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Just in Time for the World Cup - a World Cup Birthday Party!

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After what seems like no time at all, we have a 5 year old! It happened so fast, and he has become very opinionated lately. Especially when it came to birthday party planning. For the first time, he didn't want a pinata, but did want a World Cup theme. He also wanted a treasure hunt - this is really popular with the kids here and pretty much every party we attend has some kind of treasure hunt component. There's been a police-finding-a-robber hunt, a photo-based treasure hunt around the university, and (the coolest) a treasure hunt through the forest.

Naturally, we obliged. Google turned up a wonderful resource for themed birthday parties: Geburtstagsfee.de. We acquired plates, cups, balloons, trinkets for the goody bags, and (the most popular) cake decorations, all with a soccer theme. Navin helped me make his red velvet sheet cake - it tasted so good! One trick we learned was to use the red food coloring from the Asian grocery store (powder form) - the red color was much richer. We topped it with a sugar glazed soccer field, and it was a big hit. 
Next up, the treasure hunt! I picked 6 clues from this treasure hunt template, translated them into German (sadly without the rhyming...), and came up with 6 activities at each clue that the kids would have to complete to 'earn' their next clue. 

We played darts at one, bowled at another, did a ring toss, solved a riddle, and (my proudest), completed a homemade 'pin the soccer ball on the goal' game. Since it was hard to find a template for this online, I've shared the images we used. I ordered everything on posterxxl.de - 100x75 cm poster for the goal, and 13x18 for the soccer ball. We blindfolded the kids and used double stick tape to secure the soccer balls on the goal. 

What fun! They found the treasure at the end, and Navin was so proud of himself and his friends for succeeding in their task.

As with the last treasure hunt, we only managed to fill one hour with the treasure hunt. These kids are so fast! Luckily we dug into the presents, found several new lego sets, and got to building. A few hours later, parents came to pick up some happy kids, and we could finally relax. Until the next one!

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