It’s My Party: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Planning a party is one of the parts of a parent’s job description that can be the most daunting. What’s age-appropriate? Where are the best places to consider as party venues in Huntsville and Madison County? How can you throw a good party and stay within your budget?

We plan on helping busy parents find the answers to those questions and more in our series, “It’s My Party”, where we invite real, local parents to share their great party planning experiences with other readers. Whether you’re faced with a birthday, baby shower, adoption, or christening, we hope we can make it easier for you! Our Birthday Party Planner should definitely be in your bookmarks bar – it puts ALL the local party resources here in town at your fingertips!

Do you want to participate and share your personal party experience with other Huntsville parents? Just fill out our secure submission form here.

Big thanks to RCM reader & writer, Heather P., for sharing her wonderful ideas!

The Party Basics

Age & Gender of the Child: Boy, age 5

Party Theme: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles birthday

Party Location & Facility Rental Costs: Alexander’s Martial Arts in Madison. Party cost for the facility use was $150.

# of Party Guests: 15

Invitations: Provided by Alexander’s Martial Arts

Cake, Food, & Decor

Pizza is included in the party package and is ordered from Marco’s Pizza–delicious! Juice boxes are also provided. We chose to order an extra supreme pizza for the adults to enjoy, since Alexander’s asks that each child be accompanied by an adult. The cake was delivered by Cakes By Veneranda, a local cake maker who has delicious cakes that looks amazing. We had enough food for the kids and adults to enjoy. And because the employees were so helpful, my husband and I were able to enjoy the party instead of worrying about serving food or cleaning up. We brought in some tea, water and lemonade for the adults and also some chips. Alexander’s provided all the paper goods and even a lighter for the candles. They had decorations hung also.

Guess what the birthday kid gets to do with their cake! Alexander’s provides a real samurai sword for them to cut their cake with! This was sooo neat and our son thought it was so cool. It also made for a great photo.

Games & Activities

Alexander’s had 3 employees who took care of set up, serving, and clean up and who also led the kids in games. Our favorite game was a form of dodge ball where the parents threw angry birds stuffed animals at the kids–everyone laughed and ran around and had fun! The birthday boy got to break a board, which was a big highlight too. They played several games, which filled out time with fun and no one got bored. And I have a feeling the kids either took a nap after the party or went to bed early that night!

One thing I’d like to stress about this party is that the activities are not all martial arts–we had some girls from my son’s class who didn’t attend, and I think it might have been because people may assume the kids will be doing karate the whole time. This isn’t the case–they also play fun games as a groups including a game where the parents get to throw foam squares at the kids while the kids try to dodge them–it was a hoot! And the parents enjoyed that as much as the kids; everyone was laughing.

Favors

Alexander’s provides good bags too! But we also chose to provide one of own. They had a table set up for them and our son had fun handing them out and thanking everyone.

Online resources you used to plan

None. Because Alexander’s handled just about EVERYTHING, we didn’t need to do much. If you’re looking for a place to have a birthday party that will require no work on your part, this is a great place! And the things that I did bring were my own choice and were extra additions.

I highly recommend Alexander’s as a birthday party place for boys and girls. The employees (two women and one man) were fantastic with the kids! And a big help to us!