Bananablog: If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.

Hosanna is turning 9. Her favorite books right now are Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. So, of course, for her 9th birthday we sent her off to Camp Half Blood. Or rather, she invited friends to come to Camp Half Blood with her.

I used this and this as my inspiration, but heavily relied on the books as well.

The plot of the party was simple: We pretend each guest is a child of Poseidon and invite them to Camp Half Blood. When each child arrives they get a T-shirt and a tour of the camp and then start with arts and crafts. They'll do normal camp stuff: Archery, ax throwing, foot races, campfire cooking and capture the flag, but they'll also be sent on a quest by their dad, Poseidon to vanquish medusa. That will take them to the oracle, and that will take them on a quest to find the golden spear of the goddess Athena.

Here is was my to-do list and the scavenger hunt

This party was so much fun to put together. We are lucky enough to live next to grandparents who own a HUGE backyard, a firepit, and ax throwing set, and and archery set. We asked to the party in their backyard and we set up the ax throwing range and the archery range. Both the ax set and the archery set was purchased on Amazon, and the targets were homemade.

To get ready, I made a medusa piñata. It was just one normal balloon, several balloon animal balloons, paper mache (flour and water and newspaper) paint, and hot glue. I blew up the balloon and set it up in a bowl so it was easy to paper mache. I let it dry, while I blew up the balloon animal balloons. I twisted them this way and that and when I let them go they kept a lot of their curve. I paper mached over them and then let them both dry. The next day the balloons had popped, leavening behind the hard shells.

I cut a whole in the top, and put in the piñata candy: blue lollipops! I would have loved to include Pegasus stuffed animals, but didn't think of this idea until too late. I hot glued pipe cleaners as a way to tie the piñata to the rope, then paper mached up the hole.

I cut the "snakes" and hot glued them on the big balloon. and let it dry, then I painted the whole thing!

Also before the party, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy orange youth T-shits. They didn't have enough, but when I asked at the checkout they said they could order them because they had more in the warehouse, it would just take 2 weeks to get them in. Since I was planning this party a month in advance that was no problem. Each shirt was just $2.50 because Hobby Lobby is almost always the best place to get colored shirts. I used iron on paper to create these:

I loved this idea form this blog to have the kids paint shields while waiting for all the guests to arrive, but ordered the black foam off of Amazon without checking the dimensions and ended up with black foam board that was too small to be turned into shields. Oh well. So instead, I ran each name on the guest list through both an ancient Greek translator and a modern Greek translator. I did both because some names are the same in ancient Greek, and some names look cooler in modern Greek. I printed off the names and had that set up on a painting table along with the gold paint and black foam boards. While waiting for the kids to arrive, the guests could paint their greek name in gold on a black board.

I also purchased fake leather sting and wooden beads. Hosanna painted each bead and I drew a "9" on each one. These were given out as party favors to each child after the party. In the books, Annabeth has a bead necklace. Each year she adds another bead that symbolizes that year.

In order to make sure everyone was safe for Archery, Ax throwing and foot races, I conscripted three "camp counselors." They were trained in their specialty and given Camp Half Blood T-shirts.

Once the party was all set up, the guests started arriving! Each gust was welcomed, told to change into a Camp Halfblood shirt, and then taken on a tour of the camp. Then they were left at a table where they decorated black styrofoam boards with gold paint. I had printed off each child's name in Greek, so they could paint that on their board.

Once everyone arrived and had finished their craft we broke up into three groups, each group got assigned to a an area and a camp counselor, and then we rotated through the three activities.

After that the kids were thirsty and hungry! We called for everyone to come to the campfire and talked about what a great day at camp that was. The kids roasted hot dogs and helped themselves to some blue food: Blue Tortilla chips with salsa and guac, blueberries, and then we all roasted s'mores.

When most kids were done eating and waiting for the last few kids to finish up, a camp counselor came running in with a message and a gift from Poseidon!

A quest! The kids were then asked asked what you do when you are given a quest. The ones who had read the books were quick to answer: Visit the Oracle!

This might have been my favorite part. I started out with idea of using this scavenger hunt, but my oldest child pointed out that it was not very true to the characters of the book, so we proceeded to rewrite most of the clues.

My oldest child decided to re-write the clue from the oracle, memorize it, and act it out. We had the kids come into a garage with the lights off. Suddenly, candles were lit (they were the battery powered, remote controlled candles, so they could all be lit at once with the single touch of a button) and dry ice in pots of water made eerie fog flow across the floor. The Oracle was sitting on a stool, staring into the distance, holding a single candle. This is what she said:

Here are words to help the Heroes’ quest:

Poseidon lends his help on this hard test

The gods of Olympus will guide you.

Listen to their words to find their clue

To kill woman of stone in Antaeus’ arena

Find the golden spear of the goddess Athena

To find the spear of the goddess of war,

Find the gazebo of the days of yore

Morning flowers and green vines hang

creeping up a wooden frame

A final warning for your next fight

Beware! You may meet Death this night

The lights turned off and the door opened so the kids could make their way out and discuss: They need to find the Golden Spear of Athena! The need to find ruins? Of course! Back on the tour of the camp ruins were pointed out!

The kids rushed back to the ruins and found the next clue. This was the scavenger hunt:

Aphrodite gave them a mirror along with a clue to help battle Medusa-

And the last clue:

The Golden Spear of Athena was hidden in a tree, along with a note from Mr. D.

Hey Larry, Frank, and the rest of you kids. You’ve found the spear, so congrats or whatever. But life is really all about having fun. So head back to camp and let’s PARTY!

Mr. D

The kids grabbed the spear and headed back to camp but... Oh no! It's Medusa!! time for battle!