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Ballerina Princess Party -5yr- Nutcracker Music

May 2009

Laura in Junction, KS, US

Special Mention

My daughter's 5th birthday was in May and I started planning about February. 

INVITATIONS: I bought computer paper from the dollar store with flowers printed all over it, and then I wrote out the information and printed it out on my computer. I rolled it up like a scroll and tied it with purple ribbon, then I placed a Barbie sticker to hold it together I also tied a purple flower from the dollar store to it. (Purple is my daughter's favorite color.) I sent those invitations out 3 weeks before the party in a purple basket with purple shredded tissue paper that my daughter handed out to all the girls in her class.

Then 1 week before the party I printed out Barbie ballerina coloring sheets from the internet and pasted them to construction paper with a message on the back asking them to please color the pictures and bring them back as they were the girl's tickets to get into the party.

CAKE: I didn't have time to make one so I went out and bought a cake from a bakery. I ordered it to be a real Barbie with a cake skirt. It was really pretty. Barbie was in the middle and was being held up with rods and the skirt was chocolate cake with purple frosting as the decoration.

FOOD: We just did BBQ and chips and potato salad and called it a day.

DECORATIONS: In the front yard I had lined the driveway with purple balloons and hanging from the garage door was a 6 foot long banner I made with poster board and markers that said Barbie Party! As you entered the garage on both sides of you were Barbie scene setters that I placed on cardboard and hung from the garage door. The scene setters were about 5 feet high and 10 feet long. As you continued forward you walked into a sea of streamers. (The kids kept running in and out of the streamers.) As you walked even more into the garage I had a table set up with makeup and nail polish so that when the girls walked in they had their beauty moment. Also, once the girls gave me their tickets I hung them across the table so as they got their makeup done they could see everybody's picture. I hung blue sheets over all the tools hanging on the walls. I also had The Nutcracker playing continuously in the garage.

In the backyard we had a gazebo and I hung butterfly and flower tissue streamers. There were also flowers in their vases on every corner of the gazebo and on the tables. I made a 3 foot tall ballerina out of construction paper and made it look like my daughter and hung her right in the middle. I went around the fence and hung streamers around the entire fence and had balloons on all four corner of the backyard. I did the same thing with the streamers and balloons around the deck in the backyard. I made tons of posters ranging from BIRTHDAY GIRL!  To BALLERINA BIRTHDAY! And hung them everywhere. In the kitchen I hung streamers going from all four corners to the center and hung balloons in the middle.

Then I hung streamers cascading down in the middle of the room. I bought wall stickers from the dollar store and placed them down the hall toward the bathroom. The stickers were flowers and princess stickers. I also printed off Barbie ballerina scenes from the internet and framed them with construction paper and hung them all over the house. I bought fake flowers and hung them around all the doorways. In the bathroom mirror I put stars and hearts on the mirror. In the living room I hung streamers from each corner of the room and brought them all to the center with balloons. 

ACTIVITIES: I went to the library and checked out all the ballet books they had and had them lying out so the kids could read them if they wanted. I put every Barbie coloring page I had and placed them on the table in the middle of the room with ballet coloring books I bought online and had the kids color when they first got there. We had two piñatas, one was a ballet slipper and the other was a pretty princess. I bought 2 packs of chalk and had the girls write all over the driveway.

The biggest surprise was when BARBIE came to do a performance! I had a girl (who looked like Barbie) from our ballet school come and perform The Nutcracker. After she performed she took pictures with the Barbie scene in the background with every person at the party. She stayed and played red light green light with the girls but instead of running they had to tiptoe towards her. The kids loved her and so did the grown men who were there! Then I had a princess photo prop set up for the girls to take a picture.

FAVORS: I just bought party favor packs with all the stuff in it already. It saved time and money. Each pack cost 6 dollars and came with 8 bags filled with Barbie stuff. (In fact I cut out all the Barbie symbols from the package and taped them to random areas of the house.)

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