Sweet Shoppe 4yr

My twin girls just celebrated their 4th birthday with a Sweet Shoppe" theme (after all they are our "sweet" girls). We started with the INVITATIONS: I found the perfect one with Julia D. Azar called Sweet Tooth. It was a cut out of four candy dishes with different types of candy in them. The wording was on each candy dish and it said: GRAND OPENING! Morgan and Avery's Sweet Shoppe. Gumdrops Candy Galore-Please come and celebrate Morgan and Avery turning 4! We don't want you to miss a "LICK"! Regrets to the candy-maker. The tooth-fairy will make a special appearance!  My children were born premature and we had such a wonderful experience at our local hospital (at the time of their births and at different admissions since) that the girls and I decided to do something for it so instead of gifts we asked everyone to bring a donation of their favorite children's book or DVD to be given to the Pediatric floor at the hospital. DECORATIONS: I made a large sign to place in the front yard to direct guests that said "GRAND OPENING! Morgan and Avery's Sweet Shoppe (around back). I made about 30 large lollipops (10" styrofoam discs covered with various colored tissue paper to match the invitation  and cello and tied with pink and lime green ribbons and placed on a 3' wooden dowel. We also made bon-bons the same way but with styrofoam balls. I purchased large felt pink daisy flowers on wire stems (Hobby Lobby) and intermixed them with the lollipops around the yard. I made smaller lollipops with the 3" discs and placed 3 different colored ones in small containers to put on all the tables. We had a large tent and the candy table was under the tent and also the kids tables. All the tables were covered with white table cloths and we rented white garden chairs. The candy table had a sign on it that said: Please fill a bag with treats to eat! We had a basket of small pink striped bags for guests to take home the candy in. I painted various sizes of metal pails the colors of the invitations with polka-dots and stripes and filled them with various candies-laffy taffy jaw-breakers gummi-bears jelly beans mints etc. I also covered two styrofoam 3' tall cones with pink polka dot tissue and pushed suckers through them for a lollipop stand. The table had lime green tulle bunched up around the pails and they were stacked at different heights for a more layered look.  The tent itself had pink and lime green tulle wrapped around the poles and I purchased extra large pink daisy flowers and greenery to drape down the poles and around the outer edges of the tent. We also had a table with lemonade pink and white cookies and the party favors basket on it. The party favors besides the bags of candy was a large 5 inch sucker with a toothbrush tied to it. (We thought at least we could send home the toothbrush to get all the sugar out of the kids teeth-the parent's liked that the best!) I made large round stickers to place on the sucker with the date and Morgan and Avery's Sweet Shoppe on it. ACTIVITIES: We had the "tooth-fairy" come to the party (a lady dressed in a pink gingham ruffled dress with sparkles glitter and flowers in her hair and wings). She painted the kids faces with lollipops candy glitter and whatever else they wanted. She also made animals magic wands butterflies and swords (for the boys) with balloons. There was always a line at her table. Another activity we had was Sandy Candy (I ordered a kit online). The kids got to make their own "pixie" stick with the Sandy Candy (but much better flavors). They loved picking out their own plastic tube and filling it with the various flavors colors and sand and/or rock candy-and they loved eating it afterwards! CAKE: We had two cakes this year (in reverse colors for each of the girls). A local sweet shop made 8" round cakes with their names in bubbles letters around the sides of the cakes and lollipops candy cupcakes and ice cream made with icing decorating the cake. We also had cupcakes with large pink daisy flowers (matching the decorations) on the top of them and petit fours with pink yellow green and baby blue daisy flowers on them. MUSIC: I love having background music playing at parties so we downloaded a few songs from itunes for the girls party. We had "On the good ship lollipop" (Shirley Temple) "Sugar Sugar" (The Archies) "The Candy Man" (Sammy Davis Jr.) and "If all the Raindrops" (Laura Doherty) playing on the outdoor ipod station. They were the perfect songs for a Sweet Shoppe! At one point my daughters were on the patio dancing with each other to "Sugar Sugar". FOOD: Besides all the candy and sweets we did have some food for the adults to eat. Inside I had a buffet table set up with sandwiches fruit trays veggie trays salsa and chips a 7 layer Mexican dip and of course a chocolate fountain with marshmellows strawberries pretzels and pineapples. We had more of that left over than the candy. We had a great day and the girls loved their party (as much as I loved planning it). In fact my oldest of the two told me after the party that it was "perfect"! I couldn't have asked for anything else."