Senior Basketball Night

We just celebrated Senior Night with the Canterbury basketball team this past Tuesday.  My son Chase is only a junior, but time seems to be flying by – next year it will be his big night!  Each year we honor our seniors prior to the start of the last home game.  The players and their families are individually announced and acknowledged as they walk through a giant balloon arch.  This year we had four senior players and one senior manager.  We created personalized standees and banners of each senior.   We ended up winning 58 to 49, not a huge margin, but a win’s a win – on to tournament play next week.  Canterbury teams love it when there is a “Moyle” on the team – more stuff. Good luck, Cavs!

  1. The balloon arch was created with blue and white latex 11” balloons, a roll of white curling ribbon, six balloon weights, a helium tank (provided and stored at the school) and three sets of hands.  The entire arch took about 30 minutes to complete.  Once the assembly line was established, we were flying.  We tied one end of the curling ribbon to the balloon weight and kept the remainder of the ribbon on the roll.  We couldn’t decide how big we wanted the arch.  One parent inflated the balloons, I tied the knot in the balloon (years of practice) and the third parent created an open knot/loop in the curling ribbon.  We pulled the knotted end of the balloon through the loop, pulled it tight and moved on to the next balloon.  We alternated blue and white, but any pattern could easily be established.  Because we were moving so quickly, we made a huge arch and had to add extra weights to each end.
  2. The standees were made by Shindigz with straight on, high resolution photos that we simply uploaded to Shindigz.com when ordering.  Fast and easy.
  3. The banners took a bit longer to prepare since we needed to collect a number of images per player to make a collage.  The printing was the fast part by Shindigz.
  4. We also offered “after the game” cookies for players and parents, flowers for the moms, a senior gift and a certificate of accomplishment.

Shindigz can help make your Senior Basketball Night a success, too! Join us on Facebook for a chance to win great party give aways every weekday!

Boys Birthday Parties and Movie Themes

Boys love movie nights and those deliciously fun parties that Mom or Dad create.  Jump into an adventure and plan your guy’s next b-day bonanza.  We’ve compiled a list of top, boys birthday party ideas for 2012.

Angry Birds Birthday Party for Boys

Invite the red, blue, and white birds to collide with the pigs at your son’s Angry Birds, boys birthday party.

Just about every retail store sells these cross plush toys .  Use them as decorations and as part of a dodge ball game.  Go nuts placing solid color Kit-N-Kaboodles and streamers in red, yellow, and green on your party’s tables.  Buy extra solid color dinner plates to create bird and pig faces with craft pom pomsgoogly eyes, and crafting feathers. At another craft station, leave birthday party dough in red, yellow, blue, and green to entertain your creative clutch.  Take a picture of your angry bird with his bird friends and create a personalized banner as a forever keepsake.

Hero Boys Birthday Party

He’s all action and he loves to save the day.  Give your guy and his buds their own hero status.  Ask them to come to the party dressed as their favorite career hero.  Honor those fire fighters, police men, soldiers, and astronauts.  Watch an episode of the 1970′s Emergency movie or series.  All six seasons are now on dvd and are still a find for elementary-aged, boys sleepover parties.

Bake a cake with your son the night before his party and enjoy decorating it with fire truck cake decorations.  This fire truck craft kit could be just what Mom needs to keep the party’s early birds busy as the budding heroes arrive.  Hang a police car piñata over your dance floor.  Start and stop the music or red police light when playing the “freeze” game.  Only the boy who freezes the fastest remains on the floor.  He wins first dibs at whacking the piñata.  Dress the tables with an American hero party pack and write thank you notes to actual soldiers, policemen, fire fighters, and others.  Place military shape bands in the soldiers’ letters and your guests’ favor bags.  Take pictures of the boys by a doctor photo stand in or a personalized jet standee, a personalized spaceship standee, a personalized space shuttle standee, and/or a personalized fire truck standee.

Spy Boys Birthday Parties

Drive your older boys to see Mission Impossible (rated PG-13) and get ready for fast action.

Afterward, direct the gang to a party room with pizza, snack, and cake tables slickly decorated with spy party supplies, black paper tablecovers, and silver plastic tableware .  Include baskets of fortune cookies or Tootsie Rolls.  Pull out Clue or another solve the mystery game.  Hang spy murals or spy personalized banners with special agent birthday messages.

If your agents are too young for Mission Impossible, a Phineas and Ferb pack will delight Disney fans ready for adventure.  Hold your very own secret agent Phineas and Ferb Wii tournament!

Boys Car Birthday Party

Push it into overdrive. Younger boys are sure to love Hot Wheels or Cars 2.  Bring out the red color scheme!

Set the scene with a Disney Cars 2 party pack, car spirit items, and a field trip to a car dealership, race track, and/ or repair shop.  Your party area comes to life with race car standees for the boys to drive in one of your homemade racing games.  Fill goodie bags and stock car pinata with boys party favors.

Throw a set of real keys to your older boys- or… maybe just the key tags.  Create personalized key tags.

Barrel of Monkeys Boys Birthday Party

Your little monkies are ideal for the monkey party pack! Usher the tail swingers to your favorite playground or bouncy house to burn off that excess monkey cake energy.    Decorate any party space with the monkey arch & tree and monkey piñata.  Then, play pin the tail on the monkey.  For a quiet break, slip in a Curious George dvd or take the boys to see Chimpanzee.

For your teen age primates, pop in King Kong or Planet of the Apes.  After ringing neighborhood door bells for a treasure hunt of monkey items- bananas, combs, yellow hat, etc send the boys home with monkey favor packs.

Wimpy Kid Boys Party

Greg and Rodrick rule and so does this boy favorite series.  As guests arrive, place the name of one of the Wimpy Kid characters on each boy’s back. Encourage them to mingle by asking each other about their characters.  The scene is set for a cartoon party in black and white.  Hang black and white balloons with red streamers.  Let the boys create a Wimpy kid cartoon storyboard and homemade movie together.  Keep your computer screens on these Wimpy kid games and serve plenty of chocolate ice cream.  Watch the Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2.

Fill miniature back packs with plenty of school-themed party favors.

Underwater Boys Birthday Party

Based on a true story, Big Miracle is the ideal boy’s birthday party theme for arctic buffs, swimmers, divers, and all around water and ice lovers.

These dazzling under the sea invitations welcome your boy’s deep sea adventurers to a magical birthday party.  “Believe in the power of one” or “We accomplish together” could be the messages on your ocean murals.  Turn your basement into an under the sea party that truly takes the boys to new depths of fun.  Ocean creatures, including whales, swim in the air as helium-filled, sea balloons. Place your whale-shaped cake in the middle of Bermuda blue tableware.  Say goodbye with mini fish bowls filled with ocean favors.

War Horse Boys Birthday Party

The soldiers of World War I fought for country with a cavalry of horses.  War Horse chronicles the devotion of a boy for his steed:

Invite your son’s best buds to see War Horse (rated PG 13) and then come home to a western party or head to a rescue horse stable for a tour.  Colorize your snack bar with green plastic tableware and serve soup in an old army pot.  For the taste of France, add grapes, cheese, and crackers.  You might even add a misty woods photo backdrop here and there. Place dollar party favors in a handkerchief to give to the boys at the party’s end with a galloping brown horse balloon.

What are your favorite boys birthday party ideas and movie themes?

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 15,316 other followers