Mary Poppins Party -6yr- MP Photo Invite

We had a Supercalifragilistic 6th Birthday Party for my daughter.  Some of the ideas we used came from this very website.  Others we created on our own.  Her favorite movie is Mary Poppins. 

INVITATIONS:  I found an old Walt Disney picture book on Mary Poppins at a second hand bookstore.  I scanned some of the photos into my computer and made the invitations at home.  No one could believe I made them -- they thought I must have ordered them.  On the outside of a four-fold piece of cardstock, I had a picture of MP holding the umbrella and floating over the city.  I used a Disney font I downloaded for free and wrote: It's a jolly holiday for [my daughter}.  Inside I had the details of the party along with two more pictures from the picture book and some more language from the movie.  On the back I used one of the quotes: Anything is possible if you let it...

DECORATIONS & ACTIVITIES:  We were fortunate enough to travel to New York prior to her party to see Mary Poppins on stage.  We bought Mary Poppins t-shirts at the show for her, and for her dad and me so that we could all match at her party.  We rented out our church gym and leased a bouncy house -- we chose the one that looked like a carousel. 

Along the perimeter of the gym I had stations" such as a giant roll of black paper that ran from end to end and light colored chalk so the kids could make their own chalk drawings I had at another station a face painter who made penguin faces for the kids at another we had playdough and cookie cutters so they could pretend to be the baker from the movie and at another I had black plastic top hats ordered from Oriental Trading and bought red pompoms and white daisies at Michael's craft store so the kids could decorate the hats to look like MP's. 

When the kids arrived I used a tape measure and pretended to measure them from tip to toe.  We had pre-made name tags for them (with the Disney font again) with their name and two adjectives (chosen by my daughter).  We used only complimentary adjectives!  My daughter's nametag said "practically perfect in every way."  At each activity station I had a quote from the movie along with ideas and instructions of what to do when there.  I wanted the party to be pretty free form -- if the kids wanted to run around the gym or jump in the bouncy -- great. If they wanted to be more subdued they could do an activity. 

SNACKS:  In the snack room I played MP music in the background.  (too noisy in the gym to hear it!) We had snacks available but the emphasis was on a Baskin & Robbins ice cream cake. 

CAKE: We ordered a round cake and had it decorated to look like MP's hat with a flower coming out of the top. 

FAVORS:  For favors I got paisley bags from Michael's that looked like carpet bags.  I gave the kids pens that looked like mini-brooms that I ordered through Oriental Trading and had them personalized with a chim chim cheree saying.  Also in the gift bag was a CD with MP music laffy taffy and a rolled up print out of kid jokes (based on the tea party on the ceiling).  It cost nothing to make the jokes since I found cute jokes on the computer and printed them out onto cardstock with another picture from the picture book.

The party was a huge hit and I think the parents appreciated coming to a party that was different from the rest.  The kids who hadn't yet seen the movie wanted to see it and when the touring show came to Houston a lot of the moms took their kids."