Alice in Wonderland 6yr - Alice Cake

For my daughters 6th birthday she decided on an Alice in Wonderland theme. The funny thing is before my daughter decided on an Alice theme party, we were watching the movie and I was thinking to myself that this would make a great theme for a party, however my daughter was wanting a Barbie party, then a few weeks later she came to me and informed me that now she wanted an Alice party. 

For the invitations I took brown construction paper folded it in half and cut it out in the shape of a hill. In the top piece I cut out an opening for the rabbit hole, then I glued the two hill pieces together. On the top piece I glued green fringed construction paper (this was the grass) under the rabbit hole opening and at the top, and on the bottom I wrote:  Hurry, follow the white rabbit down the rabbit hole, because you are invited. On the top of the hill I glued foil confetti flowers (found at the dollar store). I also found a picture of the white rabbit on the internet. I reduced this picture down to a little bit smaller than the rabbit hole opening flap. I then cut this picture in half and glued the back half of the rabbit on the front of the rabbit hole, and on the inside of the opening I glued his front half. Then on the inside of the invitation I wrote: To Wonderland to celebrate Makayla's 6th birthday! Then I included the rest of the party information. The invitations came out really cute and they were a big hit with all the recipients. 

For the decorations I pre-measured my patio for the streamers. I then cut about 50 to 60 of these lengths and I folded one end of the streamer over my daughters hula-hoop and stapled it. I then tied ribbon in an X pattern over the hula hoop and made sure it was balanced when held by the loop in the center of the X. The day of the party I hung the hula hoop in the middle of my patio and I attached each streamer to the outside edges of my patio. The end result created a beautiful canopy of streamers and the hanging of streamers time was greatly reduced with a lot more streamers than I would have normally had time to hang. 

For the balloons, I blew up 3 dozen of these in various colors and I attached them to balloon sticks. Several days before the party I had drawn out a flower pattern with faces drawn in the center of the flower. I then xeroxed this onto bright colored construction paper and cut each flower out. I attached the flowers with double-sided tape to the balloons and I also cut out green leaves and attached these to the balloon sticks. The flower balloons were then tied all the way around my patio fence, so the patio appeared to be the singing/talking flower garden from the movie. 

The tables I set with bright blue tablecloths, light blue plates and napkins and white cups and utensils. The center piece for each table (4 tables in all) were set with a teapot and 4 teacups (these I picked up at yard sales and thrift stores) and I then inserted blue and white balloons (on balloon sticks) into the teapots, so the tables represented the Mad Hatter & March Hare's tea party from the movie.  We had two cakes. One I purchased at my local bakery, I purchased one of those Barbie doll cakes, however I had them frost the dress a bright blue with a white pinafore (to resemble Alice). The second cake I baked a cut out using a pattern for a rabbit's face. I frosted this cake with white coconut icing, and I adorned with candy and cookies for the eyes, whiskers, glasses, etc (to resemble the White Rabbit). Both cakes came out gorgeous and the kids ended up wanting a piece of each. 

For the party games, we played:  1) White rabbits I'm late, I'm late race (potato sack race): I took old pillowcases (purchased from yard sales) and I stenciled on a picture of a rabbit using fabric paint. (These pillowcases can then be used for a race at Easter as well!)

2) Mad Hatter Tea Party (musical chairs): I decorated my daughters play table with her plastic tea set. I then printed off pictures of the Mad Hatter and March Hair off the internet and glued these to cardboard, with cardboard stands and stood these on the table as well. We then placed the chairs around the table and we played musical chairs to the music from this part of the movie.

3) Crochet relay: I made playing cards out of plain paper and I taped these over out crochet wires so it appeared the kids were actually hitting the balls through cards like in the movie. I set these up in a zig zag pattern in rows in my yard. Since the crochet set only comes with four clubs, we played in rounds and the winners from each round played against each other for the final winner. The first kid to get their ball through all the cards won.

4) Pin the grin on the Cheshire Cat: I found a picture of the Cheshire Cat on the internet. I whited out his smile and then I blew up the picture on my computer using a poster program that I have and then I placed this picture onto a poster board. I also enlarged pictures of his smile and printed these off onto heavy cardstock so they would not bend as easy.

5) Painting the roses red: I purchased large mens shirts at yard sales to put on all the kids, because this game got VERY messy.  I made 3 large trees out of cardboard and I taped three coloring page pictures of roses onto each tree. I then placed a bucket (small plastic cups) filled with water-soluble red paint and a paintbrush next to each tree.  Since I only had 3 trees, we also played this game in groups with the winners replaying against each other. For this game the winner was the one who painted all three of their flowers first and the flowers had to be all red with no white showing otherwise the Queen of Hearts would find out! This was one of the kid's favorite games, I think just because it was so messy.

6) Maze clues: I made up enough cardboard arrow signs (so I would have one arrow per child) with words such as This Way That Way printed onto the fronts (like from the movie). On the backs of these arrows I glued a picture of an item around my backyard (i.e.: the swingset, the dog house, birdhouse, etc) I showed them a picture of the first clue and the kids ran off to that clue and turned the arrow over to see where the next clue would take them. The kids were instructed to take turns an only turn one arrow over each, this way all the kids got a turn. The final arrow directed the kids to our shed where the goodie bags were hidden. This was also a favorite game, with a bunch a giggles.

7) Then we also had a generic pi±ata, since I could not find one to fit this theme.  After all the games, I directed all the kids into our living room for cake and ice cream picnic style. I placed several felt backed tablecloths (to prevent any messes) on the living room floor and we put on my daughters DVD of Alice in Wonderland.

 During present time, I took my daughter's picture (she was dressed as Alice in a dress I made for her) with each guest and the present they gave her and these pictures I included in with the Thank yous. This was a great party and all the kids had a wonderful time.