Did you know that on this day in 1941, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences copyrighted the Oscar statuette? That’s why on this Theme Thursday, we suggest celebrating your little superstar’s birthday with a movie star party! Here are some fun games and activities we found on bestkidsbirthdayparties.com that will make for a fun party that leaves every child feeling like a legend of the silver screen:

BACKSTAGE PASS

Draw up a list of the guests and write “VIP” at the top. As each guest arrives, formally scratch their names off and give them all-access backstage passes to the party! To design backstage passes, cut up pieces of bristol board about the size of an ID card. Write on the top: “[your child’s name here]’s Hollywood Party” and beneath “VIP [recipients name here] all-access backstage party pass.” Color in with party colors and sparkles. Punch a hole on either side and pull enough string or yarn through so it can dangle comfortably around the child’s neck. For extra glam, also hand out Black Gangster Hats, Disco Hats, and Colored Boas.

PAPARAZZI

Capture the magic of the event and add to the fun by having volunteer photographers (friends or other parents) pose as picture-taking paparazzi! Get lots of film so they’ll feel free to snap away! Create a photo backdrop with black bristol board against a wall, and encourage all the guests to stop by to have a “formal” picture taken. Guests will genuinely feel like celebrities with these camera-toting hounds on the loose!

ACADEMY AWARDS SCAVENGER HUNT

Set up an Academy Awards scavenger hunt for all the young stars! Prepare a list of items (microwave popcorn, pictures of famous movie stars cut out of magazines, a movie actor’s pretend autograph, and so on). Give a free movie rental coupon to the kid who finds the most!

Today we’d like to wish a very happy birthday to the talented singer Gloria Estefan! As one of the 100 best-selling music artists and with seven Grammy awards, she is the most successful crossover Latin music performer in the world. Check out this biography we found onthebiographychannel.co.uk to see how she found her way to such shining success:

Gloria María Fajardo’s father, José, was a bodyguard for the president of Cuba. When she was one, Fidel Castro took over the country, and her family fled to the United States. Having joined the US army, Gloria’s father was sent to Vietnam in 1966. When he returned, he was no longer able to work and the young Gloria helped care for her father as well as her little sister.

Music became an important means of escape, and she enjoyed singing and playing the guitar. At high school, in 1975, she met Emilio Estefan, who invited her to sing some songs with his band. The band was so impressed that they invited her to sing regularly with them, changing their name to the Miami Sound Machine.

After graduating from college, Gloria and Emilio were married and, in 1980, their band won a recording contract with CBS Records. The Miami Sound Machine played music that mixed Cuban styles with American pop and rock. Their first four albums were recorded in Spanish, and were very popular within the Latino community in the United States.

They made their first English-language album in 1984, ‘Eyes of Innocence’. Their next album, ‘Primitive Love’, combined English words and tunes with Cuban rhythms, and was a big hit. Gloria made her first solo album, ‘Cuts Both Ways’, in 1989, but tragedy struck soon after: in 1990, the Estefans were riding in their tour bus when it collided with a truck. Gloria’s back was broken, although her husband and son were less seriously injured.

While Estefan recovered, she continued to write new songs. Despite doctors’ warnings that she might never walk again, her next public appearance was only six months later, and soon she was back on tour.

She made a twentieth-anniversary album in 1999 and an album, called ‘Alma Caribena’/'Caribbean Soul’, in 2000.

Hope it’s a great one, Gloria!

Today is a good day to celebrate the perfect end-of-summer holiday, Eat Outside Day! Here’s a great guide to picnicking 101 that we found on kids-outdoor-activities.suite101.com. These tips will help make sure everyone has fun and takes care of nature while celebrating in the great outdoors:

Planning a Picnic
No matter the weather or the food choices, the most important part of making your picnic a success is a thorough plan. Your plan should include choosing a date and time, including an alternate plan for foul weather. You should decide on picnic foods, have a method for protecting the food and keeping it hot or cold as needed, non-food supplies, location, seating, and extra activities.

Serving Food Outdoors
Carry something to sit on. A picnic table is nice but nicer if you provide a tablecloth. A plastic party cloth or even an old bed sheet will work. If there is no table, be certain to carry a blanket for sitting on and lawn chairs for seating guests.

For windy days try tablecloth catches, duck tape or weights like rocks to hold the cloth in place. A cooler is best for keeping beverages cold and fresh. Thermoses can keep things hot or cold. A roll of paper towels comes in handy and won’t blow off the table. Provide plastic utensils, cups, paper plates or bottled or canned drinks. Be sure to pick up the picnic area after you are finished.

Protecting Food Outdoors
Be sure to have someway of protecting the foods from flies and from heat spoilage. Plastic containers with lids can be used to serve from. Cover dishes with plastic wrap or foil. Keep foods tightly sealed and up out of melted ice in the ice chest or cooler. Keep things clean, covered and out of the sun. Remember that many foods like eggs or meats, and condiments like mayonnaise, can spoil easily and cause people to get food poisoning. Keep these refrigerated.

Never leave food out where birds, bears, raccoons or other animals will be attracted to it and refrain from feeding picnic foods to wild animals. This is unhealthy for them and dangerous for people.

Today, we wish a happy 38^th birthday to one of Hollywood’s golden leading ladies, Cameron Diaz!

Cameron was just 16 when a photographer discovered her at a party and her modeling career began. She traveled all over the world for several years before landing her very first acting role opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask. After the film, she took some acting lessons and tested her skills in smaller, independent films.

In 1997, Cameron dazzled audiences when she appeared opposite Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding. She followed up that role with another success as the titular character in There’s Something About Mary. From there, Cameron found nothing but success with starring roles in Charlie’s Angels and Shrek. After her role in Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York, Cameron became the second actress in the “20-million-dollar club,” joining Julia Roberts as leading ladies whose asking price per picture is $20 million dollars.

You can catch Cameron leaping into the superhero genre in The Green Lantern, coming this January 14, 2011.

Today we’d like to wish a very happy birthday to the very funny Sarah Chalke! Take a look at how this Canadian actress made her mark on American television screens in this biography we found on Starpulse.com:

Ottawa-born Sarah Chalke first gained notoriety in 1993 when, at the beginning of the show’s sixth season, she was cast on ABC’s hit sitcom Roseanne as oldest daughter Becky, a role that had previously been filled by Alicia Goranson, who exited the show for college. Chalke continued to play Becky for two seasons until Goranson returned, but the two actresses took turns playing the character throughout the season. Goranson left again before the show’s ninth and final season, and Chalke resumed the role full-time.

Following the end of Roseanne, Chalke took on a role in the Canadian series Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy. While that show only lasted nine episodes, it would only be a couple more years before the actress found herself on another hit series. In 2001, she was cast as Elliot Reid, the female lead opposite Zach Braff on the cult hit NBC medical comedy Scrubs.

In addition to her series television work, Chalke has acted in a number of made-for-TV movies and small independent films over the years. In 2007 she had her first role in a high-profile Hollywood movie with a supporting turn alongside Jon Heder and Diane Keaton in the comedy Mama’s Boy.

Have a great one, Sarah!

Today, August 26, is the anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Here’s some more information on the historic bill and the struggle that it took to get it ratified that we found on kids.aol.com:

The story of the fight for women’s suffrage took place during a time when women were not allowed to own property, take part in public life, or vote. The movement officially began when women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. After the Civil War (1860-1865) the women’s movement, which had spoken out about freeing the slaves, expected that both women and slaves would be granted the same rights as white men. The government treated them as separate issues, dismissing the cause of women’s rights. This was an outrage for the movement and in 1866 women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the American Equal Rights Association.

Women continued to be denied equal rights with the passage of the 14th Amendment (which defined citizens as male) and the 15th Amendment (which gave black men the right to vote). The women’s movement disagreed over these issues and split into two groups in 1869.

In one group, women like Stanton and Anthony refused to support the 15th Amendment unless it was changed to guarantee women the right to vote also. They formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and had a more radical activist approach. For example, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for trying to vote in the 1872 election. The other group of suffragists, led by Lucy Stone, supported the 15th Amendment and believed that change would happen gradually, first for black men, and then for women. They formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). In 1890, the two factions of the women’s movement merged to form National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

Also in 1890, Wyoming became the first state with general women’s suffrage.

In the early 1900s, as the original suffragists got older, younger women like Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul began to pick up the fight. Momentum for the cause continued to build as more and more women became organized, forming groups like the Women’s Christian Temperence Union (WCTU), the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), and the Women’s Trade Union League.

The hard work of the women’s movement paid off on August 26, 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified by President Woodrow Wilson, and women were guaranteed the right to vote. The 19th Amendment: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Today, August 25 gives a lot of people a reason to celebrate! We’d like to wish a very happy birthday to the following standouts in cooking, modeling, directing, singing, and acting: Rachael Ray, Claudia Schiffer, Tim Burton, Elvis Costello, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sean Connery, Blair Underwood, Blake Lively, and Rachel Bilson!

If you have children with birthdays that fall close together, or a child with a friend that wants to do a joint birthday party, make sure to check out this thoughtful blog post from stopdropandblog.com that discusses the pros and cons of a joint birthday bash.

Today, the young actor whom you may know best as Ron Weasley turns a magical 22. Before he was playing quiddich and fighting evil wizards, though, Rupert was a just a schoolboy in England. Check out how he got his start in this biography we found on Starpulse.com:

Rupert Grint made his big-screen debut in 2001′s box-office smash Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, bringing to life Ronald Weasley, friend to the famous protagonist Harry Potter of J.K. Rowling’s children’s novel.

Born in England in 1988, Grint had only performed in plays for school and local theater in Europe before making the giant leap into Hollywood with Harry Potter. He scored a role in the family comedy Thunderpants soon afterward, but was kept busy for the next several years as audiences saw him grow up alongside co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson while appearing in the ongoing Harry Potter sequels.

He emerged in 2006 with a starring role in the well-received comedy drama Driving Lessons, alongside Hollywood heavyweights Julie Walters and Laura Linney.

Check Rupert out in part one of the final Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 3D and IMAX on November 19, 2010!

August 24 is Ride the Wind day, and what better way to celebrate a summer breeze than by flying a kite? Here’s a fun and simple kite-making activity we found at tlc.howstuffworks.com:

What You’ll Need:

One 12-inch wood dowel with 1/8-inch diameter
One 24-inch wood dowel with 1/8-inch ­diameter
Strong string or cord
Ruler
Blunt scissors
Wrapping paper
Craft glue
Colored tissue paper

Step 1. Make a cross with the wood dowels. The longer dowel should be positioned vertically. Use a piece of strong string or cord to tightly tie the two dowels together at the cross section. Cut a piece of wrapping paper in a 16 × 28-inch diamond shape. Cut off the corners to make tabs. Place the crossed dowels in the center of the paper diamond.

Step 2. Put a dot of glue at the end of each dowel. Run a long piece of string around the dowel frame through the glue. Add another dot of glue to each end to cover the string. Let the glue set. Fold the wrapping paper tabs over the string and glue each tab in place. Let the glue set.

Step 3. To make the flight cord, cut a piece of string and tie each end to the horizontal dowel. To make the kite string, cut a long piece of string and tie it to the center of the flight cord. Tie a piece of string to the bottom of the vertical dowel for the kite tail. Make tissue paper bows to fold over the string and glue in place. Let the glue dry, then fly your kite!

For illustrated instructions and more information on kite flying, go here.

There are less than 10 days left in August, and you don’t want miss out on celebrating peach month with a delicious, healthy bite into a fresh peach. Here are some fun facts we found about peaches at www.factmonster.com to whet your appetite:

Peaches were once known as Persian apples.

“You’re a real peach” originated from the tradition of giving a peach to the friend you liked.

Peaches were mentioned as early as 79 A.D. in literature.

There are over 700 varieties of peaches-some Chinese varieties are even flat like hockey pucks!

In China the peach is a symbol of longevity and good luck.

1565 is the starting date of the first peach orchard in Florida.

Nectarines are just peaches without the fuzz!

“Free-stone” peach just refers to how the flesh of the peach separates from the pit.

Peaches are sometimes referred to as “stone” fruit due to their pits.