2408

Princess Barbie Party - 4yr - Crowns & Necklaces

August 2001

Anita in Stilwell, Kansas, USA

Runner-Up

Princess Barbie Birthday Party:

I just had my daughter's 4th birthday party last weekend and it was such a blast that I thought I would share. I used lots of ideas from other parties so thanks for your website!

First, I sent invitations that I printed in color from the Barbie website - what a great site if you haven't seen it! The invite said to have their carriage drop them off at Anna Belle's castle at 2:00 and to wear their favorite dress up clothes. It also listed some things we would be doing so they would all be excited.

Since I knew the girls would all be dressed up I also had gold paper crowns and necklaces for each adult to wear.  One thing I did to prepare for the party was make magic scepters for each girl - I used foam that I cut into 2 star shapes. I hot glued these back to back to the end of dowel rods that I had covered with silver (I used Mylar but you could use foil, too). I decorated the scepters with curling ribbon, "jewels", and glitter paint. I must mention that the cheapest "jewels" I found were actually part of a doorway curtain kit that I originally bought to make jewel-like curtains for the party. I ended up using them for necklaces and to decorate the scepters and tiaras instead! Anyway, I made each scepter a different color - pink, orange, blue, purple, yellow and green. When each girl arrived I had the handles of the scepters sticking out of a vase and everyone picked one and that was her color for the party (the birthday girl chose her color in advance).

The first thing we did at the party was make our own tiaras - I used a package of silver table edging and cut one to fit each girl, then they spent about 20 minutes decorating them with jewels, glitter paint, and sticky-back foam cut into jewel shapes. I hot glued the jewels on for them since regular glue would not have dried in time. We left the tiaras to dry and went to play some games - first we went on a jewel hunt. I gave each princess a bracelet in her color and told them there was a matching one hidden somewhere in the house. I read a clue to find the first one - "Finding your bracelet will be quite a job - it's hanging on a bathroom doorknob!" The clue was written on the same color paper as the bracelet they were looking for, and then when they found each bracelet they also found the next clue.

After that we played pin the tiara on Barbie - I had found some room stick-ups that were on sale and I put Barbie on the wall and gave each girl a tiara stick-up. We blindfolded 2 girls at a time and they tried - then I gave everyone the leftover Barbie stickups that I had cut apart as a prize. I also gave them each a bag in their color to start putting all of their loot in. Then, we fished in a "royal fishing pond" (a sheet with some fish pinned on it and my husband behind it). They caught necklaces with their scepters.

After that, we popped balloons to get at some jewelry inside - I had placed a necklace, earring/ring set, and bracelet inside balloons (again, color coded so they had to find their own before popping them!). Some of the girls needed help but they enjoyed that game.

The last party game was a ring toss for some Surf Barbie’s that I had found on sale at Target - they were each in a sand bucket so they stood up nicely and were perfect for a ring toss game. Each girl won one - again, some needed help and next time I might use bean bags instead and let them try to knock them over. This sounds like a lot but it really only took about 40 minutes.

Then it was time for makeup and fingernail polish. Once the princesses were all dolled up, we fitted and taped the tiaras that we had made and put them on, then each princess got to sit on the "throne" and get a Polaroid picture taken (the throne was a little chair covered with a white sheet and decorated with gold ribbon and trimmings). The throne was in front of a sheet that I had hung across the dining room doorway - it served as a nice backdrop and also hid the decorated party table!

When we were finished with pictures the princesses all had a Princess Parade into the dining room, where they found their chair (their color balloon was tied to it), and had some Barbie cake and ice cream. I made the standard Barbie cake using a batter bowl on top of 2 rounds and a princess Barbie doll stuck into it. It turned out well, although the skirt part didn't rise as much as I expected so I definitely needed the 2 rounds underneath!

After cake we opened presents and then came what turned out to be the high point for my daughter - a phone call from Barbie. I went upstairs and called her on the extension (you could also have a friend do it from somewhere else) and told her I was Barbie and that I had told the fairies to bring a present for her and some things for her friends. We have a tree in the backyard that has a big hole in it and that is our fairy hole - she went running out there and found a present and a sack with some favors for her friends - I had wrapped a butterfly ring and some butterfly hair clips in clear cellophane and tied it with ribbon (again, one in each color for each girl). The present for her was a Barbie lunch box. Anna was thrilled and is still talking about that phone call. Before each princess left I gave them their Polaroid that I put in a frame I made in advance out of pink sticky-back foam on cardboard - we were going to decorate them along with the tiaras but didn't have time. They were fine anyway without decoration. I also gave each of them a Polaroid group shot.

The entire party took exactly 2 hours and each girl went home with a big smile and a big bag of stuff.  Hope you can use some or all of these ideas and have some Barbie fun!

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