Ballerina Party -5yr- Ballerina (Simon) Says

For my daughter's fifth birthday, we had a ballerina-themed party at a local dance studio.

INVITATIONS: I used a Lizzie Anne designs balelrina stamp to make the invites. They were on pink cardstock with brown polk-a-dotted paper and a pink ribbon. Inside were the details of the party along with the phrase, Come dance and twirl with the birthday girl!"

DECORATIONS & CAKE: I used pink and brown as her colors! I was able to find the cutest paper plates online so polka dots were used in the decorations as well. The tables were covered in bright pink table cloths and I placed balloon bouquets made of pink white and brown balloons in the center of each table. I used pink tulle to tie big ribbons to the back of each chair and had pink and brown polk-a-dotted curling ribbon all over the table tops.

The cake table was adorned with more ribbon and tulle pink napkins and I stacked 3 of my glass cake plates (in graduating heights) atop one another to hold the cupcakes. They were frosted with chocolate icing and decorated with pink frosted polk-a-dots. I had a huge bowl of pink and brown M & M's (found online) and pink white and brown saltwater taffy pieces in decorative bowls near the cupcakes. I served pink lemonade in pretty plastic cups and served individual ice cream cups in either strawberry or chocolate.

CRAFT/ACTIVITY: as the girls arrivedI had classical music playing and a ballerina coloring page and crayons at each place setting to keep them occupied while waiting for everyone to trickle in. I called them over one by one to apply eye shadow lipgloss and body glitter. We then decorated a picture frame with gem-like stickers in the shapes of flowers butterflies and hearts. The frames were shaped like flowers and came from Target's dollar spot and I painted them all pink to coordinate. Inside each frame was a stamped image of pointe shoes with the words "All you need are toe shoes a tutu and a willing heart" atop(from Lizzie Anne design stamps)in brown ink. I took a picture of each girl and plan on sending it in each of their thank you notes which they can place in the frame.

GAMES: I had all the girls join me in the studio. We stretched to warm-up and then played freeze-dance the ballerina says (like Simon says) and used a poem found on this site called Ballerina ballerina (like teddy bear teddy bear)to practice some moves. I also had them get in a large circle and played a game called how do you dance? It went like this-ballerina ballerina how do you dance? Then I called out a child's name and she would say by shaking my legs. We'd all do the motion and then it was the next child's turn. Some of the suggestions were: on my toes twirling leaping hopping etc. They really liked this.

My daughter had also requested the chicken dance limbo and the hokie pokie even though they're not actual ballerina dances. We finished off with a ballet slipper shaped pinata full of candy. We then ate our cupcakes and listened to the story "Angelina Ballerina" before opening presents. I had a ballet themed movie in for the girls to watch as we were waiting for parents to arrive.

GOODY BAGS: The favors were placed in a small paper pink sack (Michael's) and tied closed with pink and brown ribbon and a stamped tag the same ballerina image on the invitation. Inside was a hair foo-foo made by tying ribbon pieces (in pinks and white) around a hair band. They also received candy necklaces a ballerina bracelet and ring (Ebay) a bendable ballerina (Oriental trading) and candy. It was tutu cute! Thanks!"