Theme Party Thursday: Fighter Pilot Party

Invites: Use stationery or scrapbook paper with airplanes or decorate with airplane stickers.

Our little fighter pilot is turning (age)!

Join us for some high-flying fun at (child's name)'s birthday party!

Or

There's nothing PLANE about (child's name) turning (age)!

So pack your bags and join us for a day of high-flying fun!

Location: [last name]Airport

[address]

Departure Date: ______

Departure Time & Duration: (time)

Reservation Cancellations Only: (phone #)

Activities/Games
Paper Airplane Races. Help the kids make paper airplanes. They each stand at the starting line and throw their airplanes to see how far they go. Repeat this several times from various locations and distances.

Air Traffic Control: This is basically like "red light green light". Have all kids start at the "hangar". One child is at the other end. He is the air traffic controller. He will shout out the commands "Take off!" or "Land!" at random. Anytime he says "take off" the kids move ahead. Anytime he says "land" they stop. The first one that reaches the air traffic controller wins.

Fighter Pilot Training Course: This is a relay course. Tell the kids that fighter pilots have to be in the best physical condition. This course will test their fitness, strengths and abilities. I found little plastic aviator wings online that I gave out at the end for everyone that completed the "course". (You can also time them if you want, which makes it more fun for older kids.) Here were the different stages of the course:
Walk the line - place a strip of duct tape on floor, about 6 feet long. They have to walk on that, heel to toe. This tests their balance.
Pillow Hop - I had a row with different piles of pillows, some short and some tall that they had to jump over. This tests their physical ability.
Night Crawl - I laid a board across two chairs for them to crawl under. This tests their skills at sneaking around the enemy.
Dart Board - I had a velcro dart board and gave them 1 dart to test their eye-hand coordination.
Jump, tuck and roll - Just before reaching the end they had to jump once then do a somersault. Cuz you never know when you might have to eject from a plane and land safely.

Flight Simulation. If you have a flight simulation video game for 2 or more players you could consider letting the kids each have a turn at that (of course check with parents first).

Meet the Pilot. If you know someone who is trained to fly for the armed forces or even a commercial airline pilot, you could ask that he/she make an appearance at the party and sign "autographs" and pose for pics with the kids.

Wooden Airplanes Check your local craft store for little wooden aeroplanes. (They run about $.99 at Michaels and I think Walmart has them in the craft section too.) Kids can "paint" these with washable markers too.

Food: You could do little "to-go" boxes (found at craft stores) filled with simple things like cheese crackers, fruit snacks, and a juice box.

Party Favors: Make candy airplanes, and place them individually in plastic sandwich bags. kidsdomain/candy airplane FamilyFun/candy airplane Of course if you hand out the wooden planes, wings and have them make their own paper airplanes, they will have plenty to take home as it is.