Like many kids today, all Grant wanted for his birthday was a party centered around one of his favorite games — Minecraft. When you’ve got a party planner for a mom, especially one as talented as Juliet Boydstun, owner of the amazing party venue the COOP, sometimes other party ideas are just too good to pass up. Saved for his 10th birthday, this year was finally the year for his ‘Block Party’ Minecraft Birthday Madness and of course, it turned out awesome! Definitely worth the wait ;).

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Hand-made tissue fringe backdrop & crepe paper table runner + pixelated brick & tree centerpieces
• Grass block rice krispie treat sculpture & a diamond block cake & TNT block birthday cake
• Red Vine licorice TNT bundles & Creeper cookies + power up water bottles & grassy cupcakes
• Glow in the dark glasses & Minecraft masks + Creeper t-shirts & blocky sunglass party favors

PARTY DETAILS as told by Juliet…

My son Grant finally got his MINECRAFT birthday party!!! He has really been wanting one for a couple of years now and I finally caved. Minecraft has become such a phenomenon at his school that I just HAD to give in! Everyone loves it — boys and girls alike! But how to make a Minecraft Party look a bit more fabulous?

For me, it was all about the big elements in the main room. I hand made the MASSIVE crepe paper garlands that I used as the table runner. It looked so cool and fun and a bit unexpected. I used the same technique for the backdrop to the treat table. Those were made of tissue paper though — large scale tissue paper garlands that I arranged in sort of a green “blocks” arrangement as a nod to the blocks in Minecraft. Those two were a MAJOR labor or love, as was the Minecraft Blocks and Trees I used as the main table centerpiece. I did a lot of cutting paper that I printed with the Minecraft skins (cement block, grass block, bricks, etc.) to fit on square shipping boxes. I then glued the boxes into the shape of trees (with lots of comments from my peanut gallery at home!) and on the day arranged the cement and brick ones on the table.

You can get your Minecraft character made into an actual doll, so I had both of my boys characters made — those are the Minecraft guys on the blocks on the main table. I also purchased a couple of “Steve’s” and “Creepers” and scattered them about the party. I did wood slabs to hold up a lot of different candies that I had labeled according to the game, i.e Emeralds, Creeper boogers, Diamonds, etc. Kids always go crazy for some candy elements!

All of the guests also got T-shirts that I made with the Creeper face on them as well as “gamer” style shades. I LOVE LOVE LOVE when kids can’t wait to get their hands on the favors — just about every kid at the party had their shirt and shades on within the first few minutes of the party! I also did paper masks on each place setting of all different Minecraft characters that the kids wore at cake time.

Julie of Blue Cupcakes did the most amazing treats — the TNT and DIAMOND block cake were to die for! And then the Rice Krispie treat “Grass Block” was a personal favorite of mine (I LOVE a frosted rice krispie treat!) I actually barely got to see the awesome cookies, the kids ate them up so fast! I added dry ice to the Green Creeper juice for a fun effect — another big hit with the boys, especially! And because it’s the start of summer, we also had a shaved ice man at the party.

For the last 40 minutes of the party, we shut all the doors and killed the lights, passed out fun glow in the dark and light up accessories, and the kids LOVE LOVE LOVED it! It felt like a live action video game! It was so fun… and though it was a cheesy video game party, I think it looked pretty cool!