Ninja Party

My two little ninjas, all decked out in their ninja headbands and ninja T-shirts, were so, so eager for their friends to arrive and for their birthday party to begin.

For the final 15 minutes or so until the first guest arrived, the boys took turns on "look-out" duty. One boy sat atop the bunk bed to watch the clock... 

while the other one watched out the front door. It was so precious seeing their anticipation!

Once the guests all arrived (finally!) and donned their ninja headbands, we sat down to figure out everyone's "ninja names" according to this fun worksheet. Some of the kids' new names sounded hilarious!

Then, the kids each decorated 3 paper ninja stars to be used for a later activity. Jason and I sure got to be pros at folding these things!

Once these projects were completed, we all headed outside to begin the kids' official ninja training. I told all the kids that they had just joined the Schleicher Ninja Training Academy and that all of the activities we would do that morning would focus on honing their ninja skills.

Our first game was Sensei Says (a ninja-version of Simon Says), led by Sensei Jason.

We moved the next game inside because of the breezy weather. For this activity, the ninjas-in-training all had to keep a balloon in the air by hitting it with their ninja (pool noodle) sword. Sensei Schleicher had the girls try this game first, then the boys...

...and finally everyone together. Each kid was SO focused on this activity and really got into it. They were quite proud of themselves when they met Sensei Schleicher's challenge of how many seconds they needed to keep the balloons up.

After these group games, we split the crew in half and did the next events in smaller groups. I took a small group upstairs for two activities. First, a ninja web! The kids had to climb through this string maze and touch five flags that were hanging around the room. Most kids stayed really close to the ground on this one.

Then, the kids took turns using their throwing stars to knock down a crew of evil ninjas.

Meanwhile, Sensei Jason was leading a special ninja obstacle course outside. Jason came up with such a nice variety of tasks for the ninjas-in-training to complete. These kiddos all worked so hard!

Jason's second activity was having the kids throw more hard-core (rubber) ninja stars at this foam target board. The ninja stars didn't really stick in the board like I hoped they would, but Jason improvised the score-keeping just fine.

After all that movement and time outside, we took a break for water and a story. Prior to the party, I let Jaden and Cody pick out which book they wanted me to read, and they chose one of their favorites, The Ninjabread Man. 

After I was done reading this book, I completely forgot about my next activity which was supposed to be playing hide-and-seek with the stuffed ninja dolls. Instead, I thought I was off on time and ended up just reading two more books (the Mobi Shinobi birthday books) to the group. No one complained about the extra storytime, and the additional down-time was probably appreciated by everyone, so it worked out just fine.

I figured that the final activity would be one of the boys' favorites-- a ninja battle! Before battling against each other, though, I had the kids practice their ninja moves by swatting at the balloons hung up all around the yard.

The kids took it upon themselves to destroy every single balloon, either by popping them or by knocking them out of the tree. When that job was done, I evenly distributed the swords so that we could have a Red vs. Blue ninja battle. 

The kids did fairly well at remembering my "no head shots" rule, but eventually of course the battle got a little wild. So, I suggested that we all attack Sensei Schleicher. What a good sport! :)

When we came back inside, I presented the kids with their certificates of completion from the Schleicher Ninja Academy.

These kids all worked up a big appetite for our pizza lunch (many thanks to Papa for ducking out of the party and picking up Little Caesars for us all!). Nearly every kid had at least two full slices of pizza.

We ended the party with birthday cake and ice cream...

and present-opening chaos!

I just loved the group of kids that joined us for this party. They were all such enthusiastic, willing participants in each of the activities. Even though I was hesitant about the ninja theme at the beginning, this party turned out to be my favorite one yet! The activities were perfect for my active boys. Most importantly, Cody and Jaden seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and their time with friends.

Happy 6th Birthday, Jaden and Cody. HI-YA! :)