“It’s time to get things started..”

“Muppets Most Wanted” will be opening in theatres on March 21st and my family couldn’t be more excited.  Add a hysterical group of Muppets to any birthday party and wouldn’t you be excited?

My son Gavin will be turning seven in April.  I can’t even believe it.  I know how cliché it is to say that, but it’s true.  When he chose a movie theatre birthday party with his classmates over our annual family birthday party the realization that he’s not my baby anymore smacked me straight across the face.   So with his decision made, Gavin and I did a bit of research to see what movies would be showing during his birthday month and what movie do you think he chose?  Well of course, “Muppets Most Wanted”!  The fact that Gavin picked this movie has made it easier to deal with the reality of my baby becoming a big boy.  Yes, it’s purely the distraction that his party will be Muppets themed.  I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about making a “few” Muppet-Inspired items for the party.  Seriously, who could blame me?  It’s the Muppets!  Needless to say, the planning is well underway.

Today I thought I’d share a few things that I’ve started to put together for his classmates’ “Thank you” bags.

Is it Kermit?  Or is it Constantine?  Hmmm…

This fly loving frog’s likeness could be transformed or disguised whatever way a little artist decides with the use of washable markers and then washed off whenever he wants to create again.  Or even better, if you have a dry erase marker kids could clean it off with a tissue.

Here’s how I made this simple craft.

The images above are of a  4″ x 6″  laminated photo of Kermit.  I found the Kermit image on the Disney Wiki site.  It’s perfect because he’s looking straight forward.  Then I saved it to my Pictures file, uploaded it into Publisher and sized it to 4″ x 6″.  After I printed it out on copy paper,  I cut it out and laminated it using the pouches you see in the photo below.  It couldn’t be more simple!   If you don’t want to use a laminating machine, contact paper can be used for the same effect.

 This “Disguising Kermit” card will be one of a few special Muppets related items that Gavin’s guests will find in their party bags.  I decided to use these adorable Muppets backpacks as party bags.  I found them at SUBWAY.  Each Subway Fresh Fit for Kids Meal comes with one of six fun Muppet style backpacks.  These are the three styles we chose for our party.  Subway has a wonderful Muppet campaign going on right now.  Have you seen the commercials?  Adorable!  You can visit Subway’s website for more Muppet fun.  Here’s a link to “Get Things Started!”

http://subwaykids.com/

 Each party bag will include a small tribute to several of our favorite Muppets.  Can you guess what item Fozzie would want us to include?  Yep, we’ve included one of those!

Look for more Muppet-Inspired fun this week on the blog!