18648

Mary Poppins Party -4yr- Musical Poppins Chimneys

September 2008

Lisa in Atlanta, Ga USA

Special Mention

Because Mary Poppins" is the favorite movie of my boy/girl twins we decided to have a "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" Party for their 4th birthday. 

INVITATION: I bought some generic invites and ended up printing them on my home computer. The copy read  "It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious  Luke and Vee are turning four now isn't that atrocious!  Your presence here will make it practically perfect in every way So come along and join us for their jolly holiday!  I had bought a couple of  inexpensive items on ebay of vintage Mary Poppins stuff that eventually became some of their gifts (books coloring books and a paper doll book). From those I scanned a cute illustration of Mary Poppins and included it on the invitation. 

DECORATIONS: For decorations I used mainly brightly colored table cloths paper plates napkins etc. The party was in our back yard so we went with the theme of when all the characters were in the chalk drawing since it's the most carnival-like and fun. From the paper doll book I'd gotten (above) I punched out M.P. Bert Jane and Michael and had them all standing on the table with the food. They were so adorable many parents commented on them. I'd also gotten a vintage toy on ebay that was meant to be a "carpet bag". It was brightly colored with an umbrella that had the Mary Poppins logo on it.

I had intended to make it into a grab bag game of some sort but never came up with anything good so I ended up putting it in the center of the table with a bunch of fresh daisies and branches that resembled tiny cherries (same things that M.P. has on her hat). Instead of party hats I bought white plastic election hats (Oriental Trading). For the girls I wrapped a wide pink & green striped ribbon around and had the tails hang down in the back to look like Jane's hat. For the boys I wrapped a blue & brown striped ribbon around and cut it where it met in the back so it would look like Michael's. Lastly I bought some of those big rainbow swirl lollipops (Oriental Trading) and had them around on tables to give color and the country fair feel. In the background we had the soundtrack of the movie playing. 

ACTIVITIES: In the movie M.P. measures the children right away with her tape measure. I decided to use an extra piece of wood I had lying around. I painted it yellow-orange and marked out inches with a black marker. At different places on the measuring stick I wrote phrases like "silly and wiggly" or "genius". You get the picture. And for my son and daughter's exact height I put something that definitely described them. At the top I put Mary Poppins practically perfect in every way. We did chalk drawing in the driveway.

I drew out colorful rectangles and left lots of chalk for the kids to draw. By the end of the party it was so fun to see what people drew....Bert merry-go-rounds umbrellas... it stayed for weeks! The cutest thing we did was have one of those photo boards where the face is cut out and you stand behind it to have your picture taken. My sister had done one for a her daughter's carnival party and offered to re-paint it in a Mary Poppins theme. There were 3 characters: M.P. Bert and a penguin. It was absolutely adorable and it really helped decorate the party and get everyone in the spirit. We took all the kids' pictures and I sent photos of each child to them with their thank you note. 

GAMES: My niece came up with a great idea for a game. It's the same concept as a cake walk. I took pieces of a giant foam puzzle mat (or you could use carpet squares) and made a circle with them in the yard. Then from the coloring book I'd purchased on ebay I scanned and colored characters from the movie. I cut them out and laminated them to make them stiff. I taped them to a wooden paint stir stick and put one in front of each foam mat. I had also painted old boxes to look like chimneys (for the chimney sweep song) and placed them around in the center of the circle. Each child stands on a mat  and when we started the music from the movie they walked around the circle until the music stopped. Whoever landed on M.P. won a prize! It was the hit of the party. The kids loved it! The characters were: M.P. Bert Michael Jane members from the cartoon Pearly Band some of the cartoon farm animals the cartoon fox and some penguins. 

COSTUMES: For my twins outfits I bought them solid color t-shirts to wear. Then I bought those iron-on sheets (Michael's) and did a design on the computer that spelled "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on several different lines of type. I printed it on the special paper I bought and ironed it on. They turned out really cute! (We're going to Disney World in October and having breakfast with Mary Poppins so I thought they'd be perfect to wear then too!) 

PARTY SNACKS: I had the party around lunch so I just served regular type of food: pb&j sandwiches snacks goldfish fruit carrot sticks and such. I did make spoonfuls of sugar that were a big hit. I bought a candy mold of a spoon and make chocolate spoons. After they hardened I put white icing in the spoon tip and dusted it with colored sugar. I made little tags for each color: pink = raspberry ice green = lime cordial yellow = lemonade fizz blue = tutti frutti and purple = passion fruit. they were super sweet but the kids loved them. 

CAKE: The cake was the carousel from the country fair scene. I made a regular double-round cake and decorated it with white icing. I sprinkled it all over with colored sugar confetti. Again using the coloring book I'd purchased I had scanned in 4 pictures of M.P. Bert Jane and Michael all riding on their carousel horses. I printed them colored cut them out and also had them laminated for stiffness. Then I attached them each to a wooden shish-kabab skewer. I made the carousel top out of cardstock by tracing a large plate.

I covered it with brightly striped paper and cut one straight line from the edge to the center of the circle. Then I pulled the cut edges together so they overlapped until it formed a wide cone shape and secured it with tape. I'd saved a paper towel tube and wrapped it in white paper. I taped the carousel top to the paper towel tube. In the center of the first layer of the cake only I cut a hole just big enough to fit the tube. I pushed each of the 4 characters into the cake evenly spaced apart. Then I pushed the top of the carousel contraption down into the hole. It was really cute - and from all sides. The kids LOVED it! 

FAVORS: For favor/goodie bags I looked and looked for "carpet bags" but ended up with little colored canvas bags (Michael's). Each child got an old-fashioned 4x6 chalk board a few pieces of colored chalk and an eraser. I also made cd's of some of the more popular M.P. songs to put in there. There was a bag of chocolate coins (tuppence) and each child got a lollipop that had been part of the decorations.  It was a really fun party and the kids and parents seemed to love it. I think it may have been one of the most fun ones we've done yet! I wonder what we'll do next year?"

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