My husband joked that I need to add a warning to this blog post - Caution lots of 'soft focus' photography! And he is right, you will find lots of it - however my hazy pics are hopefully to show how dreamy a day we had - truly a magical one!
I will not bore you with the details but inevitably (yet again!!) the theme of the party was changed by the birthday girl a few weeks before the scheduled party - so once again limited time for planning, making and organizing. Though I do think I wierdly enjoy working under this pressure! The party was a small 'at home' tea-party which I hoped to be filled with lots of treats and surprises to truly make the birthday girl feel like her favourite princess.
All blank spaces were decorated with pink and lilac flowers, butterflies and balloons. I designed large posters for the walls and bunting to coordinate with my daughters party invitations.
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| Princess invitations and decorations available soon - visit Lila's Party for more info |
My favourite element of the party room was the childrens table - I found a wonderful blog post by Stylish Trendy showing how to make the most beautiful brown paper tablecloth and this got me thinking of trying to simplify and change up this idea to fit my theme. So I created my paper tablecloth using a roll of brown paper, stencils and chalk, adding simple flower shapes (cut from lilac felt with a flower detail I found on hair bobbles from the pound shop).
I ensured all flower elements were very securely attached to the brown paper and the children were supervised throughout - as was cautious that for all I knew the girls would love their party table, I did not want any of the elements to be muddled in with their lunch!
Not only did this 'paper table cloth' fit my tables perfectly and cost very little it also was wonderful as an activity after lunch. After removing the plates and food, I set out pastel coloured chalks for the girls to add their own drawings and flowers to the table. Great for keeping them occupied whilst I tidied away lunch and prepared party games.
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| Party Room Decor |
Dress Up
It is tradition now at our tea parties that there is an element of dressing up! I also like providing a t-shirt/apron as I always tend to plan messy activities and so I do not have to worry about pretty party clothes being ruined!
Tutu's always a must for our girly-girls - I found these lilac and purple ones very cheap on Ebay and added pink ribbon bows to pretty them up a bit. I also found simple silver tiaras on Ebay and added a felt flower to each one. T-shirts were printed to match the design theme of the party and I teamed these up with lilac felt capes. My daughter requested to wear a cape at her party which I was worried was going to be a bit too much of a challenge (I'm not very good with a needle and thread!!). However I found this wonderful 'No sew cape tutorial' on Little Pink Monster Blog and they literally took minutes to make - very, very easy. Though felt not the best material to use - I had this felt already so again to keep to my low budget I tried to use materials I already had at home.
Even though it was a hot day the girls refused to take the capes off - they looked so cute crafting and playing with them on all day long - my little caped crusaders :)
Party Treats
The birthday girl loves pizza and ice-cream so rather than having our usual 'sweetie table' and buffet I kept things really simple with take away pizza for lunch followed by cupcakes and a very special ice-cream treat.
I had looked on Pinterest at lots of ideas for Rapunzel Tower cupcakes (I've pinned them to my 'Rapunzel Party Ideas' board - link at the end of this post) and thought it could be fun to turn this idea into an activity for the girls - using ice-cream rather than cupcakes. My youngest daughter always talks about Rapunzel as living in a 'Flower Tower' and so our 'Flower Tower Ice Cream Factory' was created.
Ice cream cones and cone cups were decorated with sprinkles and chocolate squares - tubes of icing being our 'edible glue' to stick all of the decorations. Then the cone cup was filled with a scoop of ice-cream and topped with marshmallows before adding the cone tower top. Messy but lots of fun!!
Cupcakes were personalised for each guest with themed toppers and the birthday girl herself helped me make 'Pascal -inspired' sugar paste characters, and add these and sprinkles to the cupcakes. Again I had looked for inspiration on Pinterest for character toppers (My finds added to my board - link at end of this post) but ultimately I just tried to create very simple shapes for him (within my very basic sugar modelling abilities!) and added Wilton eye decorations. It was lovely to make the cakes and sugar toppers with Gracie the day before the party, as she was very eager to be involved with her party preparations.
Activities
We played traditional party games - pass the parcel, musical statues, etc but I also organised some themed activities for the girls to create their own princess doll with her very own 'lizard' friend. I bought dolls from the pound shop and set out oddments of fabric and ribbon along with sequins and sparkles so the girls could create a princess dress and decorate their doll to turn her into a beautiful flower princess. The lizards I found on Ebay and they were decorated with fabric pens and sequins.
A Very Special Visitor
The party was drawing to a close or so everyone (adults too) were led to believe, but a very special surprise was in store - a visit from the princess herself! The wonderful Emma Enchanted sent the 'Flower Princess' along to give the birthday girl and her guests a princess makeover and to teach the girls how to dance and sing like a princess. She also read a story about one of her adventures and handed out gifts - so magical - the girls have talked about nothing else since!
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| Take a look at all the fab fairytale characters at - www.emmaenchanted.co.uk |
A very happy day and great memories :)
I have put together a board on Pinterest with my Rapunzel- inspired party ideas along with ones I found along the way by others which really caught my eye - you will find it at PINTEREST - hopefully it can help inspire more magical days for other little birthday princesses :)
