Disney Princess -5yr- Once Upon a Dream

My daughter was turning 5 and since she is a huge Disney Princess fan, it was a no-brainer to have this theme for her party.  Your site is filled with fabulous ideas and I took some from here, some from there, and added my own twist to things.  

For the invitations, I used pale pink pearlized scrapbook paper that I found at Michael’s, and cut the paper to 5 x 7 size.  I downloaded images of all the Disney princesses and made a border on the invitation by alternating these images.  I used a pretty script font for the text which read as follows:    Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!  Calling the fairest of them all. By order of the King and Queen, Princess Emily and Prince William of the House of (insert invitee’s last name) are cordially invited to a.  Once Upon A Dream party at (insert birthday child’s last name) Castle to celebrate the 5th year of Princess Isabella’s birth.    Have your carriage arrive at the castle on Saturday the 21st of May, 2005 where, Bibbidy, Bobbidi, Boo, the royal celebration will start at 2!  Please come dressed as your most favorite princess, prince, knight, wizard, or in your most royal clothes.    The castle needs to plan for your arrival.  Please RSVP to King Rob or Queen Lisa no later than May 14 if you plan to attend this royal gala.   (insert phone number)  This is a magical celebration not to be missed so be our guest, be our guest, be our guest."  As you can see, I incorporated some of the more famous phrases from the various Disney princess movies.  I then rolled up the invitations, tied them with pink tulle, and hand-delivered them.   

I had invited about 20 children ranging in age from 2-5, and not only did they all come, but they all came dressed up!  I think we had every Disney Princess except Jasmine represented!  Most of the boys came dressed as wizards.  For kicks, my husband and I dressed up as King and Queen (we bought the costumes on e-Bay).  My daughter was dressed as Cinderella, complete with blond Cinderella wig! 

To create a royal atmosphere, I had made a huge castle out of cardboard (from a power wheels box) I painted it pink and drew on it to make it look like stone and wrote a big scrolled N (our last name starts with N) on the top center.  The castle stood about 5.5’ tall.   I attached pink balloons and pink tulle to the castle, and positioned it just outside out front door so that it spanned our sidewalk.  I then got a red plastic tablecloth, cut it to make it look like a runner and laid it in front of the castle so that our guests got to walk the red carpet.   My daughter happens to have an overstuffed little red chair that looks very regal and I set it just outside the castle.  This was her throne and she sat on it to receive her guests as they arrived.  It was very exciting for her guests to walk the red carpet and pass through the castle into our house.  

The inside of my house looked like a pink explosion there were pink balloons, pink streamers, and pink tulle EVERYWHERE!  I’ve found that more is more when it comes to little kids!  All the plates, napkins, etc were the Disney princess design.    As the guests arrived, Isabella presented each of them with either a princess cone hat and wand (for girls), or a gold jeweled crown and scepter (for boys).   (I had purposely wanted those favors passed out at the start in the event that if a child did not come dressed up they would not feel left out and would still have something royal to wear.) All of the kids got to take a turn sitting in the throne for a picture.  As an added treat for the girls, they each got their nails painted while they sat in the throne.  I had a variety of pastel nail polishes for them to choose from.  This was a big hit with them!   

The first activity we did was a treasure hunt.  The premise of the treasure hunt was as follows: Maleficent was very angry that she had not been invited to Princess Isabella’s party, so for her revenge, she hid all the treat bags!  However, the 3 good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, left some clues for us to find the treat bags.  I divided the kids into 4 groups of 5 and each group was led by an adult, whom I gave a crown to wear.  The treasure hunt was of the style where one clue led to the location of the next clue, etc.  The one adult/group was necessary since the kids do not yet know how to read.  Each group had different clues.  The clues were all Disney Princess themed.  For example:  Belle loves to read, find the bookcase in the house to find your next clue.  Or:  One of Ariel’s best friends is Flounder.  Find the real live fish in the house to find your next clue.  The clues took the kids both outside and inside, until after the 6th clue, they were directed to the treasure.  They had a blast! 

For party favors I gave each of the girls a Disney Princess polly-pocket style doll, a sheet of Disney Princess stickers, a Disney Princess stamper, and a homemade coloring book of all the Disney Princesses.  Each of the boys got a set of glow-in-the dark wizards and dragons to put on their ceilings, a bottle of wizard potion (bubbles), a card game, and a homemade coloring book filled with images of wizards and dragons.  For the coloring books, I downloaded images from the internet, copied them, punched a hole at the top, and tied them together with pink tulle.  There were about 7 different images in each book.    After the treasure hunt we ate and then had cake.  The cake, of course, was Disney Princess.  It had figures of all the princesses on it.   

After the cake, we played one more game:  Pass the Poison Apple.  I had all the kids sit in a big circle on the lawn and told them the story about Snow White and the poison apple.  I then turned on a CD of Disney Princess music and the kids passed the apple around the circle.  Whoever was holding the apple when the music stopped was out.  The winner got-the apple!!  At this point, the guests started trickling out. 

The party was a HUGE success.  Everyone was impressed by the elaborate decorations and intricate detail.  Neighbors that were passing through the development while the party was going on later told me how they wanted to stop and pass through the castle entrance!  It was so cute to see all the kids in costume running around the yard.  I actually saved the castle and plan to use it again, if not for Isabella, then for my younger daughter. 

Thank-You notes were written with the same paper I had used for the invitations and likewise tied with pink tulle and hand delivered.  Thanks to you and your site for helping me to plan a party that my daughter will never forget!