24230

Pink & Blue Princess Party -4yr- Cardboard Castle

February 2013

Cathryn in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

Runner Up

My oldest daughter absolutely LOVES Disney princesses, and has watched Sleeping Beauty" more times than I could possibly count. When I asked her what kind of party she would like for her 4th birthday she shouted: "A PRINCESS PARTY! A Princess Aurora Party!" 

INVITATIONS:  I created the invitations in Window's Publisher and emailed it to everyone in a jpeg format. It was pink with pictures of the Disney Princes & Princesses as well as one of the birthday girl. The invitation read: "Hear ye hear ye! Noble knights and princesses from across the land are gathering for an event that is truly grand! And Princess _________ is inviting you; Kings Queens & Princes too! So mark the date and make your way to Princess __________'s 4th Birthday!" This was followed by the details of the time & place as well as a request for the children attending to come dressed in their "royal attire". 

DECORATIONS:  I placed a sign on our front door welcoming the guests to _________'s Princess Party. The entry way living room and dining room were decorated with streamers & balloons all in Princess Aurora's colours of pink and blue. I made a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" paper bunting banner and hung it above the cardboard castle (see "ACTIVITIES" for details). Behind the food table I taped streamers in vertical lines and twisted them to make a cute backdrop and taped pink and blue balloons at the top of them. The table had a plastic blue table cloth from the dollar store and I made a giant tutu with tulle & non-rolling elastic band from the fabric store which fit around the table. It looked really cute and I will be able to reuse the tulle to make tutus for my girls' dress-up box. The birthday cake was a main part of the table décor as it was a 3-tiered blue & pink castle with Disney princess figurines on and around it. I also draped pink fabric and tulle around the doorways windows and chandelier. 

ACTIVITIES: The party began at 10:30am and the children all arrived dressed in their royal attire (the girls all wore Disney princess dresses one boy dressed as a knight and another as a dragon. As they arrived the children were directed to an area where they each received a foam crown and jewel-like stickers (dollar store). They spent some time decorating their crowns and once everyone had arrived the girls were given jewelry boxes and the boys were given foam swords which they also decorated. After taking a few pictures of them with their beautiful creations we played a quick game of Pin-the-Crown-on-the-Princess (I printed up a picture of Princess Aurora without a crown and then cut out enough crowns for each child. I put tape on the back of each and used a strip of fabric as a blind-fold. The kids LOVED spinning around and then trying to locate the picture).  

The main event of the party revolved around the cardboard castle I had created. Two weeks before the party I got four large cardboard boxes from Lowe's (if you call ahead to the receiving department you may find an employee willing to set some aside for you to pick up as they usually break down the boxes they get with shipments before the store opens in the morning). I used a large exacto knife to cut a drawbridge doorways & windows (I left the window pieces attached like shutters so the kids could open & close them). I used a smaller box to create a tunnel between the 3 main castle boxes and the last one as it was the dungeon with "bars" cut out as a sort of window to let some light in. I painted the whole castle blue with some left-over paint from our powder room as the Birthday Princess had requested. The kids all seemed to enjoy raising & lowering the working drawbridge and playing in the dungeon the most.

For the activity we just let them play with balloons in the castle as all of the guests were 4 years old & under. I did consider creating a story line/challenge for them to act out but decided that they would probably just like to use their own imaginations.  After stopping to eat lunch the presents were opened. My husband then hid upstairs in a borrowed dragon costume and I told the kids: "We've just received some news! A DRAGON has decided to move in upstairs! I need the bravest knights princes & princesses in the land to go and fight the monster and save the kingdom from this fierce beast!" The kids eagerly ran upstairs and destroyed the dragon with their swords. :)     For the rest of the party the kids had "free play" time with the options of putting more stickers on their jewelry boxes/swords play in the castle and make edible necklaces with licorice strings fruit-loop cereal and ring gummies. 

FOOD:  As we were having the party over lunch time I served a lot of snack-style foods and sandwiches. We laid out a variety of deli meats cheeses and condiments as well as bread and fresh buns from a local bakery. The kids each chose a cookie cutter (princess themes ie - castle shoe crown) and cut out the center of their sandwich. We also served "Mulan's Melon Salad" (watermelon honeydew & cantaloupe cubes) "Belle's Bon-bons" (candies from a bulk food store) "Aurora's Spinning Wheels" (homemade pink & blue pinwheel cookies) "Snow White's Apples & Dip" (sliced apples with a cream cheese & caramel dip) "Cinderella's Cucumbers & Carrots" (plastic cups with ranch dressing at the bottom and carrots & cucumber sticks) "Ariel's Goldfish" (fishy crackers) and "Tiana's Beignets" (powdered sugar doughnuts). I made a dark pink punch with "fruit punch" and frozen berries. 

CAKE: The cake was made with 2 white cake mixes + 2 TBSP of flour (better consistency) and baked in four 8-inch square pans (2 at a time in the oven). I "glued" three of the squares together to form the first tier. The last square I cut into four pieces and glued three of them on top to make the second tier. The final square was again cut into four pieces and I glued two of them together to make the final top tier. After doing a crumb-coat I iced the whole cake blue. I then iced five sugar cones in pink icing and rolled them in pink sugar. I put a cone on each of the corners of the bottom tier and one on the top tier. I used pink mini marshmallows dipped in pink icing & sugar to decorate the edges of each tier and then put wafers on as doors and windows. We served the cake with ice cream. All in all it was a great party and my little princess loved every moment! The kids took home their jewelry     "

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