Sonic X Birthday Party

For Crew’s 5th birthday, he wanted a Sonic X birthday party. I was hesitant because I knew nothing about Sonic X.  And for me to pull off a party, I have to be inspired.  As I tried to tell him I didn’t have any ideas, he said, “Just google it mom.”  Well,  I googled “Sonic X birthday party ideas” and wasn’t that excited about anything I found.   So I sucked it up, gave myself a pep talk, and decided to create my own party.  This post is for Crew’s posterity and the next mom that googles “Sonic X birthday party ideas”.  May this help you in your planning:

Research: Knowing the subject is important for inspiration.  So after grilling Crew with questions about Sonic, I watched some Sonic episodes and read up on the internet about who this dude was.  I  gathered Sonic liked to run fast, Dr. Eggman was his nemesis, and he was always trying to find emeralds and collect rings.

Invitation: The invitation is the guests first peek at the party.  It has to be cute. My SIL over at Lindsey Erickson Photography designed the invitations.  (She can do custom ones for you too!) Here is what she came up with:

Decorations: Every great party needs a color scheme and decor.  I went with royal blue, yellow and red to match Sonic X and all his buddies. Besides the traditional streamers and balloons, I hung pictures that Crew colored of all the Sonic characters along the banisters and windows using blue yarn and clothespins.

Extras: Little extras make a party. Crew wanted to be Sonic X so we dressed him in blue and did his hair in a mo-hawk and spray painted it blue.  I made name tags for all the guests with different characters’ names.  We referred to the kids all party as Sonic, Super Sonic, Shadow, Amy, Chris, Knuckles, and Tails.

Cake & Ice Cream: My talented neighbor, Amber, made the cake(s) for me.  (Crew actually wanted a Sonic cake two years in a row.)  We served Play-Doh/Superman ice cream which is yellow, red and blue.

Games: I set up the games like a video game.  They had to pass through 5 levels (5th birthday!) increasing in difficulty.

Level 1: Races- Since Sonic loves to run, we just ran a few races.

Level 2: Chaos Emerald Hunt-The guests had to find the 7 Chaos Emeralds.  I painted 7 rocks in 7 different colors and hid them around the yard.  Each kid was assigned his Chaos Emerald to find.

Level 3: Collect Rings- I guess Sonic is always trying to collect rings so I got some plastic rings at the party store.  Then I made an obstacle course where they collected rings as they completed tasks.

Level 4: Destroy Dr. Eggman- The kids threw water balloons at Dr. Eggman (hubby standing on a chair) and tried to hit him from behind a line.

Level 5:  Complete the Master Emerald-  Another theme throughout Sonic X  is to find parts of the Master Emerald and put it all together.  So I made a puzzle of the Master Emerald and hid each piece in a balloon.  Then the guests had to pop their balloons to find the pieces and put the puzzle together.

Goody Bag: Since Crew was obsessed with coloring at the time, I decided to make the goody bag reflect his interests.  I downloaded coloring pages from Sonic Style of several characters, printed them, and then bound them into a coloring book.  I had Crew color a cover and then I colored copied it for each book.  I put a box of crayons, Skittles (Chaos Emeralds) and a Ring Pop (Master Emerald) in a cellophane bag and tied it off with blue yarn.

My favorite part of this party was that Crew was involved in the planning.  He picked the theme, he painted rocks, he colored pages, and he helped me come up with the games.  It truly was his party and reflected his interests that year (Sonic and coloring).

Now, after typing this all up, I remember why I only do friend parties every other year.  Happy 6th Birthday, Crew!  I’m glad we  just went out to dinner and played mini golf this year.