Princess Party

My little girl  is turning four.  Sigh.  Growing up so fast!  And of course, what does a four year old little girl want?  A Princess Party!

I don't believe in elaborate birthday parties for kids.  As mentioned when I posted about my son's Lego Party, my policy is cute, fun and SIMPLE.  So that's what I aimed for with this party.  (Though I will admit that simple can be relative...this may not seem simple to everyone!)

Food

Pizza, Cupcakes and Apple Ginger Sparkler

Decorating Crowns

Simple.  Exactly what it sounds like.  The kids did this while they waited for their face painting turn.
Crowns (Michaels), Stickers, Foam Stickers and Glitter Glue (DollarTree), Monograms (cut from Stampin' Up! glitter paper using my Silhouette, Victorian font for girls, AdLib BT for boys), and some crayons

Face Painting

Man, I am no pro at face painting.  But it was good enough for the kids!  Mostly butterflies.  A couple flowers.  And then for the two boys in the mix, a frog with a bowtie and the Batman symbol.  :)
Face Painting Kit (Michael's)

Pin the Crown on the Princess

I just blew up a picture of Sleeping Beauty in Photoshop, then worked a little magic to remove her crown.  Then I printed it out in sections and pieced it together (not well, might I add...made some mistakes in proportion when I printed.  Oh well).  And printed and cut out a crown for each little munchikin to "pin" on the princess.  Just used a length of sheet (leftover from making the fabric banners for the B&H wedding) as a blindfold.

Kiss the Frog

My version was not nearly as beautiful as my inspiration, but not too bad, considering I used a box knife, packing tape, butcher paper and two Costco diaper boxes!  The lip shaped bean bags I made using pink felt and my serger, then filled with rice rather than beans.

The Missing Slipper

This game I also borrowed.  So easy.  I picked up the pair of heels (they even look like glass slippers) from a local thrift store.  Then at the party I hid one and told the kids "Oh no!  Cinderella has lost her glass slipper!  Go find it!"  Cue 9 3-4 year olds running through my basement, looking for a shoe.  :)  This was actually the favorite, they asked to play this over and over.

Favors

 Princess treat bags (DollarTree), Princess Crayons (DollarTree), Princess Stickers (Zurchers), Princess Notebooks (Zurchers), Bracelet (DollarTree), Ring (Zurchers), Wand (Zurchers), Candy bracelet (I got at Zurchers but the packaging said Oriental Trading), misc. candy.

When I put my daughter to bed that night, I asked her what her favorite part of the party was.  She ended up listing everything, and then giggling as she realized that said, "I liked all of it!"  :)  I think it was a hit.

Linking up here:

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Lego Par-tay

My darlingest oldest child turned six a few weeks ago.  Sniff sniff.  And he's starting KINDERGARTEN next week!  It's the beginning of the end!  He's practically graduating and leaving me tomorrow!

But I digress.

We threw him a rockin' Lego party this year.  I have a policy on small children's birthday parties: cute, fun and SIMPLE.  So his party was not the elaborate toast of Pinterest.  But it was cute, it was fun, and it was just the right amount of simple for me.

To start with, here is the invitation:

We built that 6 ourselves from my son's extensive Lego collection, then I photographed it on our kitchen table with no special lighting.  Brightened up the colors a bit in Photoshop, then added the text.

Notice we planned on an hour and a half.  That's 'cause last year's water party was two hours and we were DYING by the end of it.  Kids required entertaining far more than they did when we were little, I'll tell ya that!  :P

Anyway, we had just a few activities. Building and racing cars. Cake and ice cream.  Opening presents.  Pinata.

I ordered a random bulk mix of Legos and 10 sets of wheels on eBay.  The random mix was terrific.  (The wheels were perfect too, exactly as pictured.)  My boy and I sorted out the pieces into categories (double wide flat, single wide flat, double wide regular, single wide regular, curved slanted pieces, bigger flat pieces, miscellaneous transparent pieces) and then the day of the party, each kid got a set of wheels and then they each got to be creative and use the random pieces to build their cars.

My husband built a simple but awesome track out of scrap MDF and particle board we had in the garage, leftover from various other building endeavors.  So as the kids finished, they raced their cars, and once everyone was done, we had our official races.

And of course, everyone needed a first place ribbon (cut from this Silhouette file, stamped in the middle with this Blue Ribbon set from Stampin' Up!, and adhesive bar pins added to the back).

Then we had cake

Yes, I know my icing job is lumpy and bumpy.  But the kids all identified it as a Lego nonetheless!

and ice cream and opened presents.

Last, but not least, the kids took turns whacking a pinata in the front yard as parents began to arrive.

Cute, fun and simple.

Last but not least, I firmly believe in sending thank you notes.  And sending them the old fashioned way.

Printed these off on cardstock and cut them into postcards (cheaper postage, you see!  Perfect for a kid's thank you notes).  My son wrote their names (I wrote their addresses), he wrote Thanks (then I wrote the message he dictated) and he signed his name.  Excellent team work.  :)