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Sleeping Beauty Finds A Prince -4yr- Spindle Pop

November 2013

Rebecca in Cleveland, Ohio USA

Special Mention

PRINCESS EVERYWHERE!  My husband and I are convinced that our daughter has a fondness of Princess Aurora because that movie is in the vault, and we still do not have it in our collection of princess movies. When birthday planning time came around, well, the question of what kind of cake do you want? gave birth to: A Princess Aurora one!!

INVITATIONS: Of course, out of procrastination, this was sent out 2 weeks before the party, and was done quickly, but looked like one of the best I have made.  I started with the background of a scroll clip art image in Photoshop. Then, I hit google up for some more clipart of Princess Aurora in a pink dress holding a rose in one hand, and her other hand extended out in welcoming gesture to the center of the scroll.  I placed her on the left side of the scroll, with her dress brushing the bottom of the curled up scroll paper.  Next, I used an image of the three fairies and orientated them in a flying fashion moving down along the right side of the scroll, and used a ‘multiply’ layer command so they seemed more ingrained with the scroll paper.  They are all holding wands, and I think that it’s an image of Flora in front leading the other fairies with their magical wands to ‘bless’ our daughter’s birthday party.

Centered on the top part of the scroll was a blue coat of arms that said Daughter’s 4th Birthday above (in a white Disney font), and then Birthday Party below (in a golden yellow Sleeping Beauty font). Under that, using the same Sleeping Beauty font in a golden yellow, the invitation read You have been officially requested to attend a celebration in honor of Daughter.  Lastly, under the request, in a purple Disney font, the party was described Celebrations will occur at Daughter’s abode in City on Saturday, the DAY of MONTH at 4pm. Dinner will be served to all. Your response of attendance will be greatly appreciated by Queen Mum, phone number listed.

DECORATIONS: We had luckily found this beautiful sparkly-pink crepe paper, and some silver, as well.  My husband hung it up around the house, making the house look simple- but elegantly decorated. 

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: We started the party with the idea that Princess Aurora was strolling through the woods before she met the Prince.  The first game was about the kids finding their Prince on top of one of the balloon ‘trees’, and then taking their ‘tree’ to the spinning wheel to get it pricked.   To make this happen, we purchased a helium tank and twice as many balloons as kids, so there were enough balloons for the kids to be tricked by. On top of half the balloons (one for each kid) was a sticker of Prince Philip, and on top of the rest of the balloons was a sticker of the OWL dressed up LIKE Prince Philip.  Inside of each Prince Philip balloon was a rolled up ‘go-to-jail, directly-to-jail’ ticket (this was a pun on monopoly- I had found a clipart image of the monopoly ticket, and then fudged Maleficent’s face on top of the cop who was dragging a man- with a fudged Prince Philip head -  to jail) that fell out after the balloon was ‘pricked’ on the spinning wheel.  The spinning wheel was a large print taped onto a 4’ x 3’ tall piece of cardboard, and where the spindle was, I had a safety pin sticking out that I carefully monitored when the kids took their balloon up to pop on the spindle.  Once each of the kids popped their balloon, they went into jail and had to give bailiff their ticket to break out.  

The rest of the party happened outside, so the ‘break-out’ was our sliding glass door adorned in vertical black-crepe-paper stripes to emulate a jail cell. Outside, the activities were for the kids to tear down the wall of thistles that had easter eggs attached at each end so they could go and fight the dragon.  To make this happen, we hung more black crepe paper, and then attached an easter egg at each end (again, enough easter eggs for each kid), and inserted a number into each egg. That number corresponded to an order that each kid fought the dragon.  The dragon was the best part of this party.  We found a picture of the dragon online, and then printed it out to span close to 3’ x 4’ tall.  We cut the dragon out, and then traced the dragon on the cardboard.  Then, I took a solo cup and traced the 16 circles within the shape of the dragon 16 kids were coming- so that is where that number came from. Then, we cut out the 16 circles from the cardboard, and taped 16 solo cups to the back of the cardboard to align to each of the cut-outs.  We placed a 4x6 puzzle piece into each cup, with a number on the back of the puzzle piece.  We also numbered the cups to correspond to the number of the marked puzzle piece inside them.  

Next, we turned the cardboard over and covered the board in black tissue paper, and then taped the dragon in the approximate area that we had originally traced him.  Next, I used an X-acto knife and sliced a vertical and horizontal line at each cup location.  I guesstimated the location of each cup by feeling the surface of the cardboard and feeling the not-so-surface areas to make this clean slices.  I made the slices to help the kids with ‘fighting’ the dragon so the sword could puncture the dragon more easily.  Now, before the board was ready, I had to place the corresponding number from each solo cup to the location of each of the slices, so when the ‘last sword puncture’ happened, that cup would have the last puzzle piece to complete the puzzle.  The numbering was a bit intuitive, but reason for it was the puzzle at the end of the party.  (We found a cheap, but sturdy-won’t-hurt-you foam-sword at Target!!) We let the kids ‘break out of the cell’ and they each got their own egg.  Then, whoever had the number one got to take the sword, find the ‘one’ on the front of the dragon, and then puncture the dragon at that spot. Once they put the sword through, then I told them to put their hand through the hole and into the cup to pull out the puzzle piece inside.  

Once all the kids fought the dragon, we moved onto the last game: putting the puzzle together.   For this, I found clipart of a large, Renaissance-looking picture frame, large enough for a 24 x 16 picture of Prince Philip kissing Aurora (16 - 4x6 puzzle pieces), and then taped the frame to a big enough piece of cardboard.  Again, the kid that had the first ‘egg’ was the first kid to fight the dragon, and was the first kid to match their numbered puzzle piece to the numbered location inside the picture frame, which allowed for the kid who had number 16 from the egg, was the last kid to fight the dragon, and was the beholder of puzzle piece that showed the ‘kiss’ between Prince Philip and Aurura. Since the kiss was such an integral part of the movie, it had to be last puzzle piece to complete the picture, it just had to be!!! 

PARTY SNACKS: But German, of course!!  I had made food labels with corresponding character images, and used Disney font text on each label. The menu was as follows: King Hubert’s Cheesy Bratwurst, King Stefan’s Beer Bratwurst, Samson’s Cheesy Dogs, Flora’s Dressed Mac-‘n-Cheese, Merryweather’s Cleaned Veggie Pizza, Maleficent’s Waldorf Salad, Princess Aurora’s Warm Hearts (homemade pretzels), Owl’s Deceiving Cheese Sauce (Beer Cheese Dip), Prince Philip’s Brave Hearts (hard pretzels), Queen Leah’s Apple Cider, Court Minstrel’s Spiked Cider, and Fauna’s Fantastic Princess Cake. 

CAKE:  I made a large home-made Hostess-style cupcake-cake, with holes of marshmallow filling throughout the cake, and a few dozen hostess cupcakes along side. I decorated the cake to have a picture of Aurora, and then the traditional ‘Happy 4th Birthday, Daughter’ around the cake. The cupcakes were adorned with chocolate frosting and then pink and blue rosettes on top of each cupcake.

FAVORS: The girls’ favors included a Pink Princess crown (in 3-packs at Target’s birthday aisle area), stick-on earrings, and chocolate kisses. The boy’s favors included a Prince crown, teenage-mutant ninja turtle stickers (I’m laughing at how this did NOT go with the theme!), and some snickers. And, of course, our present to our daughter included a pair of ‘glass slippers’ that we found at Target.  Yeppers, our daughter had the greatest smile on her face that made all that work and planning worth it to a parent!

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