Send everyone one of these scrolls. Fill out with party details, then tie up with red ribbon. If you give them in person, consider attaching a small stuffed owl.

Take note of the instruction for guests to bring chocolate coins as donation money- you'll need these later.

You might also instruct guests to come wearing their witchy best, or robes if you're having a Halloween party. 




Decorations
Near the entrance, set out a cauldron for guests to drop off their chocolate donation money. Attach this sign up top:

Paint paper towel rolls to look like candles and hang from ceiling.

Hang a picture of Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom. Use red soap to write on the mirror: The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Mudbloods beware!"

Play movie soundtracks in the background.

Set out candies below in decorative jars and print out food labels. Set out small votive tea candles around the table. Light plenty of real candles as well---witches don't traditionally use electricity.




Activities

Have everyone place their chocolate coins into a cauldron with a sign that says "Proceeds will be donated to S.P.E.W" and a picture of a house elf. At the end of the party, raffle it off.

Set out a cocktail or mocktail bar and have guests create their own potion tasting.

Find a picture of each guest and tape to paper or parchment. Have guests sign each other's "yearbook pages."

Have a Quidditch matchup. Split the group into equal teams. Each team should have a Keeper, Seeker, 1-2 Beaters, and equal numbers of Chasers.
Hang up three hoops from trees on either side of the space. The Chasers' goal is to score as many goals as possible by throwing the balls through the hoops while the Keepers guard them. A goal is worth ten points. Occasionally, a volunteer should toss black dodgeballs into the crowd; it will be the Beaters' job to get rid of them and stop them from hitting players (if a player is hit, a 10-second penalty is incurred).  Volunteers should also occasionally run into the playing field to give the "Seekers" an opportunity to catch them and end the game with 150 points. You can omit the Seekers if necessary. The player with the most points whenever the game ends wins.



Or...go to class if you do have younger guests!

Transfiguration- give everyone some clay. Guests have 15 seconds to transform it into different objects. Whoever has the best transfiguration that round gets a House Point. You could also provide costumes and have guests turn into a different witch or wizard or famous person for the day.

Herbology- Send guests on a scavenger hunt to find nature objects outside...whether you're using real names or magical names and have guests use their imagination. Winning team gets House Points.

Potions- Make ice cream in a baggie--a Cooldown Potion. Or make your own potions by filling jars with paint and glue. Cherry Wallis has great ideas for potions as seen here for Amortentia.

Charms- Make charm bracelets with the colors of your House.

Defense Against the Dark Arts- Recruit a volunteer to dress as people's worst fears. Guests should defeat it by shouting "Riddikulus!" Think of a way to make the boggart funnier. Guests will need to work together to hit it 20 times with dodgeballs. If you'd like, make the boggart work for it by announcing how you are making your fear funnier. The teammate to finish it off gets a House Point.

Care of Magical Creatures- Make your own bowtruckles. Give each guest a stick, googly eyes, and accessories.  Or, have a hippogriff race. One person from each team is the hippogriff and must get each blindfolded teammate safely through an obstacle course. They must give their partner instructions but touch should be limited. The first House team to get everyone back safely gets House Points.

Divination- Make Harry Potter themed cootie catchers. Or play a crystal ball game. Everyone writes an "yes/no/maybe" answer on a strip of paper. Choose one player to go into the center of the circle. They close their eyes and spin around three to five times. Every player in the circle draws a strip of paper. When the player stops spinning, they see who they are standing in front of and they read their strip of paper. There are multiple ways you could play question/answer games. Alter it as you'd like.

Professor Trelawney's Fortune Telling

As shown below, you may also have guests spill milk (or beads or sand) onto construction paper and find shapes to tell each other's fortunes.

Food

Set out the following magical items in decorative jars:
Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans- jelly beans
Muggle Munch- puppy chow with candy corn
Chocolate Cauldrons- truffles
Candied Worms- gummy worms
Drooble's Best Blowing Gum- bubble gum
Licorice Wands
Dementor Mix (Hershey's mini chocolates and kisses)




You could also include:
Pumpkin Pasties- Tastycake cupcakes work fine, especially the Halloween ones
Chocolate Frogs- melt candy in frog molds 
Magic Wands- pretzels dipped in chocolate with gold sugar sprinkles
Molly Weasley's Meat Pies 
Hagrid's Cake (dull pink frosting with green writing that says something misspelled like: Welkome Alumnaee)
Pumpkin Juice (could be orange soda or some other orange punch)--serve in goblets
Butterbeer

Food labels can be found here. Simply cut out the units as a whole after printing on cardstock and fold them over so they can stand.

New Elf on the Shelf Goodies for 2019

Ho ho ho OH NO! Santa's elves have really done it this time. They've broken the Internet. Way to go!

Actually, no. The Elf letters have just moved. Click the link on the top of the page to get to what you want! 

Christmas Charity Bash

Invites

Find a small box template online. Cut it out and copy it onto holiday card stock. Put it together and slide a small piece of paper with party details inside, along with a small chocolate or two. Use small ribbon to tie it together. Pop a miniature bow on top with a mini tag with the guest's name on it.



Decorations/Setup

Weeks before the party, search for a local charity that is looking for holiday gifts for children. There are often locations where you can "take a tag" and buy a gift for that child. Get one for each guest. If the gifts can be wrapped, this is a great excuse to have a party. In your invites, instruct guests to find a gift for the gender and age specified. If you can't find a charity that accepts wrapped gifts, invite guests to come and make gifts for family instead.

Set out a long table and chairs. Cover the table in a tacky Christmas-ey tablecloth or wrapping paper.

Wrap several large boxes in Christmas-ey paper, leaving them open. These can serve as garbage cans for extra wrapping paper.

Play your favorite Christmas movie in the background.



Activities

The primary goal of this event is to make gifts and to wrap gifts for those who need them.

Here are a couple of homemade gift ideas you can work on during this party. Be sure to set out enough materials for each craft project so that everyone can make one:

Decorate sugar cookies. Throw some batches into the oven and have each guest decorate a few.

Make cards for the charity recipients and for family. A few ideas:
-Use washi tape to create designs.
-Stamp designs into cards and color them in.
-Use 3-D sticky squares to cut out images and make them pop out from the scene.
-Cut cards into snowflake patterns.

These are all ideas; don't aim to try them all in one party!


Food

It will be easier to stay simple for this one.

Make sugar cookies as the party goes along and have guests decorate some.

Set out bowls of Christmas puppy chow.

Have a separate side table for Christmas waters and fruit punch.