Viking Birthday Party

What do Vikings like to do when someone turns 6? Throw a party, of course!

If you haven't looked for Viking birthday party supplies lately, you'd be surprised to learn that there just aren't any.  The trusty Internet also seems to have skipped the Viking theme as a viable party idea.  So, we were on our own when our youngest child announced that this year we would party like the Vikings.  Luckily, Lego and Playmobil toys make great party displays to set the mood.

For other decorations, we had to do some adapting.  Above, you'll see a Blues Clues banner that now sports a drawing of a Viking long ship taped over Blue's face.  (Making decorations provided the boys with a good outlet for the pre-party crazies.)

As you probably know, nothing beats brown paper lunch bags and some clip art when it comes to goody bags.  We stuck to candy, since clever-Viking-theme-goody-bag-junk just wasn't an option.

Our opening party activity is usually coloring, since kids can work on coloring while party guests arrive.  We found a few Viking coloring sheets online.

We made Viking shields ahead of time by cutting circles from card stock. 

Children picked a color for the shield and a color for the center circle. 

Using a Viking alphabet key, each boy found his name and glued it to his shield before decorating the shields.

When all the guests had arrived and were happily coloring and eating Viking food such as chicken nuggets and these long boat celery sticks,

we were visited by a friendly dragon who held a note in her mouth.  The note contained a quest for worthy Viking warriors and our party participants were excited to accept.

QUEST

Please help me! All of my baby dragon eggs have been stolen by a faraway kingdom. I need you to find them and save them.

For your quest, you will need

• A strong Viking hat

• A ship that can sail

• Skills to cross the rough seas

• Skills to defeat the castle of the kingdom

When you cross the rough seas and defeat the castle, you’ll surely find my eggs.

Thank you.

Be brave!

The first part of the quest involved our go-to party game, "Pin the ___ on the ___".  This time, it was "Pin the Viking helmet on the Viking", thanks to some great party props made by my oldest son.  This game never gets old.  Everyone was a winner and earned a fantastic Viking helmet.

To make ships that sail, we gave each boy a large square of aluminum foil, a skewer, and a square of paper.  The boys fashioned sails from the skewer and paper, and boats from the tin foil.  We tested each boat in a tub of water.  Admittedly, this would have been much more fun outside, but we had a rainy day and limited this part of the fun to our kitchen. Every boat was a success!

To "cross the rough seas" the boys had to make their way through an obstacle course my party helpers created in the basement.  Once again, this was intended as an outdoor party, but we made it work.  The kids had fun crawling through a tunnel, wading through a pool of stuffed animals, climbing over the couch, and shimmying under a blanket. Who wouldn't?

Now comes the part of the party in which a) the brave Vikings defeat the enemy castle, b) my older son revels in his love of catapults, and c) I find justification for the fact that I can't stop collecting wine corks.

I'm not sure why I never found this when I was a cub scout leader, but there is a wonderful tutorial online for making a simple catapult from a wire hanger.  We gave each boy a wire hanger, two rubber bands, and a plastic spoon.  With the help of my fantastic middle and high-school helpers, each boy made a catapult. 

We then shot spare corks at a castle made of corks.  (Had the weather cooperated, we would have shot ice cubes outside.)

Hidden in the castle was a note that directed us back upstairs to hunt for the hidden dragon eggs.

Once we found the eggs, we made a paper 3D dragon.  I found one online that I easily mimicked by drawing a dragon, drawing a simple wing shape, and printing both on card stock.  I cut them out ahead of time, slid the wings through a slit on the dragon shape, and the boys colored their 3D dragons, adding feathers or other decorations as they pleased. 

The dragons were fun for them to 'fly', by bouncing the wings up and down.

Finally, time for cake and opening presents!

I made the cake by inserting two chocolate covered bananas into a bundt cake.  The bundt cake was filled with a cupcake before icing.

(Yes, I removed the wrapper.)  I filled in the spaces with pieces from another cupcake.

For the family party that followed this kid-party, we enjoyed the remaining cupcakes, decorated with banana Runts and raspberry gum drops that my daughter fashioned into Viking hats. 

I am grateful to the college girl who works at the candy shop in our local mall.  She eagerly consulted with me about which candy combinations made the best Viking hat, saying that she appreciates a good challenge.