Hannah Montana -8yr- Inflatable Guitars

For my daughter's 8th birthday, we had a 2-hour Hannah Montana themed party. 

The invitations were Hannah paper dolls which I made from Lakeshore Learning's people shapes.  I punched a hole in the top and tied the two together with fishing line.  I purchased fabrics that would be typical of a Hannah outfit (including a leather type material for the boots).  I cut the fabric to the size needed and glued it onto the top shape.  I also purchased different laces for the belt, bracelet, and neck scarf.  I photocopied a Hannah face from a magazine, cut and glued it on.  Finally, I glued on long straight blonde doll hair.  And voila, an adorable Hannah doll!  The invitation's text was typed on the computer, printed on purple cardstock, cut to shape and glued inside. 

Here is the text: Sweet Niblets!  I'm almost 8! Come join me for a Hannah Montana birthday bash starring me, ________(name).  My rockin party is on _______(day & date) from _______(time).  It would be awesome if you dressed like a popstar and we'll rock the stage at __________(venue).  There will be prizes for best dressed, best singing, and best dancer.  So practice your moves and come be a star with me.  Have your manager contact my manager to let me know if you can come.  ________(phone)Refrigerator Magnet  The final touch was to glue a magnet on back so it could be placed on the refrigerator.  I also included a sheet of Hannah stickers with each invitation.  I was able to do this because I found a great sale on stickers.  And of course the envelopes were decorated with Hannah stickers as well.  

The venue was at a play place that included a small stage and karaoke machine.  I brought in a few decorations such as a lifesize Hannah stand-up (perfect for picture taking), large Hannah wall mural, shiny gold stars, and Hannah balloons.  I also had purchased inflatable air guitars and the kids played with them throughout the party.  After the party, the guitars were a party favor.  I also brought in some Hannah type dress-up clothes for those kids who didn't come dressed as a pop star.  The clothes were donned within two minutes.  They were thrilled to have something Hannah-ish on.  I do have to say though that I did exclude them from being eligible for the best dressed contest.  Wouldn't have been fair to those who made the extra effort.   

In between the kids playing with the various toys at the play place, we had three contests:  Best Dressed" "Dance-off" (where they all dance at once) and "Best Singing".     My daughter had the idea of making paper microphones for the judges to use for announcing the contest winners.  She rolled up black construction paper taped it closed cut a circle from another sheet of black paper and taped it on for the microphone head.  So that is how we announced the winners.   

And for each contest we had 1st 2nd and 3rd prizes.  Of course all the prizes were Hannah merchandise (singing dolls shirts headsets keychain guitar stationery/pencil set and stickers).  And the prize box itself was decorated in such a way that Hannah herself would have been proud.  It was a box with 5 sides completely covered with silver gift wrap.   Black outlined silver-sequined letters to spell out the word PRIZES.  Gold star cutouts glued to the two sides.

My daughter decided on her own that she would make a pinata.  So cute.  She simply rolled up an 8 ½ x 11 piece of cardstock paper.  Taped it together (she loves scotch tape) taped on a bottom taped on an inflated balloon on the bottom added a couple streamers and then covered it with Hannah stickers.  We filled it with candy and at the very end of the party  holding it in her hand she swung her arm up and out rained the candy for the kiddos.  I doubt the last piece of candy had even hit the floor before she candy dived too!   

Before we knew it it was time for cake.  My daughter's idea was to play Gymboree's Parachute Express song Birthday Cake right before serving the cake.  We all sang to it and did the appropriate hand motions.  Then we sang Happy Birthday and cut into a guitar shaped Hannah cake.  My daughter also wanted to play Parachute Express song Goodbye Pizza Pie at the very end of the party as people were leaving but the party was running late and in our haste we forgot. 

Last but definitely not least the thank you card.  I folded over cardstock and cut it to the size of the envelope.  An idea that I read from this website was to use the words Thanks for pumpin up the party!  Which I did.  I thought I was going to cut the card into the shape of a microphone but my efforts weren't going smoothly so I asked my husband for his input.  His idea was to leave the card in its rectangular shape and draw a bicycle tire air pump connected to a boombox.  Which I did and my daughter colored it with map pencils.  Additionally I included one or two photographs of the party guest in each envelope.  Between the guitars prizes and goodie bags that were already included in the cost of my party package the kids made out like bandits.  We all had a good time and everyone left with smiles on their faces.      "