RED Party -4yr- Decorate Your Own Red Cupcake

We just recently had RED party for my 4 year old daughter.  That's what she wanted.  There were 8 kids total ranging from 2-6 years old.  The party was from 12-3 on a Sunday. 

Invitations:  Blank red cards from AC Moore (A local craft store) that read in silver marker "Get Red-Dy for a Red Birthday Party" on the front.  My daughter decorated the front with stickers of red things (Fire engines, hearts, ladybugs, lobsters, crabs, cars, flowers....etc.)  On the inside, I had all of the regular party information that I had printed (in red, of course) on white sticker printing paper. 

My daughter glued red satin ribbon around the information.  I also happened upon some little paper chile pepper gift tags from a magazine advertisement.  We glued 4 of them on the other side of the front and I printed a little blurb (again in red) "How old will Nicole be?  Count the peppers and you shall see."  They turned out really cute. 

Of course the party attire was red. 

We decorated our dining room with red streamers and a red tablecloth.  On my screened in porch, we hung these really neat red springlike decorations and cleared the whole porch save the CD player for dancing.  We also blew up (by mouth) 50 balloons and littered the play room floor (in our basement) with them.  We hid 8 of each in the back yard for a scavenger hunt (lobster (from Oriental trading), heart (I made from card stock), red silk flowers, fireman hats (from the dollar store), and pom-poms(from oriental trading). 

Upon arrival, everyone got a red Hawaian lei and was led to the dining room.  Where they were given pictures of red things to color (lobster, heart, flower, fireman hat, pom-pom).  The table was covered with all different shades of red crayons and markers.  Then they were told that these were the items that they had to find in the scavenger hunt in the back yard.  Then we let them loose.  They had a blast! 

After they were done playing with all the stuff they found, they put all the scavenger hunt items in a huge red gift bag.  Then they got to pick prizes from the prize basket (silly putty, matchbox cars, strawberry sunglasses, red crazy straws, red bracelets, elmo pads of paper).  I had a little red plastic vase and asked them to make get the flowers from the bag and make an arrangement for our table with the flowers while I got their lunches. 

Lunch:  Peanut butter and strawberry jelly, strawberries, apple slices, and red fishies (yup-I picked all the red ones out of a large container of rainbow fish).  They had a choice of strawberry milk or red juice. 

After lunch, we went onto the screened in porch and played freeze dance.  The music was Rock Lobster by the B-52's and Big Red Car by the Wiggles.  Then played limbo to Painting the Roses Red from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  After each game they got to choose even more prizes.  Then with the help of my neice they each chose a red tattoo (clifford, spiderman, roses)which we applied.  Then they made their way to the playroom.  They loved all the balloons! 

Then we did the cake.  I actually had a tiered cupcake server which I put white frosted cupcakes on and we sang happy birthday.  Then I played dumb and made a big deal that I forgot to decorate the cupcakes red.  I brought out 3 different cake decorations and asked them to decorate the cupcakes for me.  The kids loved decorating their own cupcakes. 

Then we did presents. 

Goodies:  I found some little red cloth bags at AC Moore and just put a few pieces of candy and stickers in them and the children got to pick one thing from the scavenger hunt bag, plus all the prizes they won.  They all had a great time and so did I!