A good friend of my husband was having a 40th birthday party and his wife asked if she could use our shop for a surprise party. I offered to help plan it. She couldnt decide on a theme until about a week before hand so we didnt have much time. This is what I came up with.
She finally decided to send her husband on an Amazing Race around town, ending in a clue/mission to get the movie "Around the World in 80 Days" from our movie collection. When he arrived after his adventure, a bunch of friends welcomed him with this party.
Walking into the party space we had an Amazing Race inspired Finish Line (but I failed at getting a picture.)
The Welcome Table was world themed. My Friend brought a picture frame (not pictured) for everyone to sign. My personal globe collection decorated the welcome table. There were country themed stickers all over the table and book case behind.
Since we were serving classic American food, so we set up the food tables using 4th of July decorations I had.
At the end of the American food table we set up some chips, salsa, and guacamole with some old fiesta decor I had.
The Dessert table was Europe themed. German Chocolate Cupcakes, "Hungarian" Cream Puffs, and Ice cream "Gelato" sundae stuff. I made a sign that said "Happy Birthday Derek" in German
I did some Googling and found that some of the candies and other sundae toppings could be tied to different European countries and labeled them in the respective languages with respective flags.
The Drinks table was decorated with St. Patrick's Day decor I had on hand. My friend bought beers from all over the world, as the birthday boy is a fan of beers.
Each table had a different continent theme.
This is Austrailia. We hung boomerangs from the rafters, and used some coastal theme decorations that I had on hand for a future party idea. The alligator (crocodile?) came from my father-in-law.
This is Antartica, Its hard to tell but there are white snow flakes hanging above. In the various shaped jars are marshmallows. There is a map of Antartica on the table with some white "snow" batting under. The snow and flakes came from my Christmas decorations.
This table is China. My mother in law picked up some place mats from the Chinese restraunt the night before. I also used a take-home box to stablize a photo of the Chinese flag. My husband's dragon figurines made a centerpiece.
This table represents Africa. We had some Zebra trimmed plastic table clothes left over from a sweet 16 birthday, we cut the edge off and used it as a runner. the middle is a baby blanket in a leopard print with the pink ruffle edges folded under and some toys from my friend's daughters toy collection.
a close up of the "Mexico" section of the table
Ireland before all the drinks
America before the food
Throughout the decor I used photos of different flags. My friend purchased some continent bullitan board stuff from The Learning Palace, a specialty toy/education store in town. She got placemat sized maps of each continent that we used on the tables.
I failed to get a picture of South America. We hung vines and toy snakes and monkeys in a corner of the shop set up with a TV playing Rio for the kids to watch.
Overall, the decorations did not cost much time, or effort to make. Using what we had worked very well, supplementing with a couple trips to the Dollar Tree and The Learning Palace was all it took.
