I hosted a birthday party for my friend, Ivan, who was turning 8. He wanted a Ben 10 pool party. Unfortunately, since his birthday fell on a rainy season, we decided to hold his party at McDonalds instead of holding it in a resort.

McDonalds did not have a Ben 10 theme, so we decided to just go for the usual Super McTroopers theme and just added Ben 10 details. Instead of sending out the Super McTroopers invitations, I made Ivan’s Ben 10 invitations myself. I searched online for the perfect Ben 10 photo, used Adobe Photoshop to add texts, saved the file as .jpeg, and had copies of the .jpeg file printed in photo paper at a Kodak branch. A Ben 10 invitation with a map leading to the birthday venue were sent to each of Ivan’s classmates and closest friends. We ordered a nice Ben 10 cake from Red Ribbon and arranged a Ben 10 costume for Ivan to wear on his special day. We had his Ben 10 shirt made at the spray painting shop, ArtWorkz. We also bought him a Diamond Face mask and an Omnitrix to complete his costume.

After holding 2 birthday parties at McDonalds, I knew that McDonalds’ lootbag goodies won’t please Ivan’s classmates and other guests. So in every lootbag, I added candies, chocolates, gelatin cups, and small toys. I did not expect the McDonalds’ party venue to be well decorated either, so with the McDonalds’ generic 30 pieces of balloons, a birthday banner, 30 party hats, and 30 paper mats, I made green and yellow streamers, printed out Ben 10 coloring sheets, bought crayons, and prepared green, yellow, orange, and red balloon arrangements to make the venue more festive.

Ivan’s party was a success, however, there are still some details that I overlooked. Here are some points I’ve learned after holding 3 parties at McDonalds:
1) It is pointless to hold a McDonalds birthday party with mostly adult guests.
2) Always bring a music CD with children’s songs and other wholesome songs. We do not want the kids to be listening to songs with adult lyrics like “I wanna have boobies”.
3) It is not nice to squeeze 100 guests in a small McDonalds party venue.
4) For every kid invited, be prepared to accommodate 3 more heads in the party - for mommy, daddy, siblings, and yaya.
5) Make an occular inspection of the venue the weekend before the party. It is best to schedule a visit while there is an on going birthday party, so you’d know what to expect come your party.
6) It is more fun to invite the celebrator’s classmates to a McDonalds party than inviting neighbors and very distant cousins and friends. The interaction during games is better and the atmosphere is lighter because the kids are already comfortable playing with each other.
7) Talk to the party host and know the games he or she will facilitate. Our party host was about to request coins from parents and use the coins for games. Good thing he told me about it, asking money from guests is just a big no-no.
8) Kid McDo mascot is cute… in fact cuter than Grimace.
9) Give the mascot extra tip especially after the older kids harrassed the poor thing.
10) Take a lot of photos so bring extra cameras and make sure that your cameras have fully charged batteries.