I had grand ideas of throwing Kendall a baseball 4th birthday since his obsession with the sport began last summer, but somewhere around January he was introduced to Power Rangers via the magical powers of Netflix.
Okay, first, I’m just going to answer the question you’re all asking. YES, Power Rangers are alive and well, and in their TWELFTH season, now acting as Samurais. I’m not sharing this to promote them, just as proof of their existence.
Being the fickle child he is, he quickly threw off his devotion to baseball and began karate chopping and spin kicking everything in the house, including his baby sister, which has made the last few months SUPER fun when it comes to discipline. But I tell myself this is better than swinging at things with a baseball bat?
“Momma, I’m going to have a Samurai birthday party!” he declared when I began to ask him how he’d like to celebrate. And so it was.
Mainly, because I knew my friend Mandy and her husband just bought and opened and Karate For Kids school nearby, and they so graciously allowed us to rent them out for a couple hours. It sounded like far less work than setting up something at the nearest baseball diamond. Nobody would be working that except me.
I hired my talented friend Charlotte from The Paper Cupcake to design the invites and printables for me. She did such a great job with Leyna’s party, I knew she’d come through again, and she certainly did!
From there, I ran with the colors that Charlotte used, and easily threw together the rest of the party. Seriously, my psychosis level for this one was at maybe a 2. Outsourcing FOR THE FREAKING WIN.
I wasn’t too terrible crafty. I printed and cut out a banner that Charlotte designed. I got inexpensive red, orange and yellow serving plates/bowls, napkins and paper plates at Walmart.
I took the liberty of going a little nuts with some fun Japanese snacks from the Asian Market, which made me long for my childhood, the 4.5 years I spent growing up in Hawaii. The spread included Hello Panda cookies, dried seaweed, Kaki pi crackers (rice crackers and peanuts). I also made “sushi” rolls with avocado&cream cheese and pb&J rolled in white bread and cut to sushi sized pieces.
I didn’t want to go overboard with the licensed character party ware, mainly because I like to use the leftovers for other parties throughout the year. But, I couldn’t pass up these Power Ranger juice boxes at Walmart that were actually on the lower end of the sugar scale.
The “cake” was a punch bowl full of mochi covered ice cream balls. Probably the best idea I’ve ever had. No cutting, no frosting, minimal mess, maximum yum and a bonus “unique” factor. I don’t think there was a single kid, young or old, who didn’t like them. I got these at the Asian market, too, but I’ve seen this exact brand at Trader Joes before.
The favors were boxes of candy “sushi” (inspired by this blog post) made from rice krispie treats, fruit leathers, Twizzlers, gummy worms and Swedish Fish. I bought the sushi boxes from the Kroger sushi counter, ordered some sushi grass from Amazon, and I used pink and green marshmallows to represent the ginger and wasabi. The boxes were topped with labels from The Paper Cupcake.
The party itself was amazing. Kendall got a special outfit to wear, the kids participated in a mini-class, and everyone was exhausted by the end of it.
Master Hornbuckle from Murphy ATA was a pro. It’s crazy to me that someone who could probably kill another man with his bare hands (not that he ever would!) can be so amazing with kids.
Meanwhile, I never broke a sweat, Scott got to chat it up with his dad friends, and Leyna had the pleasure of running as fast as her feet could take her back and forth across the mats the whole time.
Easiest. Party. Ever.
