Soon after my son turned four, he started planning his fifth birthday party. He decided on a Pee Wee Herman theme, inspired by both his love of our Pee Wee's Playhouse DVD's and his big cousin's renewed love of Pee Wee after they saw the Broadway show this past fall. How to throw a party with a popular TV character whose 1980's "merch" is no longer available in party stores? Make it yourself!

Back Next

1 of 22

1 Stickers and invite, made with a scan of my son's Pee Wee drawing.

2 I printed the drawing onto Avery full sheet label paper and trimmed it into individual stickers.

3 The birthday boy in his improvised Pee Wee outfit: his old seersucker suit and a red gift bow that my mom found!

4 Fun red and white items from Shop Sweet Lulu!

5 Pee Wee cupcake toppers.

6 Red velvet cupcakes, recipe link below.

7 Popcorn, for the Pee Wee's Playhouse viewing at the end of the party. (bags from Shop Sweet Lulu)

8 The favor, ready to be packed up. (red paper lunch bag from Target. Links below for the other sources)

9 Colored pencils, bought in bulk and tied into small bundles.

10 Blank books from Bare Books.

11 Finger eye puppets from Bake it Pretty

12 Fortune fish, also from Bake it Pretty.

13 The favor, sealed up with a homemade sticker

14 One of the craft tables with paper crowns, paper glasses....

15 ...and paper masks.

16 My brother-in-law's homemade Pteri mask which he wore while teaching kids to make...

17 ...his flying Pteri craft.

18 We ran out of table space so taped a plastic tablecloth to the floor for more crafting space.

19 The Pin the Bow Tie on Pee Wee game, drawn by my son and his uncle moments before the party.

20 Red bow ties for Pin the Bow Tie on Pee Wee

21 The homemade "Globey" pinata.

22 Pinata filler.

The birthday boy’s requests: a piñata based on Pee Wee’s talking globe friend, “Globey”, red velvet cupcakes to match Pee Wee's red bow tie, Pin the Bow Tie on Pee Wee, and a Pee Wee costume for himself. We stuck with red for the decor, based on the bow tie, and filled out the rest of the party with some easy craft activities.

Invite: My son drew a picture of Pee Wee which I scanned and used for the invite and for little stickers to seal the goody bags. Click through the gallery for details and how-to's.

Favor: I love putting them together but avoiding a bag full of junky plastic toys is always a challenge. We gave out my favorite blank book, a bunch of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, a red swirly lollipop, finger eye puppets (a birthday boy favorite) and a fortune teller fish from Bake it Pretty, and fake mustaches . They were packed up in red paper lunch bags from Target (great price!). The bags were sealed shut with the homemade Pee Wee stickers (photos in the gallery) created by printing drawings onto Avery full sheet labepaper.

Cupcakes- I used this red velvet recipe and got rave reviews! The red and white striped baking cups are from Shop Sweet Lulu. For the picks, I printed out some Pee Wee heads onto cardstock, cut them out and hot glued them to toothpicks.

Craft table- I like to have a table set up with super easy crafts for the kids as they trickle in and before we start any group activities. It's also a quiet place for kids that are feeling a little shy. I got some plain white cardboard crowns, glasses, and masks (which refer loosely to Pee Wee characters--not that the kids knew...or cared!) all from Oriental Trading. Plates of stick-on gems, stickers and pails of markers were enough to keep the little artists busy without needing adult instruction.

Activities: I mentioned that my kid's cousins had seen the Pee Wee show this past fall. Their whole family dressed up as Pee Wee characters to go see the show--so of course I asked them to dress up again for the party. My brother-in-law, who also happens to be an artist and art teacher, wore his Pteri (Pee Wee's pterodactyl friend) costume and taught the kids how to make simple paper flying Pteri's. The kids loved it. My niece, also dressed as Pee Wee, led a game of "Pee Wee Says" (aka Simon Says). My nephew, dressed as Cool Cat (Pee Wee's bohemian bongo-playing friend), played the bongos for a game of Freeze Dance.

Our Pin the Bow Tie on Pee Wee poster was created minutes before the party by my 8 year old son, my brother-in-law Pteri and my mom, who cut out the 25 red paper bow ties.

The piñata was a hit though my kids had mixed feelings about seeing Globey get smashed. They seemed to forget their troubles when the shower of candy and toys came down. Filling it was a challenge. I planned on coming up with a creative non-candy, non-junky plastic toy piñata filling but alas, I didn't quite make it. I was very happy with the small chocolate bars I got from Trader Joes (26 for .99!). It's still candy, but better than some of the other jaw-breaking stuff? Maybe??

I’ll be posting a how-to for the piñata. In the meantime, does anybody have any great piñata filler ideas? The kids are already planning their next parties!

(photos of Pteri and the cupcake stand by my friend Amy. Check our her beautiful blog!)