Ninja Sleepover Party - Lego Ninjago themed

For his 8th birthday, my son wanted a ninja themed sleepover with his 3 best friends. I was torn on this one. My husband and I are not fans of ‘play violence’ and do not buy toy weapons for our children. Whilst I obviously do not see ninjas as a good role model for my son I know his interest in them comes purely from Lego Ninjago, which has never given me any concerns when I have watched the film or programme with the kids. 

Seeing both Ollie & Phoebe improving over time in following Lego kit instructions, to the point where they’re assembling sets aimed at age ranges older than their years without any help, and the subsequent hours of imaginative play they have enjoyed from them, I decided that I was okay with the theme as long as it was done in a way that didn't involve any play fighting. Although there were ‘ninja weapons’ involved in the activities, the children didn’t ‘use them’ on each other, even in a playful way - we emphasised to all the children at the start of the party that true ninjas must work together as a team and support their team-mates. The party was all about crafts, fun challenges and supporting each other.

My daughter and her friend joined in until bedtime so there was 6 children aged 4 to 8.

   

The sleepover was after school on a Friday. Fellow mum Esther and I picked them up from school and my hubby Edd, AKA The Rainbow Master, greeted them on the doorstep. The children were advised by The Rainbow Master that they would have to complete seven tasks and would get a stripe of the rainbow on their white belt for each one successfully completed. If they completed them all, they would become a Rainbow Ninja themselves. 

For the belts I bought a meter of white fabric from a market for less than a fiver. I cut it into strips which I folded in half and stuck together by ironing them with wonder-web. With a black fabric pen I drew 7 sections on the belts prior to the party and then coloured in the 7 sections as they completed the tasks. Here are the seven challenges:-

Red - Laser maze

The first challenge was to enter the house! I bought some red elasticated string from eBay for £2 and we stuck it across the hallway using white-tac to create ‘laser beams’. They had to prove their ninja stealth by crawling and climbing through the beams in order to obtain their red stripe.

We then had a quick after-school snack - edible nunchucks! I fastened two chocolate finger biscuits together by sticking a strawberry lace to them with a strip of ready-roll icing. The trainee ninjas were then ready to make ‘real’ ones!

      

Orange - Make your own nunchucks

I bought a couple of hollow pool noodles from eBay and cut them into equal chunks. The children could choose red or purple nunchucks or one of each colour. I helped them to join their two pieces of noodle together with a piece of string. We threaded the string through one end of the noodle using a plastic needle from a child’s threading toy and then knotted it. They then decorated the nunchucks using various colours of insulation tape and stickers.

   

Yellow - nunchuck training

Once they had completed their nunchucks they went into the garden in pairs for nunchuck training (I thought if everyone went together it would get a bit chaotic, especially as we have a very small garden!) I turned on our bubble machine and they had to try and burst the bubbles by swinging around their nunchucks! No hitting each other allowed! The other ninjas cheered them on whilst they awaited their turn.

   

Green - Make your own ninja throwing stars

There are lots of YouTube videos showing you how to make an origami throwing star. I practised a few times so I could talk them through how to make them. This also meant that I had some ready-made so they could see what they should look like. You use two pieces of paper to make them so I did some with two different colours and also did some different sizes. 

As I knew some of them may find it a bit tricky to make them, especially the younger two, and that they wouldn’t work if they weren’t folded in half precisely, I pre-cut the paper into square sheets (various colours and sizes) and pre-folded the first three stages then reopened them so that they had a guiding line on their sheets to follow. Once they had made their stars they decorated them with felt tip pens. With their completed throwing stars ready for action, we then took them up to the kid’s bedroom where I had set up three targets - Lego ninjago figures on the cabin bed stairs to knock off, a bean bag throwing game with five holes to aim for and an empty chocolate tub to throw them into. They split into pairs and worked their way around the three targets, having a few minutes on each.

Blue - chopstick challenge

Back downstairs, I had set up three stations on the dining table, each with a pair of chopsticks, one empty bowl and one bowl with mini marshmallows. The children had to work in pairs, holding one chopstick each to transport the marshmallows from one bowl to the other. I used bigger marshmallows for my daughter and her friend to make it a bit easier for them, being three years younger. The children used their ninja stealth skills to make the marshmallows disappear after they’d completed the challenge!😉

   

Indigo - Sword Skills

My kids already had a plastic ninja sword each which they’d bought themselves with some holiday money (under the strict proviso that the first time they used them on a person they would go in the bin!!) I have since seen them in pound shops so you should be able to pick them up cheaply for this game. I printed off some Lego Ninjago eyes and stuck them onto balloons. Again working in pairs with the others cheering them on, they took it in turns to keep a ninja balloon in the air by playing keepy-uppy on their sword. After they’d managed to do it for a few bounces we added more balloons to make it trickier!

Violet - Ninja Observation

Every good ninja must notice attention to detail and spot when something is not quite right, such as an enemy hiding in the bushes! So for the last task, with the added bonus of calming the trainee ninjas down and giving Esther and I time to put the food out, The Rainbow Master tested their skills of observation with a memory training game. We put several ninja-related items on a tray - Lego ninjago figures and weapons, an origami star, chopsticks, ninja turtles etc. The tray was covered and one item taken away. The ninjas took it in turns to spot what item had been removed. To make it harder, more items could be added to the tray, more than one item could be removed at a time and the items could be moved around under the cloth.

A Feast fit for a Rainbow Ninja 

Once they had completed all seven tasks they received their rainbow belts and had the party tea. To go with the hot dog buns and chips there was of course some ninja themed food. I removed the wrapper & thin strip from the middle of babybel cheeses and added tiny dots of black ready roll icing to make ninja faces. I made fruit swords using wooden coffee stirrers, putting a few grapes on as the ‘blade’ and then a piece of watermelon either end cut into the shape of the handle and the point. I also stuck ninjago eyes to paper plates and made the coloured masks by covering the rest of the plate with veggies - carrots, orange pepper and yellow pepper.

Extra Touches

The cake was pretty simple to decorate but really effective. I covered a round sponge in ready-roll red icing and made it look like a ninjago face by cutting out Lego eyes from yellow and black ready-roll icing. I used one of the paper print-outs of ninjago eyes as a template for cutting out the yellow piece.

   

After the party tea they snuggled down to watch The Ninjago Movie before bedtime. As well as popcorn they had a ninja lolly each. I stuck a Ninjago eyes cutout onto the underneath of a paper bowl and used a skewer to make holes in it to make a lolly stand. I then covered chupa chup lollipops in various colours of tissue paper and stuck on a little hand-drawn set of Ninjago eyes.

Their party bags were coloured paper bags again with the Ninjago eyes stuck on. I gathered all their nunchucks and throwing stars together and put them in their party bags along with a few goodies from the Baker Ross website - I find this site great for themed crafts and party bag fillers. They each got a ninja scratch art picture, a pull-back ninja racer and a handful of ninja foam stickers.