Cinderella Party 6yr - Satin Princess Cloaks

What a great website! I read through all your reader's ideas and finalized my daughter's 6 year old Cinderella birthday party. She is a little on the older side for this type of party but still young enough to enjoy it so I didn't want to make this party too baby-ish.  

The invitations were not as enticing as some parents could have made it but I kept it simple by handwriting the invitation on silver card stock and gliterring the edges. We decorated the house with wide polka dotted ribbon strung up like streamers and heart shaped ballons tied with silvery string.   

On the day of the party, most of the girls arrived in their ballgowns and some didn't. We handed each girl as she came through the door a feather duster or a dusting cloth. She was to clean the house like poor Cinderella and find gold chocolate coins with her name printed on it. Each child had two coins and it took them a surprisingly long time to find them. We used blu-tack and stuck the coins under the dining table, behind the curtains, on the side of the cabinets. By the time all the girls had arrived, we had a pack of little princesses thundering from room to room pointing out where the coins were!  

We next seated the girls and fed them typical party food..pizza, hotdogs etc. I dislike giving kids too much candy without some real food in them as it makes them feel really sick. We cleared the food and then laid out tiara's which I had cut from soft foam sheets. I cut out a piece to fit around the head and for the center a large heart with spikes on the side  so that the girls would have plenty of space to glue jewels, glitter and write with glitter pens. I punched holes out at the back and tied elastic string to hold the tiara's together. We left these pieces to dry.  

Then we told the girls that we had to get ready for the ball. They painted their fingernails and put glitter on their arms and cheeks. Not many wanted to put on makeup so I handed out bowls of glassy beads and they strung pearl necklaces for themselves.   Once they were prettied up, we announced their invitation to the ball and handed out shimmery satin cloaks which I had made by simply hemming the fabric and treading large pretty ribbon through it. The girls loved it, as it made them feel all glamorous for the big event. The fabric was inexpensive but the key was to get them all in different sherberty colours.  

The girls put on their tiaras and shoes and we moved on to the dance competitions. We didn't want to play the usual games of freeze or musical chairs. Instead we made the girls hop on one foot, balance a plate on their heads, twirl the longest..etc. We randomly stopped the music and selected one girl as being the best in that particular category and of course, they were rewarded with lots of sweets! After alot of good stomping fun, we dinged the clock to indicate it was mid-night. We had instructed the girls to leave one shoe behind and quickly run out of the ballroom (living room). They were so co-operative and leaving one shoe behind, they dashed into the corridor and peaked around the corner. My husband and 4 year old son put on their crowns and instantly became Prince Charming.

They called the girls one by one to sit on the special chair and "fitted" their missing shoe on to their foot. Once matched, Prince Charming handed them diamond bracelets as a token of his love!   We then served a homemade birthday cake with strawberry icing in the middle, white icing on the outside, gumdrops all around and lollipos sticking out of the center of the cake. We also set up a dessert table of heart shaped cookies, chocolates, cheese puffs and more pizza! With all that dancing, the girls had worked up an appetite. Can you believe this party lasted three hours!?  

The girls took home their cloaks, their bracelets, tiaras and diamond bracelets but I also made large tissue paper flowers for each of them and a little shiny bag of hershey kisses and nail polish tied up with lots of silvery ribbon. The verdict in the playground on Monday? Good party!