Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

by Michelle
(Ottawa, ON, Canada)

For my son's 5th birthday, he requested a TMNT birthday party. I really did not want a group of 5 year old boys going ninja in the house, so I had the party at a local Martial Arts Center, where they did an hour long karate lesson, showcased various demos by their senseis, had some play time for the kids, and provided a space to have cake and open gifts.
I designed the invitations and had them printed/mailed through Shutterfly.com on 5x7 folded greeting cards. As you can see in the image below, the front had a TMNT image and the inside read as follows:
"COWABUNGA DUDE!
Ninja Noah is 5 years old.
Come SHELLABRATE TMNT style with a hands on karate lesson.
Young ninjas should wear comfortable shells.
Supervision provided but masters are welcome to stay.
This party is going to be AWESOME, RADICAL, BODACIOUS and TOTALLY AWESOME dude!"

I had a very talented friend of mine make TMNT cupcakes; they were topped with images of the ninja turtles, pizzas, sewer tops and the number 5. She also made an individual cake in the shape of Leonardo's head for Noah to blow out, as well as cake pops with all the same designs as the cupcakes. They were gorgeous and delicious!
Her website is: http://www.cupcakefairy.ca/ottawa-cupcakes/

For loot, I designed pizza boxes instead of loot bags, and each box contained a "treat" pizza. This pizza was actually a 9x9 cookie, iced with red/yellow icing to resemble sauce and cheese, topped with various candies and then shaved white chocolate on top to look like shredded cheese. The pizza boxes are shown in the images below. The martial arts center gave each child their white belt as well as a voucher for a month of free karate classes on top of my loot; the kids got a good deal!

For decorations, I kept it simple. I am a big fan of balloons, so I purchased a couple helium tanks and filled the room with green, orange and blue balloons, as well as a few number 5 balloons. All the plates, cutlery and napkins matched those colours as well.

My son's surprise gift was a very cool new backpack that is actually a big turtle shell. I purchase the bag on etsy.com and it was a BIG hit. I would have loved one for myself back in my day :)

Overall it was a really fun party to plan and host. It was actually quite simple; having the MA center do most of the work the day of let me enjoy the party with my son. Nothing beats hearing your son say "Mommy, thank you for such a great party. Can I help you clean up?" :)