TMNT Birthday

Cowabunga! My oldest recently turned eleven and requested a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pizza party for his family and friends. Here is how we celebrated using simple supplies, little expense, and not much time (as his little sister’s birthday was just around the corner). I also made some printable crafts, photo props, banners, and food labels that are free to download below. Hoping these ideas and printables can be useful and fun for your ninja fans!

Decorations:

We stuffed the arms and legs of a TMNT costume with pool noodles and added a green balloon on top to create Leonardo doing the splits above our fireplace. My kids helps me to make the large scale ninja stars out of construction paper. They are simply paper pinwheels. I made a TMNT mask template (available below) and we used them to cover Halloween plastic pumpkin pails we had. They became used for party games later as well. Lastly I made some pizza shaped banners to complete the space. These were all very quick and inexpensive ways to help set the scene in our living room.

This pizza shaped banner that read “Welcome to the Mayhem!” was strung up over our sofa. I felt this greeting was very well suited for our family haha. Some scraps of red and white felt hot glued to a large green pillow became Raphael. I added a large triangular piece of yellow felt to another pillow to create a big slice of pizza. My kids helped me to create red pom poms out of yarn to make the textured pepperoni. We have made similar pom poms in the past to create poppies for Memorial Day.

Another pizza shaped banner was strung up in our kitchen featuring the turtles’ catchphrase Cowabunga! I really enjoy creating banners to coordinate with all my kids’ party themes. These decorations take little time and effort to put up but really make a big impact. The Cowabunga banner is available to download below. Personalized pizza banners are available here. More ninja stars out of construction paper and nunchucks made out of pool noodles were hung up as well.

Toy weapons (purchased in past years from the Dollar Tree) strung up with fishing wire helped to add some more ninja fun to our kitchen.

In the kids’ playroom, we created a large sewer scene out of cardboard boxes. These boxes were initially made into a large scale ice castle for little sister’s fourth birthday a week before. We turned the windows into sewer openings using poster board covered in black plastic tablecloth and added green tissue paper for mutant ooze. A few signs in a graffiti-like font were painted, cut, and taped up to help set the scene in the kids’ playroom. My kids have really enjoyed this space so much, we haven’t yet taken this down.

As my son’s birthday is close to Halloween, the theme he picks also becomes our Halloween theme. My kids have enjoyed the tradition of decorating a Halloween tree so we made these simple ornaments out of slices of wood, hot glued some yarn to the back, and strung them up.

Here is our Halloween tree with all the kids’ ornaments. A few more painted graffiti words and paper pinwheels (ninja stars) helped to further set the scene.

Here is a close up of their ornaments. The other ornaments were wooden ornaments purchased from the Dollar Tree that my kids really enjoyed decorating with acrylic paint, glitter, and Halloween confetti.

Over the cake table, we made a large skateboard out of cardboard, a red pool noodle, and some chopsticks. More large scale ninja stars in the Turtles’ colors were taped up as well.

I also added a banner to the other large wall of the same room and it just helped to complete the space.

I created these ninja party signs. They are available here. I printed them onto white cardstock and used double sided tape to adhere them to our doors and wall. I also slid some of the signs into these 8X10 plastic picture frames.

The kids helped me to paint a few large wooden cutouts. We have made numerous cutouts through the years. They are made out of 4X8 feet long panels of particle board. I projected images of Michelangelo and a New York City manhole cover and outlined them with a black Sharpie. My kids always enjoy painting them. They make wonderful photo props and my kids love posing around them.

Here is the birthday boy painting Michelangelo. He also painted the large New York City manhole cover below.

Here is little sister helping to paint a giant pumpkin that looks like Raphael. We ended up propping these cutouts in our front yard to decorate.

Here is the finished Raphael, greeting guests at the door.

Here is our youngest turtle assuming her ninja stance.

We also made some large pepperoni pizzas and slices.

I used my projector to create large sillhouettes of Raphael, Splinter, and Shredder to display in the windows of our home. They are made from just black poster board and yellow tissue paper and are a really simple and inexpensive way to decorate for Halloween as well. We actually had quite a few trick-or-treaters who told us our house was their favorite!

Party Activities:

I filled the bookshelves in the playroom with all of my son’s ninja books and turtle toys. I laid out a craft table with a few activities. For a group of eleven year old boys, we also brought out my son’s large bucket and cart of Legos.

I made these coloring pages for my son’s birthday. I create more coloring pages here. I really enjoy creating coloring pages for kids and have been blessed lately with so many different opportunities to do so.

We purchased these Turtles pop out coloring activity kits from the Dollar Tree. Each pack contained 10 pop out characters, 5 markers, and fifty stickers. For our large party, three packs were plenty. These packs would be great divided into favor bags as well.

I used my projector to make a few large coloring pages for the kids. The images I found were from a TMNT coloring play pack by Crayola.

Here is Donatello with his bo staff. I purchased these white poster boards inexpensively from Walmart and used some Command poster strips to secure them to the wall. This allowed me to make use of the empty wall space in our hallway for another easy to set up activity for the kids.

Little sister attacked this poster of Leonardo before the party started.

Here is Raphael with his sais. My youngest really focused on his mask.

Finally Michelangelo with his nunchucks. Some of my son’s younger guests may have not gotten all his colors right but they were so proud of their coloring and even signed their names on his poster.

Tattoos are always a hit with the kids. I couldn’t get TMNT temporary tattoos in time but was able to get these generic ninja tattoos from Amazon. They just needed to be separated and placed next to a party sign and pack of baby wipes for another easy to set up activity.

My son requested pizza party hats so I made this printable craft for the kids to cut, glue, measure and tape or staple together.

Here is our middle daughter who is a big fan of paper hats and wearable crafts in general.

I also created this printable TMNT toilet paper roll craft template for kids to cut, paste, and make their own TMNT puppets. My kids helped me to paint all our saved toilet paper rolls green in preparation for this activity. The template is free to download below for personal use.

This file is best printed out onto regular printer paper. The simple shapes are easy enough for the youngest guests to cut out. You can also use the file to cut and put into favor bags for party guests to take and make.

This craft has been a huge hit with my kids who have continued to make an army of them after school.

I made these printable TMNT masks and printed them onto sticker paper, turning my kids’ classic Twister game into another party themed activity.

The TMNT masks printable is available to download here.

The same masks attached to Halloween plastic buckets and my son’s toy ninja star became a quick to set up ninja star toss game.

The masks attached to two liter bottles of ginger ale became an easy themed ring toss.

We had a photo booth. I made some fun photo props that are available below.

We grabbed some of my son’s turtle masks as well as some of the paper pizza hats and turtle masks and this became another simple and fun activity.

We decorated ninja cookies. My kids helped me to make circle shaped sugar cookies using this recipe from Allrecipes. Decorating cookies is always a hit and setting up this activity was as simple as setting out green buttercream frosting, along with some paper plates, plastic knives, edible eyeballs, and strips of cut up fruit roll ups, and letting the kids just go to town.

We made this simple pinata together from our moving boxes. My son taped it up and painted the shell and the rest was covered in lime green tissue paper. My kids always enjoy helping me to make and fill these larger than life pinatas. As the cost of making these are minimal, we get to splurge on filling them. We filled ours with the birthday boy’s favorite chocolate treats as well as some sour candy for his sisters and friends.

My son requested to make slime as a party activity. We followed this recipe from the No Pressure Life to make a large batch of slime and divided them into these plastic jars. We then gave the kids a variety of acrylic paint as well as food coloring as options to add color to their slime. They just used popsicle sticks as well as painting knives to mix in their colors. This activity ended up being enjoyed by a wide age range.

As the weather was nice, we also filled up our water table. I purchased this bucket of little TMNT figures and added them along with green plastic Easter eggs (turtle eggs), star anise as ninja stars, tongs, chopsticks, and scoopers to create a simple invitation to play for kids. This was intended to keep my youngest busy so she wouldn’t keep chasing the birthday boy and his friends with her toy Minnie but it ended up being played by all. Some kids just used the table as a water gun refilling station. Others dunked their figures in their slime, then washed them out here. My mission was accomplished however and this did keep my youngest two from going too crazy. Something about pouring and scooping always helps to add a bit of calm for them.

The kids painted ninja stars. This activity was also my son’s idea. I hot glued some popsicle sticks together using a snowflake template I made here and thought it might be fun for the kids to make yarn wrapped turtles with them. My son, however decided they were better suited to paint as ninja stars. This easy self explanatory activity was also a hit with kids of all ages who came.

Lastly, we made air popped popcorn and settled down to watch the new TMNT movie. Our family loved it so much that we actually went twice to see it when it was in the theater!

Food:

We served a lot of kid friendly homemade food as well as the Turtles’ favorite… pizza! My son loves stuffed crust cheese pizza from Papa John’s so that is what we ordered.

I made these ninja food tents that are free to download. My kids always enjoy helping me to come up with fun names for everything to coordinate with our party theme. This file is best printed out in landscape orientation onto white cardstock, cut in the middle and folded to create these food tents. Custom food tents are available here.

I thought it would be fun to serve a lime sherbet punch and call it sewer ooze but my son requested root beer floats instead. This is by far the easiest way to serve root beer floats for a party. My son and his grandpa added two gallons of vanilla ice cream and three 2L bottles of root beer. We only needed to add one more 2L of root beer to this container during the party. I really love this because it is very hands off for me and kids really enjoy serving themselves. To keep with the theme, we called it Raphael’s root beer float and glued his mask from the toilet paper roll craft to some of the cups.

Here is the birthday boy with his grandpa helping to make the root beer floats prior to guests arriving.

We made these Vietnamese egg rolls and called them Donatello’s Bo Staff.

I made a simple wonton soup using just chicken broth, sliced carrots, bok choy, and this package of wontons from Costco. A splash of Maggi helped to add a bit of depth of flavor.

My son requested sushi and his favorite is just a simple California roll. As a big part of our party budget was spent on pizza already, we opted to make this ourselves. This was really fun and easy to make with the kids. We followed this recipe from Gimme Some Oven to make the sushi rice using our rice cooker and added imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber. We made a big tray the night before and just pulled them out to serve on party day.

We also made candy sushi. It’s basically Rice Krispies Treats cut up into little squares with a Swedish fish and thin slices of green fruit roll up on top. I found this idea on Pinterest years ago when my son had a Ninjago themed sixth birthday and it was a hit then too.

Here is my mom, cousin John, and oldest daughter all working together to make the candy sushi. The kids loved them so much. There was zero leftover after the party. I am so thankful for my mom and cousin who came early to help with last minute party prep! As an aside the large nunchuck on the wall made out of a simple paper chain and pool noodles was a really easy and quick decoration that helped to add some more ninja fun to our space.

We love setting up hot cocoa bars for all of our fall and winter gatherings. We used this recipe from Wishes and Dishes and provided a few simple toppings like chocolate chips, marshmallows, and cookie straws. We also made these TMNT cake pops dipping them in white chocolate tinted with green icing gel, decorating them with strips of fruit roll ups and candy eyes.

I pulled out all of my green tableware. A wonderful friend brought these Kung Fu tea bags back for me when she visited Taiwan. I detached the tea bags and taped the tops to cut up paper straws to make some quick and easy themed cheese and cracker plates. The gorgeous glass plates were made by Pacific Northwest artist Terri Shinners from Glass Fusing with Friends.

I used this recipe to make a WASC cake. My oldest daughter helped me to frost it with vanilla buttercream (tinted with a little black gel food coloring). We melted white chocolate and added a little green food coloring to it as the ooze. Finally, a border of white chocolate covered cake balls helped to finish the cake. My son also requested pumpkin pie, one of his favorite fall desserts! We just purchased the large pies from Costco.

Here is my oldest daughter helping to decorate her big brother’s cake.

Here is the finished cake that totally looks unprofessional and homemade but was delicious!

I used this recipe to make the delicious chocolate cupcakes. Everything was covered in this vanilla buttercream frosting from Two Sisters Crafting. I made the turtle shell cupcake toppers and printed them onto cardstock, punching them out with my two inch circle punch and adhering them to toothpicks. The toppers look great on water bottles as well.

Favors:

Guests received a bag filled with goodies.

I purchased plain white bags from Amazon. This pack of bags last me a whole year and is enough for all four of my kids’ parties. I made these simple bag labels featuring an image of Shredder that my son found online. We included ninja wall crawler figures from the Dollar Tree, tattoos, panda cookie treat, and lychee jelly with each one. Guests also filled their bags with crafts they made as well as treats from the pinata.

Here is the birthday boy opening presents with his sisters! My greatest joy in creating these parties for my children is seeing all their excitement and happiness. I grew up in the TMNT era and it is really neat seeing how my kids are now enjoying them too.

I also really enjoy seeing my kids make things for each other. It makes my heart so happy!

I create more printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.

To see my other kids’ parties click here.

If you use these printables or party ideas, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.

I hope this post helps you to create something simple, inexpensive, and fun to help celebrate your turtle or ninja fan!