Princess/Frog Prince 3yr - Poison Apple Game

It is that time a year again for my favorite niece's birthday.  She is now turning 3 and is really letting us know what she likes and does not like.  At the moment, she loves all the princesses movies.  The reason for the theme including the frog prince is due to the # of boys that will attend the party. This way I can give them froggie party favors and prizes to them.  Now that I gave you the thinking behind this theme, let me give you the details.   

INVITATIONS:  I found a grayish purple brick pattern with a little sparkle that looks like a castle walls for the background.  We had a friend super impose the birthday girl in a circle of Disney princess to use as the main image.  I was going to be additional images flanking the picture but could not find one that fit, so I omitted them.  The title of the invitation was Heere Ye Heere Ye a celebration for all. In the required party information I wrote the following, Host name: King Patrick and Queen Crystal, Location: Lord Michael's and Lady LaChrisa's royal castle (We held her party at our house due to them just having a baby in the summer and knew it would be too much with a toddler, baby, and a party), and in the body of the invitiation; Queen Crystal and King Patrick along with Prince XXXXX request your presence at the Royal Castle to celebrate Princess XXXXXX's 3rd birthday.  We will have a feast for you to enjoy along with entertainment to keep you amused.  We of course put the date and time in the invitation as well, but since it was a selection we could not due much to it. 

DECORATIONS: I went a little overboard, but she is my favorite niece. I placed garden hooks in 2 different sizes along the walkway 6 tall and 4 short.  I hung 8 inch round paper lantern in a dark purple on the 2 center tall hooks.  I hung 6 inch round paper lanterns in white on the short hooks and 2-6 inch round dark pink round paper lanterns from the tall hooks by having one of them hang from the other. I strung one inch purple satin ribbon from each stake to appear as it was rope.  I also use pre made purple bows and tied them to each of my trees outside.  I made my own door hanging by using fuchsia wrapping paper along with foam crowns and green foam frog cut outs.  The frogs were just plain frogs so I made little crowns out of yellow foam squares to make them frog princes.  I cut out the crowns myself using a crown template I found online.  I used purple, pink, hot pink, and white foam squares for this project.  This was so any guests arriving knew the party house and set the mood before they walked in the house.  I used the front formal room that I have not furnished completely for the main party room which also has a set a stairs that lead to the game room where we have a number of game consoles to keep the older kids and some adults busy through out the party. This way I could utilize both rooms for the party too. 

I cleared out any home décor in our formal room that did not go with the theme and of course the breakables were put out of reach.  I put a long folding banquet table under my large 2 tier hanging candelabra with folding chairs.  I covered the table with a dark purple plastic table cover.  I placed a white table skirt around the table and pinned dark pink bows.  The fabric was pre-cut sashes that we use on chair covers for a wedding business that one of the aunt's own.  I placed on each corner and then in the center of each side.  I connected the bows by tying each one to each other.  It was very similar to a princess's ball gown dress when it was done.  I covered the chairs with white chair covers and finished them dark purple bows on the 4 side chairs and pale pink bows on the 2 end chairs. I purchased a 6 pack of pink and a 6 pack of purple votive candles to replace every other white votive candle in the candelabra.  I purchased about 40 helium balloons in pink, purple, and white.  I tied about 9 in groups of 3 on each chain of the candelabra.  I then cut random length of purple and pink curling ribbon and hung them around the bottom tier votives.  This was a very beautiful centerpiece to the whole room since my ceilings 20 to 25 feet.  

The table centerpiece was a large plastic teapot that held a tea set we purchased for the birthday girl to play with at our house many months ago.  It had a picture of Belle from Beauty and the Beast and we used it for a version of Hot Potato called Pass Belle's Teapot. I took out the tea set inside the teapot and placed in around the teapot. Since I had Belle's teapot on the table I put Belle's dress on a pink hanger with her picture and hung it in the center of the candelabra. I either end of the table I placed 2 pink plastic buckets with white flower trim and filled them with crayons and bead jewelry making supplies to keep the kids busy until all the guests had arrived.  I made a copy of a prince frog and princess hat coloring pages and put them next to the crayon bucket.  I placed the goody/party favor bags around the table for the kids to grab as they arrived and started with the activities. I have 3 very big art pieces on the main wall of the room that I could not take down, so I covered each of them in pink plastic table covering to make billboards..  I taped HAPPY to the first canvas, BIRTHDAY to the second, and PRINCESS to the 3rd .  I taped the cardboard stars mention earlier, and frog foam cut outs around the words.  I cut out more 3 out of foam and cardstock in the party colors and stuck them on the stars, crowns and frogs.  On the opposite wall is a mirror that I wrote MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL with a red lipstick.  I placed 8 red apple die cuts at the bottom of the mirror frame which each apple had a name of a 7 dwarf written on it and the last on said POISON.  I used this for a game later and will explain in the GAME section of this submission. 

I also hung a toddler size Snow White dress from mirror's candle holders with a plastic red apple.  On the wall on the right side of the mirror I hung cardstock that I had printed the dwarves name, but scrambled for another games.  I tied another group of balloons from the candle holder on the other side of the mirror.  I tied several small stars in several colors to the ribbons tied to the balloons. I placed a tall side table in a corner of the room next to my window with a table cloth draped over it.  I tied pinned pale pink bow tied from one of the sheer sashes used with the chair covers. I placed a 3 inch ceramic princess royal pillow, actually a soap dish, on top of another one of the castle tissue boxes.  These both sat on top of a round pink placemat and were surrounded by glass rocks used in floral vases.  The rocks were in clear, white, and frosted. I filled one of my small apothecary jars with more glass rocks, that I actually counted out for another game.  I also purchased little plastic glass slippers from a dollar store.  I placed one on the pillow and several around the castle on the table.  I usually have 3 rattan chargers hanging on the wall, so I removed them, but left the nails.  The mom found a Cinderella dress that I hung from a pink child hanger that had a picture of Cinderella on it.  I hung this from one of the nails.  I placed large cardboard stars on the other nails and also taped others to the wall.  I also had four 3 to 4 inch foam Cinderella cut outs that taped to the stars.  I placed one of the castle tissue box covers on the table too. This was the set up for the game pertaining to Cinderella's Glass Slipper Hunt. 

On the opposite side of the window I have a floor lamp that I hung Aurora's dress on a pink hanger with her picture on it with a sleeping mask since she is Sleeping Beauty and taped and hung the stars from the lamp and wall. On the back of the front door I wrapped the door in light purple wrapping paper and placed the Kiss the Frog game poster on it.  I surrounded the poster with wall stickers in a princess theme I found at Dollar Tree.  This set had stars, roses, wand, shoes, treasure chest, and princess written on a banner.  I also taped a couple of the foam frogs with cut crowns. The stairs that are in the same room that led up to the game room were decorated as well.  I tied the rest of the balloons to the banister and the railing in the game room overlooking the party room.  There was not enough room for the food, drink and cake so we placed all of this on my extra large island and countertop that I use for a drink bar for every party.  Of course I decorated this area too and made it fit for a Princess. First I covered the island and drink bar with a pink plastic table cover.  In front of the sink in the middle of the island I placed a cake plate with the birthday cake.  I surrounded the cake pedestal with purple large bead necklaces and glass rocks.  I placed the birthday girl's name in pre cut wood letters that were painted white and glued with jewel embellishments, in front of the cake pedestal.  I found this pre-painted wood cut out into a pink crown that said princess across the bottom that I attached to the first letter of her name.  First I used some of the jewel embellishments on the crown to jazz it up and make it sparkle like all crowns do of course.  In the middle of the name I placed a soap dispenser in the shape of a frog prince. I flanked the cake with the other 2 castle tissue box covers.  I created wands with bamboo skewers, cut out 3, cardboard stars, and curling ribbons.  I taped the 3's and stars to the wooden sticks and I stuck them through the hole in the castle tissue box cover.  This hid the sink and became the centerpiece of the buffet. 

I also placed white and pink large beaded necklaces in small round vases and then placed more 3's in them.  We placed the food on either side of the sink inside chaffing dishes, white platters, and white dishes. In order to give height to the island, I was going to hang round paper lanterns in various sizesand colors from the ceiling over the island.  I would have tied pink and purple curling ribbon to the bottom of each lantern let it hang at various lengths over the island.  I did not have time to complete this, so I tied helium filled balloons to the castles and other items on the buffet. On the drink bar I used light purple wrapping paper to cover the tan counter top.  I placed Disney Princess shelving paper in the center of the counter as a runner.  I placed the 2 liters of soda to the side against the wall and out of sight as much as possible.  We used Styrofoam plates, bowls, and red plastic cups that obviously did not go with the theme, so I placed the cups and plates in a princess storage box, it actually was a castle.  I put the bowls and plasticware in to pink Easter buckets that had white flowers.  I placed the pink napkins with small plates on the other side for the cake.  Behind all of this I placed the princess puzzles that we bought for the birthday girl which were 3 foot puzzles of each princess.

FOOD/DRINKS:  As most of these parties, we have a lot of adults attending so the Grandmas and Mom provided lots of Asian party dishes that are pretty standard for birthdays, showers, and so on.  We had the standard party food, stir fry noodles, crab soup, beef stew, papaya salad, grilled chicken, grilled pork butt roast sticks, rice noodles, and Vietnamese ham.  We also had a Vietnamese dessert for the adults that did not like cake.  We have ordered wedding cake testers from a bakery that are normally an inch high and covered in white whipped icing.  Then we take cake decorations and spruce it up to match the theme.  This year we had someone make an elaborate cake for us.  It was a 2 tier pink cake with white trim and white polka dots.  I purchased a jeweled tiara with princess on it that set on top of it.  We did have a problem; the bottom layers of both tiers either melted or shifted during the delivery, so we took 3 inch thick pink ribbon and wrapped the bottom layers.  It did not look too bad, but was not exactly what I was picturing when we started the process.  I found a purple and pink glittery 3 that I placed on the bottom tier in front of the top tier.

GAMES:  I came up with several different games to keep the guests entertained. During the games I played music from various princess movie soundtracks.   POISON APPLE: This was hot potato with a plastic apple was my original idea, but I came up with another Snow White game so I used a large plastic teapot with Belle's picture on it.  So it became PASS BELLE'S TEAPOT instead.  I then came up with POISON APPLE 2.0 where I wrote the name of the 7 dwarves on the backside of red apple die cuts and then on one die cut I wrote poison.  Each child had to turn over each dwarf's names before turning over the poison apple.   SNOW WHITE 7 DWARVES SCRAMBLE (TEAMS): As mentioned above, I printed the name of each dwarf scrambled on pink cardstock..  I gave them one minute to unscramble the name and the first 3 that brought me a completed list won.

CINDERELLAS GLASS SLIPPER HUNT:  This was a race/hunt where several glass slippers were hidden around the party room and game room for the kids to find.  The first one to find one and bring it back to the pillow, mentioned above, won. The slippers were actually mini plastic party favors I found at Dollar Tree in the wedding section . Unfortunately we did not get to this game HOW MANY PEAS/JEWELS: this is of course about the Princess and the Pea story.  I filled on of my apothecary jars with frozen peas OR jewels.  I placed pen and paper next to it and an empty jar for the guest to stop by during the party to write their guess.  I was to announce the winner towards the end of the party.

DISNEY PRINCESS BINGO: This was a game purchased at the store.  It used the Disney princess as the numbers on the Bingo cards.  We played this once regular and then black out.

DISNEY PRINCESS PUZZLE RACE (TEAM EVENT):I purchased 2 Disney princess jigsaw puzzles at the Dollar Tree, I love that place, and each team raced to put them together.  The first team that finished their puzzle won and the other team won candy. We did not get to this one either, but to keep the pieces in order I numbered each piece 1 or 2 and then numbered the box it belonged too.

KISS THE FROG:  Version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey except the kids tried to pin lips to a Frog's mouth. I thought had to make this game , but found it at Garden Ridge after I had almost completed making it myself so I bought it  PRIZES: I had a Grand Prize, runner up, and even 3rd place along with constellation prizes to hand out for each game.  I did 4 main games that received the Grand Prize winner of each game received a stuffed frog that was actually a gift cardholder I got on clearance at Target, of course.  I placed a $5 Burger King Gift card in it. The Runner up Prize was either a frog lunch bag or princess mirror depending on if it was a girl or boy that one. Third place prize was a disposable camera with Disney characters on it, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Princesses.  Constellation prizes varied by game, mini rubber frogs, white beaded bracelets, boxes of nerd candy, bags of princess gummies, twisted lolipops, plastic frog hoppers, and miscellaneous candy I purchased after Halloween.  I put all the prizes in various containers.  I had purchased several shape and style plastic buckets after Easter one year that matched the princess theme very well.  I had 4 pink buckets that were about 12 inches in diameter and 3 inches tall I placed the frog lunch bags and princess mirrors in one.  I placed the disposable cameras in another and the bracelets/mini rubber frogs in another.  The last one I placed all the constellation prizes, like the princess gummies and lolipops. I had some of the extra and constellation prizes in apothecary jars and standard Easter buckets.   After all the main prizes were won, we placed other games and the winners got to pick what ever was left in the prize buckets.  In addition to the prizes mentioned above, I had a Little Mermaid hair accessory set and Little Mermaid spinning sucker kit left over from last year's party.  I even gave the option of 2 of the 3 castle tissue box covers for a prize.  

GOODY BAGS: I had so many ideas for this and change my mind several times.  I will spare you the details.  I ended up using some cellophane bags I had in my party supplies instead of the white plain bags I purchased for the party.  I filled the girl goodie bag with the Sweet Pea (pink) bubble bath, Sweet Pea (pink) shower gel, a box of pink and box of purple Nerd candy, and a purple plastic frog hopper.  I closed the bag with a small purple bow.  I then placed a cardboard princess tiara ready to wear around the bag. I got the tiaras at Dollar Tree, 6 - packs for $1. For the boys, I placed a rubber frog bath toy, 2 pink and 2 purple boxes of Nerd candy, and a green plastic frog hopper.  I closed these bags with green curling ribbon and used the Burger King crowns ready to wear that I got when I purchased the Burger King Gift cards for the prizes.  I had plenty of items left over to make more party favors if extra kids were to show up unexpected.  I did have a few babies there and quite a few boys not show up, so I put a mini rubber frog with the larger rubber frog and gave those to the baby's parents.

SPECIAL GIFTS TO THE BIRTHDAY GIRL: Everything that we did not give away as a prize or in the goody bag was given the birthday girl.    I give her a picture frame every year to place a current picture in and remember her party.  I also did not give her one of the goody bags above.  I made her a special one using a small size white canvas bag that I sewed the fabric crown embellishments in green and pink and a jewel in the middle.  I filled it with a special birthday tiara, candy, frog toy, rubber frog, bracelet and bubble bath.