A Filipino Tradition ...with a side of Mario Party

Awhile back I saw mention of a game called Pabitin. I looked it up and immediately wrote it down in my birthday notebook.

(*Side Note - It is so helpful to keep a notebook for jotting down birthday party ideas as they come. I like to use a very small notebook so I can carry it in my purse. Also keep a "birthday" folder in your favorites to keep track of any birthday party related links that you find)

According to Wikipedia - "A Pabitin is a square trellis where goodies (candies, fruits, small trinkets, etc.) are hung by strings. This trellis is, in turn, tied to a rope and is suspended on a strong branch or pole. The children then gather under the trellis and they jump as high as they can to try to pick the goodies as the trellis is slowly lowered to them while someone jerks it up and down repeatedly until all the goodies are gone." It is commonly played during Flores de Mayo. "Flores de Mayo is a Catholic festival held in the Philippines in the month of May."



Doesn't that sound fun? The best part is that it could work with absolutely any theme. But of course as for me, it is all about Super Mario this month. Below is the party game I made inspired by Pabitin and yet another Mario Party mini game.



Now for a video of the original mini game followed by a how to on the party game version.



From what I've read, normally bamboo is used to make the trellis. I thought I would buy some cheap wooden dowels but then I happened across these two jumping ropes in my shed. The handles were bumbleebees. I cut off the antennaes and painted them to look like Mario and Luigi. The first step in making the game was to lay them down on the floor.

I used yarn to make the rest of the trellis. I cut out three pieces long enough to tie from one jumping rope to the other across from it.

Then I tied them from one rope across to the other

Then I added three across. I didn't cut these first. I just tied as I went and then cut at the end.

Here is the completed "trellis"

I measured 24 shorter pieces of yarn from my fingertips to my elbow and tied them in the center of each section.

I made 24 cards with different point values. They were made by folding printer paper into 8 sections and drawn with colored pencils. I used the Mario Party instruction booklet for ideas.

A hole puncher would definitely come in handy but I just poked scissors into the top of each and turned to make a hole. They were then tied on to each of the 24 short strings.

Here they are all tied on

I then cut out 4 each of 6 different colors of leftover and garage sale streamers. I tied them on somewhat randomly but did try to make somewhat of a color pattern.

This will be held up higher (my two boys are holding it in the photo)and moved up and down as the children go under and grab cards. We will then count up all the + cards for each team and place that many coins in their team's container. Then the - cards will be added and coins will be removed. Whichever team is left with the most coins is the winner.

Items Used and Total Cost of this game:

Jump ropes - (already had)$0
Paint - (already had)$0
Yarn - (already had) $0
Colored Pencils - (already had) $0
Paper - (already had) $0
Streamers - (already had) $0

Total Cost = $0 ...remember, use what you have!

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