Princess Tea Party -4yr- Dance Freeze

For my daughters 4th birthday, she wanted a Princess Tea Party, so here we go

INVITATIONS: I chose to get my invitations from ebay.  They were simple and just said:  Please honor Princess E with a tea party.  The usual information was listed next, when, where, etc.  On the invitation, I asked that each girl bring her favorite princess dress.  On the invitations was a picture of the disney princesses and a castle in the background.  I printed them at Walmart for 9 cents and hand delivered them to our guest.  After all the girls arrived, I took a before group picture.  

GAMES/ACTIVITIES:  I made a princess bingo game using the princesses and events and objects from their movies.  We used smartie candies as the game pieces.  The prize for this game was a princess puzzle.  As the girls were playing bingo they were called out one by one to be pampered by our royal stylist (aka a former student and her mother).  In our Royal Spa, the girls had their hair done, their nails painted, their make-up done, a little glitter spray for some bling, a colored hair extension, a tiara, and finally they changed into their dresses.  Then it was on to the party room.  Our second game was Kiss the Frog.  I made a board and taped a picture of a frog prince on it.  The girls were blindfolded and one by one they went up to the frog and tried to kiss his lips.  The prize for this game was of course, lip gloss.  A photo shoot immediately followed!  

The next game we played was the Princess Walk.  I made princess cards out of card stock and stickers.  I glued them to the floor in a circle.  Each of our princesses walked around the circle until the music stopped.  The announcer showed the card and if a player was standing on that princess, she won a prize.  The prize for this game was a princess book or coloring book.  I bought these a the dollar tree for a $1.  

Next, we had quite a surprise.  Snow White and Cinderella (two of my friends in Halloween costumes) showed up at the door.  The Princesses led our little princesses in a game of Dance Freeze.  When the music played, the girls would all dance, dance, dance.  When the music stopped, everyone had to freeze.  Those still wiggling were out.  The prize for this game was a CD of princess music that I made from Itunes.  The songs included things like, Some day my Prince will come Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo Once Upon a Dream etc.  After the girls sit down to eat Snow White and Cinderella gave a quick lesson on table manners.  

The final game was to bust the castle pinata.  We did it at the very end of the party.  Of course the prize was the candy!  I also put a Corn Hole game outside for the men to play.  That was a last minute idea because my father insisted he was coming to our all girls party!  (He never misses a grandchild's party and wasn't starting with this one!) Next the decorations:  I am from a very small town with several historical buildings.  I asked if I could rent one of the historical homes and to my surprise they let me use if for FREE!  

In the house was a huge dining room table. On the table I used a pink table cloth draped with white lace on top.  The place mats were round and I chose to use blue and green for these.  I used my grandmothers white china for this party.  Each place setting included a place mat dessert plate saucer tea cup and princess goblet (the goblet came from birthday express).  I put a silver wand in each goblet and fanned out a princess napkin in each tea cup.  Sitting on the dessert plate was one of the disney princesses.  I will explain these later!  Fresh flowers and candles were used along with the serving trays and a tea set.  I borrowed the serving pieces from our local antique bridal registery. I served the finger sandwiches on my daughters signature plate from her first birthday.  I always find a way to use it for all of her birthday parties.  For the spa my mother and I found a dress rack (jewelry holder) at Hobby Lobby.  It was pink and super cute!  I bought a child's make-up kit glittery nail polish glitter spray hair extensions and strawberry scented body spray at Wal-mart.  The nail polish was placed on a small mirror to bring more jazz to the table.  

In the party room I cleared the floor and put the princess walk game in the middle.  Then I hung up 810 and 12in pink lanterns from the ceiling.  I put folding chairs around the room for the adults.  This house had a lot of open space so I set up an additional dining table for the adults.  On that table I used another tea set and fresh flowers. I put pictures of my daughter doing various activities on the food serving table the entrance table and the gift table. They were framed in pink and white frames and looked really nice.  I also used pink and white balloons all over the house.  I just stuck a bouquet here and there just to add color.   On the entrance table were two pictures of my daughter a welcome sign three pink candles with E's I made on the cricut and Sleeping Beauty's Castle (my daughter's birthday present).  I purchased this castle from the Disney Store.  She got Cinderella's Castle for Christmas and I put it on the game table.  In this house (I still can't believe it) was an antique spinning wheel I moved to the party room. Everyone was amazed by this! 

FOOD:  I wanted to only serve finger foods.  I served tea sandwiches shaped like crowns.  I used white bread with cream cheese and strawberry jam to make these.  I had chicken salad sandwiches on wheat roles for the adults.  I served spinach rolls and pizza rolls from savory appetizers.  I got these at Wal-mart as well.  Mini quiches made to look like flowers were also served.  To get in the sugar we had petite fours fancy fudge debbie cakes (a local cater suggested I used these along with the petite fours she said the girls would like them better) cheesecake squares danish wedding cookies and apple and cherry pastries.  On the table were chocolate suckers made up to look like Cinderella or her carriage.  I put these in glass candle holders.

CAKE:  My mom made a castle cake and decorated it with each of the princesses around it.  It was amazing!  Each little princess was served a petite princess cake of their choice. You can find them at your local grocery store for about $5 each.  I asked each mother ahead of time which cake should be ordered for their daughter.  I served pink lemonade hot raspberry tea and mimosas (for mommy's only)! Finally the treat bags:  I made the treat bags from plain pink bags found in the paper isle at Wal-mart. They cost a quarter a piece.  I glued an 8-inch Sleeping Beauty on each bag and a sticker that thanked everyone for coming. I stuck yellow tissue paper in the top to add more color.  In each bag was a lip gloss a ring a brush and mirror set and bubbles.  Each girl also took home a nail polish a princess goblet a wand and a tiara.  My daughter kept the make-up for herself.

THANK YOU NOTES:  I used a group picture of all the girls dressed up and printed out thank you notes. The cards simple read "Thank you for making my birthday so special!  Love E  I am going to add one more little touch to this party just because it was AMAZING!  In this house was an old coat rack bench thing that looked exactly like a thrown.  I know I can't believe how I lucked up!  I used this chair two different ways  first for pictures of the girls in their dresses and then for E to sit in as she opened her presents!   The party was great and this year I didn't kill myself to do everything!  "