Celebrating a milestone with Madagascar 3!

Like a smack up side the head I realize that my sweet little “baby” has just finished his first year of school. In seemingly no time at all he has went from a shy, nervous toddler who was clinging to my leg & crying…. to this outgoing man of the world who doesn’t even allow me to walk him into the building! Look out first grade, because Aiden’s coming and he means business! But seriously, from start to finish Kindergarten has meant big changes for both of us. I was left floundering, trying to find something to do with all my spare time. (Thus Retro Mama was born!) We were both very sad to be separated but it was growth that we both needed.

Obviously I’m very proud of how well he’s done and so we decided to have an “End of School Party” with his best friend, Quinton. Luckily for me, Q’s Mom is one of my dearest friends. Around the same time as I was starting to plan his party I received an opportunity from Crowdtap* to host a Madagascar 3 party! What perfect timing!!

Last week I received my “Digital Party Kit”. Included was a movie poster, a recipe to make Marty’s Zebra Cake, printable masks, face paint instructions, a printable “Pin the Tail on Gloria”, print & cut decorations and a lot of fun Madagascar 3 activity pages. I used the kit & my imagination to make a great party!

To get the party started I called up Q’s Mom and said, “HEY! I’m going to throw a party…at your house…AND you’re invited!” She started laughing and said, “Sure whatever!” She has a very large yard with an awesome play set so the kids have more room outside to play. She & I decided on Sunday, May 21, 2012 at 1:00pm for our party.

SETTING THE STAGE:
We went with more of a Circus theme so most of our decorations were in bright red & yellow.
~For a snack I filled a large red & white bowl with popcorn. I also made a zebra stripe cake** (which turned out SO awesome) and decorated it with an icing “Circus Afro” that Marty the Zebra wears in the movie.

~I created “Madagascar Swag Bags” full of Madagascar & Circus themed items:

~I cut out small pictures of the circus animals from the movie, attached them to bright orange cardstock and made themed labels for the water bottles.

~Using the animal patterns from the digital party decoration kit, I made a garland from bright yellow card stock and cut out the word “Party” and attached it between the animal silhouettes. I then attached them to a bright red tablecloth.
~We used the “Pin the tail on Gloria” as a decoration and then later used it to play the game.
~We have the original Madagascar on DVD, so we had it playing as we started our party.



THE PARTY:
I’m not sure who liked the cake better, the kids or “Ahmi” (Q’s grandmother). Regardless, we were all excited! Despite our best efforts to maintain control, the boys sort of went their own direction. We got in a short game of “Pin the tail on Gloria” but it took a great deal of coaxing to get them to do it. (Apparently they had other plans…. for the party I planned?!?)
*Retro Mama Fact: There is one thing certain about little boys: they are kinetic…. always in motion and not always with direction or purpose. This fact is greatly accentuated after they’ve eaten cake and ginormous pixie sticks!

So, as I was saying despite our best efforts the boys just took the party over and did their own thing, running blindly on their sugar-high. Q has an awesome inflatable ball that is large enough to play in. (Think child-sized hamster ball.) They rolled around the yard in this ball for most of the afternoon. At one point they were both in the ball and had it jetting across the back yard. It’s amazing what a couple little boys can do when they cooperate with each other!

WRAP UP
Four hours later we finally convinced the boys that we had as much fun as we could possibly handle. Despite their resistance and with promises to take them to see Madagascar 3 in the theater, we shut down the party. My son prattled on about the party to his Dad all evening, detailing out every fun thing he did. That night after a long bath, my “Big 1^st Grader” was sound asleep within moments of being tucked in.

In my opinion? I would call this an epic success!

*Do you want to join Crowdtap, where brands collaborate with consumers? You get to influence top brands while receiving great opportunities such as hosting parties and sample shares. You can follow this link to get started! Happy Tapping! http://bit.ly/jfj6nJ

** Do you want to know how to make a zebra striped cake? It’s super easy! Grab your favorite white cake mix. Split the batter equally in two bowls. Add 3 TBS of cocoa powder to one of the bowls and mix well. Using a greased & floured round cake pan, add 3 heaping TBS of white batter to the center of the pan. Add 3 TBS of chocolate batter to the very center of the white batter. Keep repeating this pattern until you’ve used all your batter. The result will look like concentric circles. Carefully move your pan to the oven & bake! When you cut your cake the zebra layers will appear!