a minecraft party. yes, minecraft.

i am a boy mom.

it's been that way for seven years now but i still feel like i am getting used to it.

i have a sister.  we didn't watch star wars.  i never pretended to shoot things.  i played with barbies instead of video games.

so in this boy world of creepers, endermen, steve and zombies, let's just say i'm still learning.

in the past we have paid to have the boys birthday parties somewhere else: little gym, a karate dojo, a a bowling alley.  it's awesome: i just buy a cake, some favors and show up with our credit card.  

this year, ben specifically requested that we have a minecraft party at HOME complete with a scavenger hunt.

after a mild panic attack, i started planning.

and when in doubt: pinterest.

pinterest is a godsend.  there are really good boy moms who have created minecraft pdfs and banners and games and decorations and activities all from the creative cells in their brains.  then they post these original (and awesome) ideas on their blogs, pin them on pinterest, and invite the world to use their ideas FOR FREE.  it's insane.

i want to hug these women.

so here is our minecraft party, planned completely from the ideas of other women around the country whom i have never met.

high fives!

chris painted some cardboard boxes to look like creepers and set them up in the yard for target practice. we set out ben's nerf guns and had the boys work on their target practice as everyone arrived.

the boys would shoot the creeper at one station, reload and pass the gun off to the next person.  then he could move on to the next station.  it worked out pretty well, although i did have to have a pow-wow with them to explain that they were not to a) pick up the creeper boxes and throw them at each other and b) shoot anything that breathes.  boys are wild, man.

we then divided into three teams.  led by an adult, they had 45 minutes to find as many items on their list as a team.  i got this idea from a blog, but had to customize our own list.  i found some free minecraft fonts that i will link at the bottom of this post.  the boys each took their goody bag with them to collect their items.  well, the scavenger hunt ended up being a foot race, so it took waaay less time than i planned and every team found every item.  because of this we had some time to kill later in the party.

once the boys returned from the hunt, we awarded the winners with torches (aka glow sticks from dollar tree).  then cake time!

after cake , we lined the boys up with their treat bags to take a whack at the tnt pinata (ordered on amazon).

at this point in the party, we had thirty minutes left and no more activities planned.  luckily i made some copies of a minecraft bingo game in case it rained, so we rocked that out for fifteen minutes or so.  we ended the party with some more target practice and/or a wicked game of duck-duck-goose rock-rock-diamond.  for favors, the boys had to make-their-own-goodie-bag by following directions and placing specific items (tnt, gold, diamonds and coloring pages) in their bags.  totally stole that idea, too!

this party was a blast and inexpensive.

below i will link everywhere i found the ideas for the party.

if you want to do this yourself, i'd be happy to send you my scavenger hunt list and my goodie bag list.

invitations- FREE

pinata- amazon

diamonds- amazon

gold bars- amazon (i have a million of these.  they accidentally sent me the wrong amount and now don't want them back.  so if you need some, let me know!)

coloring pages- FREE

banner- FREE

water wrappers- FREE

bingo- FREE

cake (so easy: cake mix, green icing and m&m's)

thank you cards- FREE

fonts- FREE

tablecloths, plates, napkins, pinata fillers and scavenger hunt prizes were all bought at dollar tree.

feel free to find me on pinterest where i pinned a million things on my board "minecraft party for ben".