How to plan a Ben 10 birthday party

Are you like me and have a Ben 10-addicted child? What better way to make their birthday special than to throw them a Ben 10 themed birthday party. It needn't cost the earth or take a long time to organise.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Creativity
• Determination
• Patience
• Invitations
• Cake
• Decorations
• Supplies for games and crafts

1. A simple invitation doesn't need to cost the Earth Ben 10 party invitations can be found on the internet, but for the more creative parent, a cheaper and more personal invitation can be made by yourself using a paint package. It's helpful to chat to your child to find out which of Ben's transformations are his favourites.
2. Using cake toppers can save you money as well as allowing you to personalise your child's birthday cake. While bakeries and online stores, such as www.picturethatcake.com, sell ready made Ben 10 cakes, you could consider decorating yourself. I am by no means the best cake decorator, but found it useful using cake decorations (the Ben 10 Smashdown cake topper) which you can find on Ebay. Cupcake toppers are also available.
3. Ben 10's theme colours are greens and yellows, so if hosting the party at home or a hall, choose lots of balloons and streamers in those colours.
4. When planning food and snacks, you can give your offerings an alien twist using yellow and green food dyes. Offering drinks in test tubes and beakers (plastic, of course) gives the children a feeling of being in Ben's granddad's lab.
5. Children need activities to ensure they're amused at parties and I found one of the best Ben 10 tricks is to have a cookie decorating activity. Using round plain digestive cookies, offer the children the chance to make their own omnitrix cookies using black, green and white icing pens.
6. Download the Ben 10 theme tune off the internet and use it as your music for a game of musical chairs or musical statues. Ben 10 alien lava rocks are not too expensive and make a fantastic prize for the winner.
7. A treasure hunt for Ben 10 goodies deposited around the house will keep children amused for hours, well minutes. I planted coloured stones around the house which can be found at any crafts shop. The children were told that 'alien lava rocks' were hidden in the house and whichever child found the most would win a prize. I used a small Ben 10 figure costing $6.99 as the lucky child's reward.
8. So no child leaves empty handed, I bought a pack of Ben 10 Sumo Slammers, costing $8.99, and used them as part of a 'pass the parcel' game, again using the Ben 10 theme tune.
9. I'm not a great fan of party bags as I prefer the kids to be creative and take home something useful they've made. Pick up some plain white t-shirts and some black fabric pens and allow the kids to create their very own Ben 10 t-shirt. His white with black-striped shirt is easy for a child to design and decorate.
10. Try to enjoy the day and remind yourself when you're cleaning up that you won't have to do this again for another year!