My son Ben really loves the Sponge Bob Square Pants character, so when I suggested that we hold a Sponge Bob theme party for his 4th birthday he was absolutely overjoyed. We had loads of fun creating our own unique Sponge Bob invitations. I bought yellow sponges which I cut into thin square slices and glued to white pieces of card. We then scanned a picture of Sponge Bob from the internet and glued the pictures to the sponge.

On the day of the party we decorated the house and garden with big blue and white streamers, hung bunches of blue helium filled balloons from the ceiling and made colourful crabs, starfish, shells, octopus and fish from card board which we stuck on the walls and windows. We were fortunate to find an oversized cardboard box and decorated it like SpongeBob’s pineapple house using poster paints and crape paper..not forgetting to cut a door for the kids to crawl in and out of.

On the fence I made a large sign saying ‘This way to bikini bottom’ and when the children began to arrive I gave them Sponge bob colouring pages and crayons to get them in the party mood. Then we moved on to a number of other games and activities like Pin the pants on Sponge Bob as an alternative to pin the tail on the donkey.

There are literally dozens of games that can be played with cheaply bought blow up beach balls. We had the kids running races with the ball between their knees and seeing how long they could keep the ball in the air. The kids loved counting how many times the ball was in the air before falling to the floor. Everyone who knows SpongeBob knows that he loves bubbles. We had contests to see which kids could blow the biggest bubble, the one that lasted the longest etc.

A big hit was the Bikini Bottom Treasure Hunt. We buried small plastic toys is a small pool filled with sand .Each child took it in turns to search in the sand. You should have heard the squeals of delight every time each child found a toy.

We were lucky with the weather and were able to have a few outdoor activities. I built a pyramid tower of paper cups and the kids had to try to knock them down with small balls. Keeping with the Sponge Bob theme we made a small variation on traditional party food by serving ‘Krusty Krab’ food. We made hamburgers and chips and wrapped them in grease proof paper and wrote ‘Krabby Patties’ and ‘Krusty Krab’ Fries on labels. I bought Sponge Bob themed paper napkins, tablecloths, plates, cups and party bags from a local party supply shop.

After the food and games the kids sang Happy birthday and we lit the candles on the Sponge Bob Birthday cake made at a local cake shop The kids left with party bags filled with bubbles, sweets and a small plastic sea toy each.