Monday, September 24, 2007

Help save the party!

Updated note 10/01/07: I will hold a random drawing for a prize (still yet to be determined) with everyone's names that submitted a suggestion for the party on this post. The drawing will be October 15th.

My little princess G is turning four next month. Every birthday that is divisible by four in our family calls for a special celebration with friends. She gets to invite four friends other than her best friends she lives with. So, I asked her yesterday who she wanted to invite.

Nikki: G, you have a very special birthday coming up. Remember?

G: Yes, I'm going to be four and I want a fairy princess party!

Nikki: That sounds good. *considering I am already planning a fairy princess party* What four girls do you want to invite to your party?

G: Strawberry Shortcake, Orange Blossom, Lemon Meringue . . .

Pookie: G! They have to be real!

G: No, the great thing about imagination is you can pretend anything you want, huh Momma?

Pookie: But this is your REAL birthday.

G: Momma, is it my birthday today?

Nikki: No G, but it's coming up in about a month. Would you like to invite Jessie, Lucy, Brittany, and someone else?

G: That sounds great Momma! How about Strawberry Shortcake?

Nikki: *sigh*

So, bloggy friends, I need some creative ideas for the decorations, food, cake, games/activities, invites, goodie bags, and whatever else I forgot. I don't want to go the Disney princess route, although, I am not opposed to a few things if they were on sale--like napkins or plates. But I want the party to be original.

Here are a few thoughts Danny and I have come up with:

tablecloth- pink plastic disposable 97 cents at Wal-Mart

food- pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate mint (dyed purple) and rolled in sprinkles as wands.

activity- make your own wand out of a straw and a star-shaped piece of heavy cardstock that they color and add stickers and/or glitter to. Probably just stickers so I don't have to deal with glue.

goodie bags- bubble necklace or little tiny bottle of bubbles, stickers, something else

A bean bag toss out of some princess or fairy princess type stuff.

Yep, that's all we've got. Now the fate of a four year old's big birthday lies in your creative hands.

17 comments:

lizbit said...

One idea that isn't too hard is to have them decorate/make their own princess hats (you know, the cone type). You just need construction paper, glitter, markers, a stapler and some curling ribbon. Have them draw designs and such on their piece of paper, roll it into a cone and staple it together with ribbons at the top. Voila! Instant princess!

You could also think of easy fairy-tale related games (like a twist on 'pin the tale on the donkey' could be 'put the hair on Rapunzel' or 'duck, duck, goose' could be 'frog, frog, prince'. that sort of thing).

You're far more creative than I am! good luck and have a great party! I can't belive G is going to be four.

Rach said...

I love the parties, such great ideas from lizbit and what you have already. If you have daddys coming then you could make a crown and take a picture of each girl with their "handsome king." Decorate crowns with tinfoil, stickers, and netting. Netting is pretty cheap. You could paint their toenails and fingernails. FamilyFun.com has great ideas. You must post pictures when the time comes. I can't believe Miss G is that big already.

Rach said...

I forgot to tell you, I love the conversation, it is absoluted adorable. I love her imagination. You need to scrapbook that.

Anonymous said...

What fun! A princess party! I love princess parties, because we do a lot of that. One of our princess parties, I made each of the guests princess skirts out of a yard of tulle and some ribbon. Just gather the tulle at the top then sew the ribbon across it leaving some extra to tie around their waists. I loved those skirts. No having to pull on and off, just tie right over the top of the pants. SO easy. And if you live by a Walmart, and who doesn't, it's pretty cheap to get tulle and ribbon there!

Richelle said...

Another idea for fairy skirts, I saw some little toule skirts at the dollar tree with their Halloween costumes.

Nikki said...

I love everyone's ideas! Keep 'em coming.

Susan-
Did you have to use elastic for the skirts? Do you finish the edge of the tulle? And how? What width of ribbon?

Anonymous said...

All I did was gather the tulle together to make it a little foffy(?) and then sewed it on to two inch ribbon leaving the ends of the ribbon long to be able to tie on. It is really easy! Really!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

Ha ha ha! She sounds so cute!

I saw (and I have no idea where, parents magazine maybe?) that someone had made tutu's out of plastic shopping bags, like you get at the grocery store. They found different colors and sortof shredded them & sewed them onto a ribbon for a belt so they would go all the way around (except leave some ribbon to tie in the back) and use lots of bags so its really fluffy.

The dollar store used to carry fairy wands that would make a magical (annoying) sound when you wave them. Might be good party favors?

Four sounds like plennnnty of kids for a 4 year old party. Have fun!

Nikki said...

Jen-
I like the plastic bag idea. But I bought some tulle last night. Maybe I could find the instructions online for the plastic bag skirts and then use the tulle to decorate.

I'm sure the girls would love fairy wands that make magical sounds. Thanks for the tips!

Ms. Leigh said...

Do you know the fishing pond kinda games at little carnivals? Well, you could do something like that, but at Rapunzel's tower. You could make a tower out of cardboard and put long yarn "hair" at the top. You could have the kids take turns asking "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair." and then the hair drops with a treat of some kind in it.

Marcy said...

For my 3-year-old princess we made a pin the flower on the stem game--all hand-drawn. I drew the outline of it and the girls colored it all. It was more meaningful (and cheap) b/c they created it themselves. You could do that and do a simple crown shape on a princess head or something.

At my 5-year-old princess's party we had a picture scavenger hunt for the little guests. They loved it so much that when it was over they asked if they could do it again! They were just handed a picture of a place in the house and then ran there to find another place to go. At the end was a wrapped gift with favors for everyone and the birthday girl's big gift.

Anonymous said...

We did a princess party for one of my daughter's birthdays.

We made this cake: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50200

I bought party hats, cut 3 long pieces of curling ribbon and tied them in a knot in one end and slipped it through the hole in the top of the hat from the inside so the knot held it in place and the streamers hung down behind them - SUPER EASY.

We held the party in a room with two columns for support and I had some extra tulle so I wrapped that around each column. I hung crepe paper on the ceiling from the center of the room out to the edges to create a domed roof feel.

We invited everyone to attend in dress up dresses.

We had a pinata because nearly every single one of our kids parties have them by request. :P

We've also had a ballet/Nutcracker party in which we had a corner set up with a cheap pink plastic tablecloth for a backdrop, lots of balloons and curly ribbon hanging down, and each girl posed for a picture in the corner. I had a friend taking the pictures.

For that party we also made ribbon tutus, where you cut a piece of elastic to fit and knot the ends together and then tie many cut pieces of ribbon onto the elastic (in the middle of the ribbon so that both ends hang down). The girls made those themselves at the party and they enjoyed that a lot, I think.

So there ya go - hope that helps! =)

Nikki said...

Proverbs31-

Wahoo! I love all the ideas. And super cute cake. I love the picture corner idea. And the tutus. Thanks so much!

The Monetizer said...

This sounds like a fun event! Perhaps some sort of a hunt for items (hidden around the home or yard) with a princess theme and a prize would be fun for them too..Monetizer wishes he had better ideas, but you have made him hungry with talk of the pretzels and cake! :)

Supercool Mom said...

Okay -forgive me if I repeat anyone's idea cuz i DIDN't read anyone else's comment - but I did see a really cute wand in Family Fun magazine, (they have great party ideas on their website) they had made it from the cardboard tube from a drycleaner pants hanger, covered with ribbon or stickers, added a cardstock star to the end, and streamers of curly ribbon -soooo cute.

You could also make tu-tu's out of elastic, with strips of tulle tied on all the way around. cute but kind of expensive.

For FHE one time we made crowns out of corrugated bulletin board trim, and just glued jewels and die cuts on to decorate - big hit with everyone!

Julie V. said...

Our four-year olds enjoyed bingo games at their parties. You could give a little treat for bingo prizes. Use princess-related items as the bingo pictures (Cinderella's coach, a crown, castle, the prince, etc.)
Little princesses love to dance - just put on some waltz music and watch them twirl!
Another idea that's great for little ones is to have a story-telling or puppet show as entertainment (a little more work than watching a video - but much more memorable).
Cheap costume jewelry makes good party favors too -
A castle cake would be perfect. Their are lots of ideas on the internet for building a castle cake. Ice cream cones make great castle turret tops...
Have fun!

i'm erin. said...

obviously I will not be throwing a princess party anytime soon, but here are the ideas I have originated:

1. re-create the princess and the pea. Tell the story of the princess and the pea. Then Place a painted green baseball under a mattress (one that you have put pink sheets on and set out in your living room). Have each girl roll across the mattress, seeing if they can too feel the pea. Once they have steamrolled across the mattress, congratulate them on being a true princess, and then welcome them into the princess academy.

2. Princess Academy: Set up 3 or 4 sections in your home as princess training centers. In the Centers, Princesses learn how to walk, dress, and pamper like a princess.

1. Walking station. This is where princesses learn that to be a true princess they must help friends. (Three legged race) Tie princesses together and tell them that they have to get across the finish line without falling.

Part 2 of walking station: Have a pile of not too heavy books. The princess have to try to balance the books on their heads and then make it to the finish line. They may use one hand for balance. Tell them that they are learning to walk tall when danger lurks...(have danny dress as a dragon and lunge out at the little girls as they walk by)

2. Dress Station: All Princess must have a long flowing cape. In this station, Princess are going to decorate the capes that you have provided (an old sheet, cut into rectangles that fit little girls, with ribbon tied to the top to make the ties.) Let the girls draw pictures on their capes with washable markers.

3. Pamper Station: All princess should do their best to always look extra pretty. Have on hand, hair spray, a brush and nail polish. The girls should line up and take their shoes off. Then they will have their toes polished and their hair done!


ok, that is my idea, it is simply the best because it is absolutely almost free!

For decorations, I would have a sign posted at the front door: Welcome to the Princess Prepatory Academy.

When the girls come in have name tags prepared with different princess names on it: (sleeping Gabby, Cindersue...)

if you have butcher paper, I would draw a castle and tape it to your wall. then decorate around it with pink and white crape paper and pink and white balloons. if you don't have butcher paper, find large cardboard boxes...and then recreate the castle we used to build when we were growing up. This is a great idea too because after the girls have finished with the stations they can go and play in the cardboard box castle.

If you want more ideas for my prepatory princess training party...let me know! TW Hill