Strawberry Party -5yr- Pass the Orange

Strawberry Shortcake Party for 5 year old. For our daughter's fifth birthday we decided to have a "Walk Through Strawberryland".

The invitations were handmade. My husband made strawberry shapes and on the front it said "You're Invited" on the back it said to Join Jessica on a walk thorough Strawberryland in honor of her fifth birthday,and the rest of the party information. We then took a clear cellophane bag and filled it with green paper shreds and put five strawberry wrapped candies in the bottom, and then the invitation. We tied the top with pink and white polka dot ribbon and attached a name tag to the ribbon. We hand wrote each name and included a few SSC stickers to each tag.

The party was in the fellowship hall of our church. We decorated the room with red, pink and lime green. There were balloons, streamers, etc. We used all SSC plates, cups, etc. for the children's table, and solid colors for the adult table(red, pink, lime green). There are four windows in the fellowship hall and in two windows we wrapped greenery around strawberry scented candles, in one window we put a wagon of fruit and in the fourth window we put SSC dolls.

The centerpiece for the children's table was a basket of daisies with pink ribbon. The centerpiece for the adult table was a red and white polka dot basket that contained various kinds of strawberry candy.

For food we served a SSC cake, strawberry cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered short bread cookies, apple slices with dip, orange slices, pretzels and a snack mix. We made an orange punch for the children and had other drinks available for the adults. On the food table there was a picture of each character that the food represent-eg. SSC for the strawberries, Gingersnap for the cookies, Apple Dumplin for the apple slices, etc.etc. 

When the guests arrived the first thing that they did was decorate a canvas bag with markers with their names. These were to hold the prizes from the strawberry pinata. Then we read the book "Meet Strawberry Shortcake" and we made a check list like the one that SSC made in the book.

The next activity was a cake walk game to represent when SSC met Angel Cake. For this game, we printed various SSC characters and items such as butterflies,etc. and placed them in a circle on the floor. We had all the children line up as in a traditional cakewalk and then we played SSC music. Each time the music stopped we drew a card out of a basket and the child that was on the corresponding picture had to leave the game, after they picked a prize from a basket. The last person left won a grand prize of a SSC puzzle.

Next, we visited Gingersnap and made sticker gingerbread houses. The next person we visited was OrangeBlossom and we played a game called pass the orange. For this game, each child paired up with an adult. I had someone make orange bean bags and each team tossed the bean bag back and forth across a line on the floor, each time they successfully caught the bean bag, they each took a step back, when they missed, they had to sit down. The last team standing won a SSC puzzle.

Next, we visited Honey Pie Pony, for the activity, we played pin the flower in Honey Pie's Mane. My husband made the game. The last person we visited was Huckleberry Pie.

As in the book, we made party hats. I ordered hats from Oriental Trading Company, and let each child decorate their hat with foam stickers. Each time that we visited a person on our list, we checked off the item that they represented. When, our checklist was complete, it was time to eat. After the children finished eating, we broke the pinata. To keep things fair with this, we let our daugher go first, and then we drew names from a bag for the remaining order.

After the pinata, our daughter opened her presents. We had a game and activity table set up for those who wanted to remain and play. We had SSC puzzles, a SSC game and an activity book for each child. We made the activity books by copying coloring and activity pages,and then printed the child's name and rows of strawberries on each one. As each child left, we distributed favor bags. The favor bags were canvas and contained a cookie notepad, a cookie cutter and two pencils. They also had their hats, gingerbread houses, activity books, sunglasses(from the cakewalk game), orange bean bag, and their canvas bags with the pinata candy and toys to take home. A wonderful time was had by everyone!