Costume/Celebrity Party -9yr- Karaoke Fun

My daughter wanted to have a costume party for her 9th birthday.  Her birthday is in the middle of summer, so I thought it was a great idea and a change from the regular pool parties in the summer.  BTW - she wanted all girls (24 of them!)

Because it was a costume party and I wanted to give kids (and moms) enough time to prepare, I sent out save the date cards a month before the party.  (This is not crucial, as I later learned that kids came up with great costumes with what they had!) The save the date cards were not fancy, I just printed them on pink cardstock, 4 to a page, stick the address and stamp on the back and drop in the mail like a postcard.

The birthday invitations were wordy, but everyone enjoyed reading them, as they stated that since they were on [name] list of favorite celebrities, they are being invited to a star-studded VIP birthday party, they should wear their best costume of their favorite character and be ready to strut down the runway - oh and to have their assistant call us to notify whether they will attend.  The kids and parents really got a kick out of the invites, and all the moms called to rsvp.

I took red felt about 30 ft. of it and rolled it across my driveway entrance, like a red carpet.  I made silver cardboard stars and put the name of each guest in black marker on each star. I added a few celebrity names too, like Hannah Montana" and "Raven".  I bordered the "red carpet" with the stars.  I had a table at the end of the driveway to check the guests in.  I typed up the "VIP list" and left a blank for the "bouncer" to write down what that guest is dressed as (this list was necessary for later).  I made sure I had enough adults on hand to act as "paparazzi".  I handed them a bunch of disposable cameras because they make that "clicking sound" and flash.  The girls came walking down the redcarpet while their pictures were snapped.  They absolutely loved that!

I have a two car garage in the back of my house with lots of driveway space (little grass) and so I thought about how I could turn that area into the "party area". I found some cheap material on clearance (solid dark color) at the fabric store and tacked that across one of the beams in the garage to make it look like a stage.  I found a rental company that charged only $40.00 for a 4 ft x 8ft stage.  It was the perfect size for this group.  I took a silver table skirt and wrapped it around the stage.  Then I took silver streamers and attached silver stars to them and hung them from the curtains and hung a pink/silver banner with happy birthday across the beam.  I also made a sign on red foam board using glitter that said [my daughter's name] 9th Birthday party and put that on the stage and it was also used to pose in front of on the red carpet. So the stage was in the garage (the other half was behind the curtain and great way to hide garage junk!)  The tables and chairs were set up outside the garage.

As they arrived I sent each child over to the crafts table.  I bought blank photo insert cards.  I had them decorate it with glitter glue and stickers and made sure they put their name on it.  I made them leave these as I was going to use these as thank you cards with their picture from the red carpet.

As soon as all the girls were present (I previously told all parents that runway show was to start 5:30pm sharp.  The party was 5-8pm because I wanted the weather to cool down for the costume party).  We had a runway show.  I made sure I told the girls they did not have to do it if they don't want to.  But needless to say they all wanted to do it!  I took my list from the "bouncer" and introduced each child as the character/celebrity they were dressed as.  The parents came back to watch and acted as the audience.  The girls must have done the runway show three times!  They LOVED it!

I bought a karaoke machine (a lot chaper than to rent) as my daughter's b-day present but it also served as the hit of the party.  (I did a lot of online shopping for the karaoke and I suggest e-bay for the best place to find one - I have nothing to do with e-bay so this is not a plug).  Anyway there's lots of radio disney karaoke CDs so you can find all that you need - high school musical hannnah montana cheetah girls etc. I previously typed up a play list of all the songs and passed it around for them to get into groups of three to sing their songs.

I had several activities planned but most were "back ups" as I knew the karaoke machine was going to be the main attraction.  One activity we did do I called it "Dancing with the Stars".  I took some of the silver stars off the runway and put them on the ground in a big circle.  They had to dance around the stars until the music stopped and jump on a star (like musical chairs) - until there was one girl and one star left.  No prizes just fun.  The girls wanted to play that several times.  I had another planned which we never played "Dancing under the stars".  That would have been like limbo but using a silver star garland.

The girls were really good about taking turns with the karaoke and I just started giving each group a number so they all would get a chance to sing.  I also made them change their groups so that no rivalry started.

I had goodie bags shaped into purses filled with a foam princess crown activity (very cheap to do) necklaces bracelets and rings.  I had these set at the table from the beginning so that everyone had something to do while they were waiting their turn to sing or whatever.

We had lots of pink black and silver star balloons star confetti etc. everywhere on hot pink table cloths.  I found a 100ft silver star strand that I put all around the backyard fence trees and flowers.  It looked very beautiful - like they were surrounded with stars.

My daughter made a simple request for pizza cake and ice cream.  Instead of buying gallons of ice cream and dealing with that mess in 85 degree weather I bought little ice cream cups (very cheap too) and passed those out with the cake.  That was easy cheap and no mess!  I had juice boxes and mini water bottles in ice chests for the girls to help themselves as needed.  I had the adults serve the pizza cake and ice cream so I wouldn't have 25 girls running around!

The best advice I can give is to do all the prep work a little at a time a week before the party.  Have at least 4-5 adult friends to help with set up serving paparazzi pictures etc.  I made mostly everything so the party was not as expensive as it looked!

All in all the girls said this was the best party ever.  That's all I wanted to hear.  I think some of the parents were ready to jump on that stage too!

Finally we delivered the thank you cards and the parents (more than the girls) loved the pictures from the party and it almost brought them to tears!  "