Well, friends. We’ve had another birthday party in these parts, and I’m fairly confident it’s one you’ve never seen before. An origami party! What’s an origami party? Read on to find out!
When the world shut down this past spring, we looked for some activities for our kids to do while we couldn’t go anywhere. One of the things I picked up was this Star Wars origami book
.
The folds are a bit advanced for someone who isn’t familiar with origami, but my 9-year-old was ready to learn! So we got some regular origami paper
and found tutorials on YouTube and elsewhere.
Soon we had a full origami-enthusiast on our hands. So it was no surprise that for his 10th birthday party, he asked for an origami party.
Kids Origami Birthday Party
But what does an origami party look like? I searched the web and came up with zilch. Nada. Zero.
So I just had to make something up. The great thing about having an origami enthusiast in the house is that I mostly just conscripted him to make a bunch of origami shapes to use as decoration. Mom win!
In addition to figuring out what an origami party would look like, we also had to make some adjustments to the party itself. We didn’t invite his classmates like we usually would. We invited the kids of all ages from two families we’d been seeing throughout the summer and a kid from his soccer team to limit exposure. And we all stayed outside.
But let’s talk decoration!
Decor
The birthday boy made every origami piece you see above. We strung several on fishing line to hang over the table, and put the pennant banner on the window.
The origami paper he had was a neon set. It was giving me some ’80s sort of vibes so I tried to put some of that into the choice of plates and napkins, as well as the cake.
Read here to learn all my tips for making fabulous parties without losing your mind!
The Food
As for the food, everything but the cake we kept super simple. I made some ranch dip and cut up fruit, but everything else was ready-made.
The cake was definitely a challenge. I knew I wanted to make some origami figures of some kind for the top, but it took a bit to figure it out.
I made the origami figures out of gum paste. I had never used gum paste
before, so I was figuring everything out as I went along.
Working with the gum paste wasn’t difficult, really. I rolled it out thin and cut it into squares. Then I folded it just like paper. I made an airplane shape, a fox, a fortune teller, and a fish.
The tricky part isn’t folding it. The tricky part is finding a way to hold it in the right position as it dries. That took a decent amount of problem solving. My husband stepped in and made some wire stands that we then lined with wax paper. The fish did was easy because it’s flat, so it didn’t need any stands.
I also made some shapes with gum paste to use on the sides.
You can watch how I assembled the cake in the video above! I’m not a professional cake baker, but I do my best.
The birthday boy was a huge fan of his cake.
He requested a marble cake with raspberry filling. The knife looked all bloody when pulling it out of the cake, which all the 9- and 10- year olds thought was super cool. Of course.
Activities
Beyond the food, the birthday boy taught his friends how to make some origami shapes, and they played on the zip line
(which was added for last year’s party) and they each got sent home with one of these origami kits
.
Overall, it was really fun even though things couldn’t be quite normal this year! It was nice to find a way to celebrate his first two-digit birthday!
