Children Birthday Parties

Ben 10 is an animated children’s show on the Cartoon Network. Most children will be excited to attend a Ben 10 birthday party, and will particularly look forward to the birthday cake.

Though cakes have been part of celebrations for centuries, the confections are now as much a decorative element as balloons and streamers. The advent of the Wilton Method in the early 20th century, with its use of Wilton specialty cake pans and buttercream frosting, helped propel cake decorating into the mainstream. Today, making a creatively decorated birthday cake is within even a novice baker’s reach.

Shape
1. The two most common shapes for birthday cakes are round or rectangular. If you choose a round shape, you may want to decorate the cake to resemble the Omnitrix, which is the device that enables young Ben to transform into one of ten alien heroes each with his own super power. If you choose a rectangular sheet cake, try printing a Ben 10 image using edible ink cartridges and frosting sheets. Simply follow the printing instructions and place the printed frosting sheet onto your cake. The image will absorb into the frosting of your cake.

Frosting
2. You can also use frosting to create a Ben 10 look for your child’s birthday cake. This popular cartoon’s logo uses green, yellow, black and white, and you will find Ben 10 party supplies in these colors. Matching the frosting on the cake with other decorations will enhance your cake’s Ben 10 appeal. Try frosting the cake green and use black and white accent colors. If chocolate frosting is preferred, use green and white accent colors.

Cake Toppers
3. Another option for decorating any shape cake is using cake toppers. There are two options for cake toppers. You can purchase traditional Ben 10 cake toppers from your local bakery or party supply store or you can use actual toys. Select a 4-inch Ben action figure and 2 to 3 Ben 10 Alien Heroes to set atop your Ben 10 birthday cake. While selecting traditional cake toppers is less expensive, using real Ben 10 action figures as cake toppers is a fun way to present a gift to your child.

Celebrate your child’s upcoming birthday with a “Ben 10″-themed party. Set a fixed budget and use your imagination to incorporate the theme in every aspect of the party to give the birthday boy and his friends plenty of memories, such as “Ben 10″ decorations, “Ben 10″ party favors and a “Ben 10″ cake.

Invites
Purchase “Ben 10″ invitations from a store, or make them using yellow or green paper, appropriate stencils and stickers. Design a plain square or rectangular card filled with “Ben 10″ stickers, or stencil and cut out a Ben Tennyson figure on the selected colored paper.

Decorations
Select and use “Ben 10″ colors of yellow, green, black and white to dress up the venue. Bunch together yellow and green helium balloons, or use latex balloons pasted with “Ben 10″ stickers at the entrance. Wind streamers and ribbons in these colors around hedges, trees, pots or lamp posts lining the entryway. Paste different-sized pictures from “Ben 10″ on focal points to dress up bare walls.

Create an alien spaceship crash site near the entrance that can serve as the backdrop for pictures. Use a large, empty appliance box, brown paper bags, paint and tinfoil to re-create the site where Ben Tennyson found the Omnitrix. Create alien lava rocks by painting the paper bags green or yellow and placing each over a cushion.

Stencil or draw Ben Tennyson figures on yellow or green craft paper, and cut them out. Punch a hole near the top of each and string it to suspend it from the ceiling, door or window frame.

Activities
Hold the activities at different stations throughout the venue, with each supervised by an adult. Play episodes of “Ben 10″ through a projector directed on a flat wall. Record and play “Ben 10″ theme music for games including dancing statues, passing the parcel, and musical chairs. Give a “Ben 10″ gift to the winner of each game. Make a Ben Tennyson pinata with shredded newspapers, and fill it with candy and “Ben 10″ accessories.

Place on a table stacks of yellow and green craft paper, along with “Ben 10″ magazines, round-tipped scissors, colored markers or crayons, green and yellow ribbons, and stickers. Have an adult help the children make and decorate their own “Ben 10″ posters that they get to keep. Place plain round cookies in a basket along with green, yellow, white and black icing pens that each child uses to make an edible Omnitrix.

Simply purchasing decorations and games for a Ben 10 fan’s birthday party may seem easy, but it can be costly. Involve the guest of honor in creating a Ben 10 birthday that will bring lasting memories

Imagination
1. With younger guests, imagination is key. If all of the guests are Ben 10 fans, or even if they just watch the show, they know the importance of the Omnitrix. For those who don’t, the Omnitrix is Ben Tennyson’s special alien watch that gives him the ability to transform into an alien, in several different forms with different powers.

Have the guests make their own Omnitrix. Use black, gray and light green construction paper or foam paper (foam paper makes a better 3-D effect).

Use the paper to cut out the following pieces: For the band, use one long black strip with rounded ends, long enough to stretch around the wrists of the guests. Then cut out one black square, about 3-by-3 inches. One gray “X” shape, the same size as the black square. One black circle, to fit in the center of the “X”. One light green shape to fit on black circle.

Instruct guests to go from the bottom up, gluing the square to the strip, the “X” to the square, the circle to the “X” and the green shape to the circle. Use glue sticks for less mess and quick drying. Use different colors of paper if guests want to make their own version of the Omnitrix.

When all guests have created their Omnitrix, instruct them to each take on their own alien life form and super power and GO CRAZY! Create a “pretend” evil monster for the children to fight with their new gear and powers. If you want to make it a little more controlled (or to avoid fights), have the guests pick their alien life form from a bowl.

Snacks
2. When planning a Ben 10 birthday and thinking about snacks, the gooey-er and grosser, the better!

Green is always best when thinking alien goo. Snacks like lime gelatin, pistachio pudding and green punch are perfect. If punch is the route you’d like to go, any green juice or soda will work or 7Up with rainbow sherbert is best.

Keep an eye out for gelatin molds shaped like gross things. There are alien ones, brain ones and different gross molds that will make any “Ben 10″ fan happy.

A birthday cake is a must. Unless you have cake decorating skills, go with a grocery store cake. Grocery stores usually have popular characters to put a quick design on a cake, and won’t break the bank. Have the store mark the cake for cutting if you like.

Entertainment
3. Getting a DVD of a few “Ben 10″ episodes is a great way to wind the group down after loading them with sugar. Make sure to have plenty of pillows for everyone to lay down, relax and watch their favorite show.

Taking intermissions to talk about how “awesome” the show is would be great, or taking time to draw favorite parts of the show, or even what a new alien might look like works too.

Take suggestions from the audience, too. Which episodes could they watch a million times? Put those in, too.

Ben 10′s theme song could also make for a fun dance break for entertainment as well. The fans probably know all of the words already!

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