Hobbit Party

Here's my promised Hobbit Party post. Pretty fitting since September 22nd is Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday!

 

In years past the kids and I have celebrated Harry Potter's birthday (see my post HERE for Harry Potter party ideas and printables). It was just a fun way to cure some boredom in the middle of the summer. Us Fransons can get a little geeky sometimes... ok all the time.  

 

Here we are at the Salt Lake City Comic Con a few weeks ago...

 

 

(Not LOTR, but Doctor Who...another Franson favorite)

 

I've always loved the Lord Of The Rings books. I first read them in high school, and when I met my husband and we were discussing books I recommended he give them a try. When he told me how awesome he thought they were I knew he was the man for me :)

 

This year I decided to skip Harry's party (we did still make a birthday cake for him) and throw a Hobbit party instead. We took the kids to see the movie when it came out last winter and they loved it. They came home and watched each of the LOTR DVDs. I was worried, they are pretty violent, but the boy was then inspired to read the books which made me very happy!

 

My favorite part of our party was my dinner table, which I actually thought resembled more of a dinner at Elrond's home in Rivendell or maybe Galadriel's meal by the river (oh jeez, I'm embarrassing myself with how nerdy I am!)

 



 

I created some invitations to give to the kids in the morning before we started our party day. Daddy was at work but he joined us later in the day. I took the wording for the invite from the contract the Dwarves gave Bilbo before they set off to reclaim their treasure from Smaug the dragon.

 

It reads...

"Thorin and Company to burglar [child's name], Greetings!

We accept your offer of personal assistance. We have proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await your respected person on [date of party] at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater at [time of party] sharp. Trusting that you will be punctual. Terms: cash on delivery. All traveling expenses guaranteed in any event. Funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises. We have the honor to remain yours deeply, Thorin and company

 

You can find some pretty cool, free Hobbit fonts HERE.

 

So for our first set of adventures we headed to the backyard for some games. I picked up these cute little dragons at the dollar store for prizes for the kids...

 "Part of your share of the Lonely Mountain treasure" You could also have some chocolate coins waiting for them. It was a super hot day so I didn't want a chocolate puddle on the table.

 

I found a LOTR map online and added some of our games for the fun of it with photoshop.

 



 

"Flight of the eagles" See how far you can jump off the swing set...

 

"Spider web rescue" 3 legged race, we pretended we were tied together with a spider's web....

 

and "barrel roll escape" we did summersaults across the lawn...

 

After playing outside for awhile on a very hot summer day we headed inside for a snack, lunch, and to watch the Hobbit movie. For lunch we had "second breakfast" ... Eggo waffles, and for a snack during the movies we had some Gollum's goodies gummy worms...

I actually wanted to attach gummy fish but couldn't find them at the store that day. Worms are yuckier anyway.

 



 

After the movie daddy came home from work and he got to join us for the rest of our party. My kids have recently taken to archery and so we created some quivers for our arrows from some mailing tubes and duct tape. We also learned how to write our names in Elvish (thank you internet) and added those to our quivers.

By this time I'm feeling a little burnt out so I hand the kids their next Hobbit snack, Bilbo's trail mix, and send them off with daddy to the field near our home for target practice and to defeat the dragon Smaug.

 



Bilbo's trail mix "It's a dangerous business going out your door. You step on the road, and if you don't keep your feet there's no knowing where you might be swept off to"

 



The kids on their quest to defeat the dragon. Bruce carried the heavy target for them.

 

 

 

While they were gone I started on a true Hobbit style dinner...

 

 

We had pot pies for our main course, sausage, cheese, apples, root beer and apple pie for desert. 

My picky eaters refused to eat the pot pies so they got fish sticks instead. Their loss.

 



 

After dinner and on their way to put on their pajamas they had one last task: to cross through to the other side of Shelob's Lair....

I pulled out the box of Halloween decorations and some yarn to create a super spooky hallway.

 



 

Before bed we had story time, like the elves do after dinner in the evenings. We read a picture book created from one of Bilbo's poems called Bilbo's song. After that we tucked the kids in bed a cleaned up a big mess from a fun day.

Today at dinnertime when I told the kids it was not only the first day of autumn but Frodo and Bilbo's birthday they were seriously disappointed we didn't do more to celebrate. One of the greatest things for me about being a parent is sharing the things I love with my children.