Dance Party 7yr - Dance Club with Stage

One of my daughter Josie's favorite events is the Daddy - Daughter Dance that is held every winter.  She loves the special time with her dad, but she also loves dancing with her little school friends.  So it was no surprise to me when , five months before her birthday, she told me she really, really wanted a dance party for her 7th birthday.  I started brainstorming, reading ideas from this website and always checking out party supplies whenever I was out shopping. 

INVITATION:  We found an invitation that she liked at our local Dollar Tree store that had a black background with five different people singing in neon colored spotlights across the top.  The singers' hair, clothing and lips were all in different neon colors but their faces and arms were all in black.  It had a black border with different neon colored stars in different sizes and hot-pink running lights in the center that spelled out You're Invited".  Green running lights ran around the information to be filled out for the party.  The store also carried matching goodie-bags bingo games centerpiece fountain hanging garland and a blow-up guitar.  We decided to purchase all of it.  We now had our theme:  music/dancing stars and black and bright colors (especially hot-pink).  We mailed out our invitations 2 1/2 weeks before the party using "Happy Birthday" stamps on the envelopes. 

DECORATIONS:  We decided to have the party in our three-car finished garage.  Our house is only two years old so the garage is actually pretty nice.  On either side of our driveway we attached black star-shaped mylar balloons to copper cone-shaped trellises.  On the driveway we drew large stars with sidewalk chalk and wrote the name of each girl inside the stars led to the side door of our garage.  Two days before the party we totally emptied the garage (my boys are still irritated with me for that choice!).  In the section of the garage that is a one-car stall we placed two 6 ft. tables end to end and covered them in hot-pink tablecloths and sprinkled them with star confetti.  In the center of the table I placed a balloon weight covered in black foil paper with brightly colored stars shooting out of it (Dollar Tree) attached to it were red blue purple and 2 black star-shaped mylar balloons (Dollar Tree). 

We decorated Josie's chair with a foil wire garland covered in multicolored stars and attached a black star-shaped mylar balloon.  In the center of the two-car garage section we made a large dance floor.  I purchased stick-and-peel vinyl tiles in a faux wood parquet pattern that had two interlocking squares that looked like an eight pointed star in the center.  They went down very easily and came up almost as easily.  Without them we would not have gottern the dance floor effect.  It was actually very inexpensive; I got them for 3 for a $1 at Dollar Tree.  Above the dance floor we hung a disco ball and plugged it into the outlet for the overhead garage door opener.  It was a black 8" ball with bright colored lights that spun around casting lights around the room and made the dance floor below glow ($7 on clearance at Walmart).  On one side of the dance floor my husband built a nice sized wooden stage from lumber materials we had left over from finishing our basement. 

On the backside of the stage he attached a piece of plywood that was 4ft. Wide by 8ft. High.  He drilled holes in the shape of a star in the center of it.  He painted the whole stage black except for the star.  He painted the star pink and attached his favorite picture of Josie that he had enlarged in the center of it.  He stuck white Christmas lights through the holes he drilled and taped the wire to the back with duct tape to keep it in place.  He then had 2x4s extend off the top of the plywood in either direction to the length of the stage.  We cut 8 ft. lengths of black and hot-pink crepe paper streamers and stapled them from the top of the 2x4s so that they fluttered down as a curtain for the back of the stage to the left and right of the main "Star" section.  He then placed a high beam flashlight on top of the garage door opener that shone a beam directly on her picture lighting up just her face.  The stage was outstanding and my favorite part of the decorations.  On the opposite side of the dance floor I had another 6 ft. table with a hot-pink tablecloth that we sprinkled with more star confetti.  In the center of this table we placed the centerpiece fountain that matched the invitations.  On one side I placed my large crystal and silver punch bowl filled with "Pop Star" punch; on the other side we had two black trays of food. 

The party was from 1:30 - 4:00 so I only served snack food.  One tray had homemade star-shaped sugar cookies frosted in all different bright colors.  The other tray had crackers with cheese cut in the shape of stars in the center and I had wanted to place slices of star-fruit around the edge.  Unfortunately it was out of season so we bought kiwi cut it into slices and then used another one of my star shaped cutters to cut them into stars and we placed those around the cheese and crackers.  We also had hot-pink cups and black plates and napkins on the table.  We hung the matching hanging garland above the table.  It was actually really cute it had little pyramid shapes that hung down with one singer on each side then hanging down from that was an oval that said "POP STAR" in hot-pink running lights.  In one corner we placed a silk tree covered with more white Christmas lights and in another corner we had a small table with a black tablecloth for our gift table.  We covered all of the windows with light blocking black plastic to keep the room dark and get the full effect of the mood lighting.  We used a folding table as our DJ table and covered it with a black tablecloth and placed a strobe light that had different colored lights and ran in different patterns on the front of the table with all of the DJ paraphernalia hidden behind it.  My husband was our DJ.  He went all out and totally looked the part wearing his tuxedo a pair of sunglasses and spiking his hair. 

ATTIRE:  I had told all of the girls when they called to RSVP to wear "dance" clothes.  They all dressed so cute.  One little girl really got into it wearing a black and red sequins dance recital costume and her dance shoes.  My daughter wore a white halter dress with silver sequins that dangled from the bodice and the waist and matching white sandals with silver and iridescent sequins.  We got a silver tiara for her with hot-pink and purple stars on it and matching silver earrings with hot-pink stars.  We had her nails done for a special birthday treat.  She picked glittery hot-pink fingernail polish with little black flowers painted on each nail and glittery purple toenail polish with silver stars. 

PARTY:  When the girls arrived they were to find the star on the driveway with their name in it and then my older sons traced their handprints into their star with sidewalk chalk.  My mom had wipes to clean the chalk off of the girls' hands.  She then gave each girl a glow-in-the-dark neon bracelet and applied a "God Rocks" temporary tattoo in neon colors.  (Since all of the girls attending the party are my daughter's classmates from her Catholic school this was "politically correct" for our group.  We did not do any make-up or nail polish because I knew some of the mothers would not like that but you may want to do that with your party if your guests would like to.)  After that they were escorted into the "dance" by the birthday girl.  We had a cd playing that the girls had just learned from our vacation bible school and could sing along with and knew the dance steps to. 

After all of the girls arrived we officially began the party.  We started with dancing!  (All of these songs are from the "Disney Dance Along" cd and it included the lyrics and dance moves Walmart $7.)  I showed the girls the dance moves before each song and let them choose whether they wanted to follow along or do their own thing.  My daughter and I had practiced the dances ahead of time so that I would have a general idea how much time to allot for dancing.  Our first session of dances/songs were the YMCA Twist The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room (Macarena version - my daughter's favorite) The Bunny Hop Born to Hand Jive and Shout.  I really want to encourage mothers to dance with their daughters it is a great form of exercise and a great way to bond and don't worry about what you look like (I was 4 1/2 months pregnant!).  The girls were all so eager to learn the dance moves and we had so much fun!!  After this we took a break if they didn't need it I did! 

CRAFT:  I had really lucked out and in February had found flip-flop craft kits that usually cost $10 for $1.  I told them that these were their "dancing shoes".  They had to attach a large two piece hot-pink and silver foil plastic flower shaped bead to the center and then string small circle beads through pre-punched holes in the straps of the bright pink flip-flops with laces.  The laces were long enough to then be wrapped around their ankles and tied.  They were so adorable!!  Most of the girls wanted to change immediately into them.  After our "dancing shoes" were done they were ready for more dancing.  (These songs are from the "Disney" cd and "Drew's Famous Step by Step Party Music" cd I purchased at Party America ($10) they also had a dvd to learn the dance steps but I didn't purchase it.)  Our last four dances/songs were the Electric Slide (probably the most complicated of all of the dances we tried) The Hokey Pokey Chicken Dance and Do The Swim.  I had given my husband a list that detailed which cd was to be played when and all of the track #s.  I also put in any special instructions I wanted him to do.  (EX.:  Tell us when to turn left or right in the Chicken Dance.)  He was such a great sport and did an absolutely fabulous job jumping in on dances and saying silly things to make the girls laugh. 

GAMES:  After this we started our party games.  We played the Bingo game that matched our theme.  I had debated whether to give out prizes after every win but ended up deciding not to and to just play for fun.  The second game was Musical Stars (one little girl begged me before the party to play musical chairs so we made our own version.)  I made nine 21-inch stars from different colored sheets of poster board (If you have trouble making a perfect 5 point star - like I did - there is a website that tells how Betsy Ross made a perfect 5 point star by folding and cutting just one snip at ushistory.org/betsy/flagstar.html.  I did the pattern on newspaper first and then copied onto the poster board).  The girls walked around the stars on the dance floor when the music stopped whoever didn't have a star was out and got a small numbered star starting with #10 and progressing to #1.  Each time someone was out we took away a star from the dance floor until we were down to just one.  To make it fun for the girls who were out they went up on stage and danced.  They were to save their numbered stars until later for a special surprise. 

CAKE:  Finally it was time for cake and ice cream.  I asked my daughter what kind of cake she would like.  BIG MISTAKE!!  She informed me that she would like a 3-tiered wedding cake but instead of a bride and groom on top she wanted a girl dancing.  Being somewhat indulgent I attempted to grant her request.  I purchased 6" and 12" cake pans and then used my own 9" pan.  I placed the cake layers on a cake board starting with the 12" then the 9" and lastly the 6" and frosted the whole thing in pink frosting.  I added decorative frosting around the edges with my cake decorating kit.  I lucked out and found a Polly Pocket that could be posed in different dance poses and attached to a stand that held her up on the top layer($3 Target).  The girls eyes were grew large when I came walking into the room carrying this huge cake.  (I was just glad I didn't fall!)  Josie chose Blue Bunny "Birthday Party" flavored ice cream; it had pieces of candy in it that included stars.  The cake and ice cream were served on black plates.  We placed hot-pink plastic ware on top of black napkins which looked very striking on the hot-pink tablecloth.  "Pop Star" punch was served in hot-pink cups.  After cake and ice cream Josie opened her gifts.  We had each of the girls go up on stage with Josie while she opened her gift.  We then took a picture of them together which I plan to include in the thank you notes. 

GRAND FINALE:  After all the gifts were opened the girls had to show me their numbered star.  Starting with #1 they each picked a goodie-bag that matched the invitations and was tied with hot-pink curling ribbon.  The goodie-bags were in a big basket decorated with a wire garland of neon colored foil stars.  Josie picked colored dress-up hair in bright blue hot-pink red orange and purple in either curly or straight as their special surprise.  The girls loved them and they were really starting to look like the singers from the decorations.  After the girls had all put on their new hair they had free dance time (we played the cd "20 Best of Pop for Kids" by the Countdown Kids).  We pulled out two blow-up guitars a blow-up saxophone blow-up microphone and a tambourine.  They all took turns dancing on stage and on the dance floor.  The longer we danced the more they got into it.  Then my husband and older boys got up on stage too!  The girls LOVED it!!  I got tons of great video.  They continued to dance until it was time to go home. 

GOODIE-BAGS:  When they left each girl picked a brightly colored star-shaped sucker(Paper Factory) and another goodie-bag tied with hot-pink curling ribbon that I placed in the basket with the foil stars.  The goodie-bags contained star-shaped sunglasses (Dollar Tree) star-shaped necklace (on clearance after Mardi Gras @ Party America) 3 chocolate lips wrapped in hot-pink and purple foils (on clearance after Valentines Day @ Dollar Tree) silver disco ball necklace (Paper Factory) star-shaped candy bracelet (Party USA) cotton candy flavored "Pop Rocks" (Dollar Tree) and 2 "God Rocks" temporary tattoos (Party America).  I got lots of comments from parents about how awesome the decorations were and how great my husband looked and what a fun time their daughters had.  One lady even stopped my mom on a walk to tell her how much her daughter loved the "dance" atmosphere.   "