Team Plant or Team Zombie? This Party Lets You Choose

When zombies take over the world, plants will be the Earth's last defense.

Or so my just-turned-8-year-old tells me.

For reasons this old mama can't quite understand, Plants vs. Zombies, an arcade-style computer game, is the coolest thing around. So I wasn't surprised when my birthday boy selected it as the theme for this year's party.

But I was shocked to discover that there aren't any PVZ party products yet — give it a year — so I had to put on my crafty hat.

This is what I did:

The invite

Fortunately for me, zombies and plants are pretty easy to draw. I picked up a pack of 25 small blank cards with envelopes at for $4.99. On the front I drew a zombie and used letter stamps I already owned to add the word "party." On the back I drew a pea-spitting plant. Our box of 64 Crayolas helped make it look pretty.

I took my masterpiece and blank cards to and had colored copies made on the card stock for 59 cents apiece.

For the inside I used a "You're Invited" wooden stamp, also from Michaels, and hand wrote the party information. The stamp was $5.99.

Mom's artwork: when you care enough to send the best, she can do.

Brains!

With our invitations out there, we could focus on the food. Everyone knows that zombies eat brains, and I have the perfect cake pan to make them.

Sure, to most people it may look like a football, but it's got so many more uses. One year I used it to make a shark cake. This year, it made brains.

My son requested the cake be red velvet so it looked properly gory when cut into. 

A little trimming on the ends, grey frosting, squiggly icing and two eyeballs (decorated suckers) and it's a birthday zombie's dream come true!

Games

With a house full of 8-year-old boys, there's got to be some form of entertainment. Here are the games we played:

• Plants and Zombies. You may also know it as the popular gym game Sharks and Minnows. Two zombies try their hardest to tag the running plants. The last plant standing is the winner.
• Spit the Pea at the Zombie. One of the most powerful plants in the game is a pea plant. I drew a zombie head on a large piece of construction paper and added a bullseye. Each partygoer took a turn with the "pea-shooter" (a.k.a. Nerf gun.) The closest "pea" to hit the bullseye was the winner.
• The Pinata. What's a party without a group of kids armed with a bat, pummeling paper mache? Due to a lack of zombie pinatas and very poor paper mache skills on my part, the pinata was a lovely flower (a.k.a plant). The boys enjoyed whacking the stuffing out of it. The flower pinata came from for $10.99. Their bulk candy is a great way to fill it up.

But wait! What team are you on?

Sure, when zombies are bent on world domination, it will be easy to see which side everyone is on. But for this party, we needed a little help. Each party participant received a custom t-shirt. One side said "Team Plant" and the other "Team Zombie." As the guests arrived they could decorate their chosen shirt with fabric puffy paints. And everyone got to take their t-shirt home.

You can get a pack of seven Fruit of the Loom t-shirts at Meijer for $6.89. I bought a stencil kit at JoAnn for $5.99 and the fabric spray paint for $4.99 a can. Puffy paint was on clearance for 50 cents.

Around Town Laura does love her children parties. To read about the party options at , click . To read about Harry Potter party ideas, click . And to see what she does for St. Patrick's Day, click .