How to Throw a Leap Year Birthday Party!

On Wednesday, February 29, 2012 the world will celebrate Leap Year - that special day that only comes around every four years.  If ever there was a reason to party - this is it!  How about organizing your event around a frog theme?  If you want to get a bit fancier expand your concept to include Kermit the Frog and friends or Disney's Princess and the Frog.

Invitations

Make DIY invitations by cutting card stock to create a frog shape, using your child's favorite story book or movie frog as a pattern.  Tuck in a few frog stickers in the invitation with the important "when and where" details.  Encourage all guests to come dressed in green.

Decorations

Green rules!  You'll find lots of choices for paper goods, decorations, and favors online or at your local party store to coordinate the frog theme!

Activities

You can't lose with bubbles for this party!  Or if you prefer an indoor activity, consider a frog building contest.  Spread a plastic table cloth, set out various bright colors of modeling dough.  Get your camera ready and watch the kids create real and not-so-real critters from the not-to-be eaten dough. For that added touch, award prizes for largest, smallest, most fearsome, most colorful, most realistic, etc.  Have take home containers ready for these works of art.  Chinese take-out containers are ready available at party supply stores and should do the trick nicely.

Games

Play pin the crown on the frog prince, of course.  On a sheet of poster board, draw your best frog.  Make enough crowns for each guest to have one.  Rules are those for pin the tale on the donkey.

Create a frog hunt for party goers using frog bean bags or small plastic or plush frogs.  Hide the frogs around for your guests to find.

Musical Lily Pads is played like musical chairs.  Tape large green paper circles on the floor.  When the music stops, guests will land on the next available "lily pad".

Pass the frog is played like Hot Potato.  Ribbit, Ribbit, Jump can be played like Duck, Duck, Goose.

If you want to add some physical activity to the party, try a potato sack race with frog-printed burlap sacks. Yes, indeed, you can actually buy such sacks online from Oriental Trading Company.  In-16/465  $4.25 each.

Crafts

Family Fun Magazine has a cute frog origami pattern on its website.  To copy the printable with full instructions, click here.  Be sure to have plenty of green origami paper on hand along with some markers to personalize these frog creations.







Eats

Serve grilled cheese sandwiches with green apple slices, celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter and tiny boxes of raisins.  Offer guests a green beverage of your choice - either a soft drink or juice.  Or if you would like to try something a little fancier, make key lime banana smoothies - For two servings, blend 1 container 99% fat free key lime pie yogurt; 1 ripe banana, sliced; 1/2 cup milk; 1 T lime juice; 1 t dry lemon-lime flavored soft drink mix; and , 1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt.  These smoothies are somewhat labor intensive to make for a crowd.  Perhaps you could designate one of the grown-ups as your chief smoothie chef.

Treats

Make these adorable frog cupcakes. Bake a batch of your favorite cupcakes, frost with blue frosting - add some blue food coloring to your favorite vanilla frosting recipe until you get the color you desire.  For googly eyes, cut green gum drops in half. Use just a tiny bit of the icing to attach white candy-coated centers to the eyes.  Use a black gel pen to add the pupils.  Enjoy!

Don't forget to get a few green gummy frogs for guests to snack on.

Favors

Buy some t-shirts and print iron-on transfers with your PC.  Give each guest a shirt that says, Where were you Leap Year 2012?

Or make Leap Year commemorative plates during the party.  Each guest will get to make and keep a plate.  The design is up to each child.  Parents might want to write the date around the edge.  The plate kits are available here.  After the party you will mail the completed plates to the company for finishing.  They will return a wonderful plate, that will last forever.  Only downside to this activity, is that you will have to distribute plates to all guests at a later date!