Princess and the Frog party!

I am going to first start off by saying I'm no professional party thrower, but I do try hard to make sure everyone has an enjoyable time. I wish I could put on a party like some of the ladies in blog land do, but it is very time consuming and hard to as a working mom so I do what I can. After doing Kenzley's princess tea party, Brinley told me she wanted a Princess and the Frog party. Of course she did, I couldn't find any fun ideas online, nobody in blog land had seemed to do throw this kind of party, and I was completely in the dark on what I should do. I first started off by making her party invitations in the shape of lily pads. I added some fun stickers and they turned out very cute.

Next I went shopping for anything I could think of, hoping that I would see something to make the light go on and give me some bright ideas. I shopped and shopped and SHOPPED and still, nothing. At this point I was ready to pull out my hair. Then I decided to talk to my husband and ask him what he thought of my ideas. He of course became my spine and one of the best supporters of this party. These are the ideas I came up with. I first got a life size cardboard stand up of Princess Tiana. I wanted each little princess to be greeted by princesss tiana as they came in the door and have their picture taken with her. I decided instead of each girl coming dressed as a princess and I would make them a tutu to put on as they came in the door before having their picture taken. After all the princesses arrived and had their picture taken, I sent my hubby to the store to develop the pictures for each girl so they could take it home as part of their "gift bag."

I also didn't want this party to seem like a duplicate of the princess tea party so I tried to think of other things I could do that were age appropriate for the girls, but not to boring for the parents that came last time. I decided we would have three princess stations. The first station would be "Pampering the Princess." My best friend Kjersty was in charge of this station. Each princess would go to her to receive their tiara, royal jewelry, and to have their make up done. I bought two princess make up sets from toys r us to split between the groups of girls. Once Kjersty was done doing the make up on the princesses, she let the princesses have a turn putting the make up on her. I'm not sure which part the girls enjoyed more, but they did have fun playing with the make up.

The next station was "Decorate your own prince charming." I made some really great sugar cookies, thanks to my cousin who shared her recipe with me, and some cream cheese frosting. I did the sugar cookies in the shape of a frog and colored the frosting frog green. I purchased each girl their own princess tiana place mat to decorate their cookie on and they could take the mat and their cookie/cookies home after. Each girl got a scoop of frosting on their plate and we let them have free reign over the sprinkles. It made for some very interesting looking frogs.

See that big pile of sprinkles? This is one of the birthday girl's cookies. There is a cookie hidden under that big pile of goodness. Needless to say, we had her go to a different station after this because we needed to make sure every other girl got SOME sprinkles. The next station was "Kiss the frog." I had hopes of making my own home made version of this game, but as I was out shopping this caught my eye and being the lazy person I am purchased the game instead. There was two winners from this game, the two girls that got their lips closest to the frogs won either a princess tiana barbie or a princess tiana polly pocket size barbie with the rubbery clothes.

 Once each princess had at least one turn at each station we went outside and broke the pinata and blew up sesame street bounce house. After the princesses wore off some of their energy we proceeded on with birthday cupcakes and the opening of her presents. I made frog cupcakes, frog jello jigglers, and my mother in law made frog suckers.

In my opinion everything went smoothly, including me sending my husband to develop the pictures. He returned in plenty of time so that each girl could leave the party with their tutu, place mat, cookie, sucker, tiara, jewelry, and princess tiana pictures. Happy 4th Birthday Brinley!



Princess Tea Party Part 2!

We had Kenzley's 2nd birthday party yesterday. It turned out to be a HUGE success and was so much fun. As our guests started to arrive we had them start decorating there crowns and wands. The little girls loved it and they were so creative with the placement of their stickers.

After they were done it was time for tea. Each girl chose their cup and plate and I poured the tea (black cherry koolaid). The girls loved the tea and kept asking for more until the tea was gone. Then we went outside for some bounce house fun. All the princesses loved it and played well together. Considering we had princesses from ages 2-4 they did very well together and there was no tears.

Next we did the pinata! I tried to convince Mike to man the pinata but something about little kids swinging a bat just scared him. My friend Kjersty operated the pinata until the string broke and then David, my friend Leanne's husband, braved the holding of the pinata.

There was a secret to our pinata, that we kept until the end. All you had to do was pull on the strings at the bottom of the pinata and the bottom fell out. We let each princess hit the pinata at least twice before pulling the strings. Each princess then crowded around and gathered up as many treats as the could and put them in their goody bag.

We then let everyone play and have an enjoyable time. They could choose from any of the treats I made and eat their little hearts out while they played. I made 6-layered jello glass slippers.

I also made glass slipper chocolate molds

and then we had rainbow cupcakes with princess crowns on top

Some of the crowns didn't set up very well, but we will have better luck next time. After the princesses seemed worn out we decided to do presents. Kenzley was very spoiled and is lucky to have such great friends. She got 2 shopping carts, a princess chair, clothes, a book, a coloring book, and a princess doll.

We gathered all the princess around for a royal picture but it was pretty hard to get them all looking at once.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENZLEY!

Princess Tea Party!

I was really trying to hold off on this post until after we held Kenzley's party, but I am just so excited with the decorations and the planning I can't keep it a secret anymore. I have always wanted my children to have really nice and fancy parties but my husband isn't a fan, mostly because I don't have a problem swiping the credit card, ESPECIALLY when it comes to our girls. This year I thought I would try my hand at a homemade party. Through blog hopping I have came across several cute ideas. I am going to try and remember where each idea came from so I can link back to the appropriate blog, but if I forget one, don't hate me, just simply leave me comment so I can edit my post. I started the home made party with the invitations. Perfect place to start if I do say so myself.

This is the invitation that we sent out to all her little friends and cousins.The turned out really cute, I came up with the saying off the top of my head, typed it up on the computer and printed it out. I then cut it out to look like a banner and glued it on to the card stock. I then used my Cricut to cut the glass slippers and wands. I found a tiarra paper punch at Wal-Mart for $3.00. Next I had to find princess tea sets because I everyone knows you can't have a tea party without the tea sets. I was able to track them down at the online disney store for $9.99, that was even cheaper than Wal-Mart.

Next I was looking at decorations I could use for the tables and I ran across a couple of simple but really fun ideas. The first idea I am going to use is the lollipop tree idea. I can't remember which blog I got the idea from, but thanks for the idea. They are so much fun to make and I really liked the way it turned out. It isn't all the way complete but I  just need to add the crinkle tissue paper around the bottom to cover the styrofoam and it will be complete. I got green styrofoam for the bottom and cut it to fit in the bottom of my glad container, I got a wooden scewer for the trunk of the tree, and a styrofoam ball for the top. Next I used only green dum dums around the bottom for the grass and then I used my Cricut to cut the flowers, I stuck the dum dum through the center of the flower and in to a styrofoam ball.

A close up of the grass

The finished project! The next project I did I got from Julie at  http://www.joyshope.com/. She is simply amazing and crafty. She came up with this fun idea:

Super easy, just go to dollar tree buy however many silver platters you will need and buy enough silver candle holders to go along with your project. Then stop at your favorite home improvement store and pick up a drop cloth, spray paint primer, your favorite colors of spray paint, and gorilla super glue. When you get home lay the drop cloth down and then put your platters and candle holders on the drop cloth. Go ahead and prime each object and allow it ample time to dry before flipping it over to prime the other sides. Once the primer is dry, spray paint the platters and holders to your hearts desire and glue it together. Place a heavy object on the very top of the platter to ensure there is enough pressure so they will hold together. Seems pretty easy, right? Well leave it to me to screw it up. After I had finished the painting process, I decided I would put them through the dishwasher so I could put food right on them and the food would not have a weird taste. NOT A GOOD IDEA! I should have sealed the paint first. Needless to say I had to start all over again. Well I didn't have the patience for it this time so I cheated. I went back to dollar tree and found some cute summer plates they had and made something similar. Here is mine and now I don't have to worry about my food tasting funny!

I never could find the silver candle holders. The dollar tree I went to was out but the glass ones work just as well and the glue does work just fine on the glass. There are the party platters we are going to use to put our food on. We will have 7-layer jello glass slipper jigglers, rainbow cupcakes, and cookies to eat. I am so excited for this party and I hope it turns out the way I have it planned in my head. I went to Michael's and picked up some tiaras with matching wands for the girls to decorate.

I got them some foam stickers and some jewels that are like stickers as well to use for decorating. I hope this isn't to hard for the little girls to do. I didn't want to use glue because I was afraid it would get eaten. We also received the bounce house for the party. It isn't princess themed but I don't think the girls will mind.

It is as incredible as it looks! I will blog about the party with lots of pictures after it happens. Wish me luck!