Birthday party, grandparents visiting, and an Irish dancing competition that required leaving the house at 6:20 in the morning. Which of course meant the Princess came down with a fever Sunday night, started vomiting at 3 am and breathed her sicky germs all over me for the rest of the night.
Hence the delay in my promised post on the big party.
The party went well. Next year's will be anywhere but in my house. I think I'll start saving up now.
But I did pull off the party for under $100 bucks. I hope you're impressed.
We did two crafts. I wanted to paint tea pots, but since I couldn't find any under a dollar apiece (and I needed 12) I settled for painting mini terracotta plant pots, which I found 3 for a dollar. I bought pipe cleaners and foam flowers and letters that were sticky on the back. And the girl created these:
Some of the girls spelled out their names on the flowers. It was a great craft.
Total: $16. But I still have a ton of paint left, assorted paint brushes that I wanted for the craft cupboard, some pipe cleaners and a bunch of the foam flowers and letters.
The second craft we made was paper hats. In hindsight, I wish we had skipped it because it was time consuming and the party ended up running late, but they still had fun. It's an easy craft to do, but you need two adults - one to hold the paper in place and one to tape around the child's head with masking tape.
Total: $16. But I still have a ton of paint left, assorted paint brushes that I wanted for the craft cupboard, some pipe cleaners and a bunch of the foam flowers and letters.
The second craft we made was paper hats. In hindsight, I wish we had skipped it because it was time consuming and the party ended up running late, but they still had fun. It's an easy craft to do, but you need two adults - one to hold the paper in place and one to tape around the child's head with masking tape.
See? Fun!
I purchased fake flowers, assorted pretty stickers and tissue paper for decorations. My mom, from whom I learned all my pack ratting skills, donated a bunch of ribbon to use. Plus I scouted out some ribbon at the Salvation Army and Valentine's clearance at the grocery store.
Total: $12. But, I still have a ton of tissue paper left over that I can use for future gift bag wrapping. Plus, the Princess has a lovely vase full of fake flowers in her room (I know, garish. But she loves them.) There's lots of stickers left that will go in the craft cupboard. And a ton of ribbon. All the girls fell in love with this massive roll of strawberries ribbon I got for 50 cents, and I even have a bunch of that left too.
I had the party between lunch and dinner time, so I didn't have to serve an entire meal. I put out little sandwiches, banana bread (again! Thanks Mom!!), cheesies, shoestring potato chips, a huge fruit platter with strawberries, grapes, and oranges, and fruit juice and pop.
Total: $22. I had lots of the bread left over, as well as fruit and pop.
The cake? You may recall that the Princess wanted a Tinkerbell cake. But I didn't want to spend $30 on a cake that looks great but 90% of it gets thrown out anyways. Someone needs to create a birthday cake that is just made from icing. That would get eaten.
So I went searching around and found paper Tinkerbell baking cups and a great Tinkerbell birthday candle. I bought a confetti cupcake mix, icing and some star decorating candy. The girls all got to decorate their own cupcakes (I already had other decorating sprinkles, etc, in the pantry, so there was quite a selection). The Princess had the Tinkerbell candle on her cupcake, plus 7 sparkly candles. It looked great.
Total: $15. Plus I have lots of the sprinkles left over, baking cups and icing. I wish I could say I still have the candle, but Tinkerbell was decapitated. Accidentally. I don't want to talk about it.
At the end of the party, after present opening, we had a treasure hunt that culminated in the girls finding their goody bags. I wrote out clues, one for each girl and hid them around the house. We did this last year and it was a hit. In fact, it was the first question 3 of the girls asked me when they arrived. "Are we doing the treasure hunt again?"
The clues are easy enough to write. I like to make them rhyme and have something about each girl. Here's an example:
"Fairy Jenny has curly hair.
Her curls shine oh so bright.
She flits and flies right up the stairs,
To look where the Queen sleeps at night."
And then the next clue was hiding under the Princess' pillow. Having each girl on a clue helps for turn taking too. Each girl has a chance to find a clue, which helps when you have a pack of 12 children running from room to room!
Total: $12. But, I still have a ton of tissue paper left over that I can use for future gift bag wrapping. Plus, the Princess has a lovely vase full of fake flowers in her room (I know, garish. But she loves them.) There's lots of stickers left that will go in the craft cupboard. And a ton of ribbon. All the girls fell in love with this massive roll of strawberries ribbon I got for 50 cents, and I even have a bunch of that left too.
I had the party between lunch and dinner time, so I didn't have to serve an entire meal. I put out little sandwiches, banana bread (again! Thanks Mom!!), cheesies, shoestring potato chips, a huge fruit platter with strawberries, grapes, and oranges, and fruit juice and pop.
Total: $22. I had lots of the bread left over, as well as fruit and pop.
The cake? You may recall that the Princess wanted a Tinkerbell cake. But I didn't want to spend $30 on a cake that looks great but 90% of it gets thrown out anyways. Someone needs to create a birthday cake that is just made from icing. That would get eaten.
So I went searching around and found paper Tinkerbell baking cups and a great Tinkerbell birthday candle. I bought a confetti cupcake mix, icing and some star decorating candy. The girls all got to decorate their own cupcakes (I already had other decorating sprinkles, etc, in the pantry, so there was quite a selection). The Princess had the Tinkerbell candle on her cupcake, plus 7 sparkly candles. It looked great.
Total: $15. Plus I have lots of the sprinkles left over, baking cups and icing. I wish I could say I still have the candle, but Tinkerbell was decapitated. Accidentally. I don't want to talk about it.
At the end of the party, after present opening, we had a treasure hunt that culminated in the girls finding their goody bags. I wrote out clues, one for each girl and hid them around the house. We did this last year and it was a hit. In fact, it was the first question 3 of the girls asked me when they arrived. "Are we doing the treasure hunt again?"
The clues are easy enough to write. I like to make them rhyme and have something about each girl. Here's an example:
"Fairy Jenny has curly hair.
Her curls shine oh so bright.
She flits and flies right up the stairs,
To look where the Queen sleeps at night."
And then the next clue was hiding under the Princess' pillow. Having each girl on a clue helps for turn taking too. Each girl has a chance to find a clue, which helps when you have a pack of 12 children running from room to room!
Gift bags. Again....thanks to my mom, I got a bunch of fabric and sewed the gift bags. I found some Tinkerbell skipping ropes for $1.50 each, and some Fairy sticker books @ 3 for a dollar. I bought some fuzzy peach candy, gummy frogs, candy rockets and tiny boxes of 'nerds'. I put the candy in zip lock bags.
Total: $32, which means each bag cost $2.70. Plus, there was candy left over that I put out on the snack table. I also used some of the leftover boxes of nerds for an 'unwrap the present game'.
The grand total for a Fairy Princess Tea Party? $97.
I think I did ok. I kept it under $100, plus I have a lot of stuff left over.
The Princess had a great time and so did her friends. And that's really what it's all about.
Oh, and the Baby had a great time too. In there like a dirty shirt. After the last friend left, she sat down on the couch. 30 seconds later....
I think I did ok. I kept it under $100, plus I have a lot of stuff left over.
The Princess had a great time and so did her friends. And that's really what it's all about.
Oh, and the Baby had a great time too. In there like a dirty shirt. After the last friend left, she sat down on the couch. 30 seconds later....
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