Strawberry Shortcake -5yr- Strawberry Pinata

Strawberry Shortcake  For my daughter's 5th birthday she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Theme. 

So I cut out strawberry shapes out of red paper and colored in black "seeds" on the front. Then I cut out green stem shapes to go on top. And I printed out the party information on cardstock and cut them in the same strawberry shape and glued them to the back. I created address labels with SSC (Strawberry Shortcake)for our address and to all the addressees. 

For decorations I blew up red balloons and used a black marker to paint "seeds" and I cut out stem shapes from green felt and I used green yarn to hang them from the ceiling.  I made a bunch more of the strawberry shapes that I used for the invitations and scattered them all over the house.  I also purchased the "guest of honor" kit for SSC which includes a wall poster (this also comes with a memory book to write in all the information from the party and a place for some pictures and a place for the guests to write in. And a "I'm the Birthday Girl" badge.) 

I also made a big strawberry shortcake house. I used 4 red posterboards taped together and then cut into a strawberry shape. Used Green posterboard to make the stem and leaves, etc., you get the idea. I took a picture of all the kids in front of the house to give everyone a copy of with their thank you cards (which will be the same as the invitations except I will have my daughter write the thank you's on the back) 

I made a pinata in the shape of a strawberry.  I used a posterboard and rolled it into a cone shape (I had to cut out a section of the bottom b/c it was too narrow)  For the bottom part I used red construction paper and cut out a circle bigger than the size of the bottom of the cone, and then I traced the bottom of the cone onto it. Then I made cuts from the outside of the circle up to the trace line. And then folded those up so that it would fit inside the cone, and then taped it down.  But before taping it in, I made slits w/ an exacto knife all around in a circle.  Then I used red ribbon and looped it through 2 of the slits and tied it with one long end hanging down. 

Then I used another ribbon and looped it through one of the slits that I previously looped it through, and the next slit, and so on, so that each slit had two ribbons looped through it.  That way each ribbon pulled would open a section between the two slits. Basically once you've pulled most of the ribbons, then the bottom falls out and all the candy comes out.  I like this better than the pull string pinatas you buy from the stores b/c you never know which string will release the candy.  The first kid to pull a string could release all the candy, and the other kids don't get a turn.  This way, everyone gets a turn, and depending on the number of slits you make, maybe more than 1 turn.

For the top section I used strips of posterboard and taped it to one side of the top part of the cone, directly across to the opposite side to form an arch.  Then I did that that all around to get the round shape on the top. I added green yarn as a handle for holding the pinata at the points where I started the arches.  Then I folded red tissue paper into long strips and cut along the edge to make the fringe, and wrapped it all the way around.  (You will need to fill the pinata before this point)I used green posterboard to cut out a stem shape to put on top of the pinata. And I rolled a small piece of green posterboard into a cylinder and glued it to the top to make the top point of the stem.   Finally at the end, I cut out black "seeds" from black construction paper and glued them on. 

For the activity I got the idea to do a take home pot from this site, using brownies for dirt and gummy worms.  But I put my own twist to it. I got 4" pots from the craft store and I painted a strawberry vine on it for the girls and for the boys I painted Huckleberry pie and Pupcake. (I made 2 of SSC for two of my daughters, but it was too much work to do that for all the girls.  We had 13 girls and 5 boys). 

Before the party I made flowers out of fruit rollups and fruit by the foot on bamboo skewers.  The fruit rollups I bought were shaped kind of like a diamond.  I folded them in half, and then rolled it around the skewer and it ended up looking like a Calla Lily.  With the fruit by the foot, I wrapped it around the skewers to make a rose shape the way you make ribbon roses, fold and twist, fold and twist.  These were a huge hit w/ the kids.

I also had some maple leaf shaped cookies and strawberry florentine cookies that kind of looked like flowers and I put them on skewers too.  For the party favors I was lucky to find SSC puzzles at the dollar store (for the boys I just got a different puzzle from the dollar store, non theme related). I also found free coloring pages on the internet and printed them onto blank cards to make a coloring booklet (for the boys I used pictures of Huckleberry pie).  I then made a "label" with a picture of SSC and the words "Thank you for coming to my party! Kaitlyn" and wrapped it around a box of crayons. (got packs of 4 from the dollar store). (Again, for the boys, I used a picture of Huckleberry instead of SSC for the crayon box label). 

And of course they got to take their pots from the activity home as well as the candy from the pinata.  For the food, we ordered pizza.  I made a veggie tray.  I made chocolate covered strawberries with milk chocolate and white chocolate, and drizzled "lines" of the opposite color across them to give them a design. I used strawberry lemonade mix w/ sprite for punch, along w/ a variety of soda pop for the grown ups.  All on a table covered w/ a SSC tablecloth. I got SSC plates, cups and napkins for the kids, and just plain red ones for the adults.

To decorate the table I made one of the activity pots and used one of SSC and one of Huckleberry filled with those candies that look like strawberries.  Oh, I almost forgot, I ordered a SSC cake from the grocery store.  I usually like to make my own cakes, but I just wasn't able to this time.  All in all it turned out to be a great party and my daughter just loved it.  I had so many more ideas that I wanted to do, but I just ran out of time, and energy, lol.  Anyway, I just love this site and have used many of the ideas I've found on here for many of my previous parties, and I hope that some of my ideas will be helpful to others.