Piggy and Gerald Party

We are BIG fans of the Piggy and Gerald books by Mo Willems. For my sisters birthday we had a Piggy and Gerald Party using themes from some of the books.

COSTUME RELAY: In I've Been Invited to a Party! Gerald helps Piggy know how to best dress for the party. Will it be a costume party? A swim party? A fancy party? In the end it ends up being a mix of all the kids of parties and the guests are dressed accordingly. For our relay I had a cowboy vest, an inner tube, a cowboy hat, a swim mask/goggles, and silly shoes. We had two teams. On 'go' the first person on each team ran to their pile of clothes, put them on, yelled, "I know parties!" (a line from the book), took off the costume pieces, ran back to their team, and tagged the next person.

ELEPHANT TRUNKS: This was the favorite at the party! Family Fun magazine shared this idea and it really works! WAY love it! *We did it on the lawn and it did turn some of the grass yellow a day or two later - you may want to do it on gravel or cement. Family Fun calls it the 'Foamerator' - Here's the link: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/the-foamerator-785017/ There's a great video demo as well.

PIGGY NOSE PENNY DROP: Happy Pig Day! helps party goers be excited about being a pig. Here's a game that's super easy and done relay style. I took two egg cartons and glued round pieces of pink paper I had cut out on the bottom of each egg space. I then took a black sharpe marker and drew piggy eyes, noses, and mouths on each one. The object of the game is to have the egg carton with the most amount of piggy faces holding a penny. On 'go' the first person on each team (penny in hand) runs to the egg carton (on the ground) - the player must press the penny against his/her nose and drop the penny towards the egg carton (no bending knees or waist). They can straddle the egg carton of they wish. If the penny falls on the ground they can pick it up and try again. If it lands on a piggy that already has a penny, leave it and run back to tag the next person. If it lands on a piggy that didn't have a penny before - GREAT - that's a point for your team. You can time this game and see which team has the most pigs with pennies or wait until a team fills every piggy face.

FOOD IDEAS: In the Piggy and Gerald book There is a Bird on Your Head two birds build a nest on Gerald's head - a fun dessert would be a birds nest made using the Chocolate Haystacks recipe my sister-in-law shared with me:

Chocolate Haystacks
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 bag chocolate chips
Melt chips together then add
2 cups chow mien noodles
1 cup peanuts
1 cup marshmallows
Mix together and drop onto wax paper in small mounds. Using the back of a spoon press down in the middle to make it look like a nest. Let cool. Use jellybeans, marshmallows, or peanuts for eggs. *Make sure you check kids for peanut allergies before serving to friends!

Ice Cream Cones: In the Piggy and Gerald book Should I Share My Ice Cream? We have the perfect reason to serve ice cream to our guests. Be sure to use sugar cones!

OTHER PIGGY AND GERALD BOOKS TO GET YOUR CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING:
Elephants Cannot Dance - Dance Activity?
I Broke My Trunk - Toilet Paper wrapping activity or game?
We are in a Book! - Have kids write a book starring themselves.
Are You Ready to Play Outside? - Sprinkler games?
Pig's Make me Sneeze
Can I Play Too?
I Will Surprise My Friend
I am Going