Part II

So if you missed last week’s post you should click here because in it I talk about all the set-up and preparation for our Robinson Crusoe birthday party. Today I’ll show you how the morning went! But before I do, here’s a fun fact: Robinson Crusoe was published 300 years ago; April 25, 1719 to be precise! Cool, eh?

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The Refreshments

Our party was at 10 a.m., in other words, tea time. So we began the party with tea, cupcakes and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

My niece made this little armada. Isn’t it sweet (pun intended)? And we broke out the three drink dispenser: 1. water with lemon and lime slices, 2. Iced tea with lemon slices and 3. lemonade with lemon and strawberry slices. (Party tip: have a permanent marker for guests to write their names on their cups. That way you won’t go through as many. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe we should be doing that for plates too. The little kids eat a couple bites, wander away, and no one knows to whom each plate belongs).

I also made these things:

We found this awesome pineapple parrot on Pinterest. You can go on my Robinson Crusoe Pinterest Board to find the video. It’s from lifeboostershop.com, but I couldn’t actually find the page on their website, just on Pinterest. I really tried hard NOT to make this, but my son was the one who found it and he was so excited about it that I just couldn’t say no. And it was surprisingly easy to do. We used a long nail to get the parrot to stick on the side. That was probably the hardest part.

This snake we found on Mercy Baby Shower Blog.

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The Things We Did

Reading the Story:

We started each activity by reading about it in the book.

Salvaging the Ship:

We read about the storm and the shipwreck, about Robinson salvaging the ship and building a shelter. Then the children went to their teams (see last week’s post for details) and when I said, “GO!” they all ran to the shipwreck to salvage whatever they could for their shelter and fire.

Building Shelters:

Then I gave them lots of time to build their shelter. This was also when they put on their shipwreck clothing.

One team wasn’t happy with what they had salvaged (in their defense they were a team of two compared to teams of 4 and 5 – with all the littles “team” was a very fluid concept) so I told them that they could barter and trade with other teams.

Two of the completed shelters:

The parents (very discretely) voted on which shelter they’d like to live on if they were shipwrecked.

Building a Fire:

My sister-in-law and I cleaned out our fire bowl the night before, so we all gathered round it and each team had a small section of it in which to build their fire. They could only build their fire from things that they had salvaged from the shipwreck, then I tried to light it. They could pick three spots on their set-up that I would try to light. The team that got the egg carton was the only team to have their fire catch (so they won that task), and even that couldn’t have been called a fire.

Sign the Sign:

In the book, Robinson carves a sign saying, “I came on shore here the 30th of September 1659.” So we read that section of the book and then all the kids signed a pieced of cardboard and I stapled it underneath the sign.

Make Hats:

We started a little bit late and everything was taking longer than I had planned so we ended up skipping out on making the hats, but if you want to make them you can find the tutorial here.

Search for Food:

We read in the book about how Robinson had to find food in order to eat. He found lots of fruit (especially grapes), birds’ eggs and he learned how to harvest grain. The corresponding activity was basically an Easter Egg Hunt, but with lots of fruit, 2 eggs each, and a bag of seaweed instead of chocolate eggs. I had numbered everything so each team knew what to collect. Every team got a big fruit, a small fruit, two eggs, a bag of seaweed and a bag of grapes. If someone brought something back that didn’t belong to their team they lost points (unless you were little). My sister-in-law hid it all in one section of our yard before the party started. We gathered the children together in that section of yard and then said, “1 – 2 – 3 – GO!” and they all took off looking for their food. The first team to collect all their food won. There were also bonus points for the team that found the bag of bannock mix. (Have I mentioned yet that there was no prize for the winning team? But they all played as if it were $100.)

I asked some parents to chop it all up so the kids could taste it.

We also let the kids taste the seaweed:

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Itinerary:

Here’s the order we did it all in:

• “Happy Birthday” and cake
• Read about the shipwreck, salvage, building a shelter and building a fire
• Salvage shipwreck
• Build a shelter
• Build a fire
• Read about the sign
• Sign the sign
• Read about Robinson making his clothing and hat
• Make hats
• Read about Robinson finding food
• Find Fruit, eggs, bannock and seaweed
• Chop up and eat the fruit (optional: cook the bannock. I was prepared to do this, but in the end we skipped it)
• Open presents, eat more fruit, drink more punch

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So that’s it! That was our Robinson Crusoe Birthday Party. It was so much fun. It allowed the kids quite a bit of time to just run around and do their thing. They all played with the shelters after the party was over too.

If you haven’t already, please check out part one of this post. It gives you tips on decorations and preparation, including invitations. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you liked it and that it has maybe inspired you!