A Wild (and Crazy!) Kratt Birthday!

There is a secret power out there, just waiting to be activated by one who truly wishes to help animals. This is the message of the Kratt brothers, hosts of the PBS show, Wild Kratts. They teach children about each animals' "creature powers" which can be anything from cheetah-speed, to the diving abilities of a colossal squid. By harnessing these super-powers, you hold the ultimate secret weapon to rescuing and aiding hurt or endangered animals.

How does one harness these super creature powers? The power lies within the bear paw emblem--simply touch the injured animal and then, holding onto the bear paw, shout "Creature Powers, Activate!" You are now ready to aid and abed said animal.

In this Kratt-style, we rung in Christian's 4th birthday! He "discovered" this show last fall and LOVES it. (The fact that it's on at 5:00 works out wonderfully for Mom who can get dinner made while he and Emily tune in!)

So, to get this party rolling, we got the kiddos warmed up, kangaroo-style, on the trampoline! (They really loved this and I think for future parties, we'll just let the kids bounce the whole time and maybe give them some cake and water at the end! Ha!)

Next up, we doned our Creature-Power necklaces and got ready to harness the cheetah's speed for some tag! The object of this game was to pull-off each others' tails. (See Molly modeling the tail while everyone else gives me their best cheetah-face.)

Their cheetah-speed powers sure came in handy!

Up next, we had an animal rescue and made sure some worms made it back safely to their home in the dirt. Even Emily got into this and picked one up! (Christian and most of his friends LOVE digging for worms so I just had to have this as a game!)
Then it was time to learn about some creatures and their "powers"! My Grandma knows a man who raises snakes and other reptiles. She asked him if he could bring some for the kids to look at and teach them about them. Four of the six children had NO fear, whatsoever.

This is Christian, proudly holding up a ball python! It was really neat for them all to get so up-close and personal!

For our final game, we tapped into the sea-turtles amazing sense of direction as we played "pin-the-arms-on-the-octopus".

(As a side note, I used velcro to "switch out" their creature-powers for each new game.)

Dinner, present opening, and cake all followed...

Christian transitioned from creature-powers, to super-hero powers like it was second nature. Truly, turning four comes with its advantages!