Unicorn Theme -4yr- Heart & Star Sandwiches

For my daughters 4th birthday she very much wanted a Unicorn themed party. We usually decide on a theme about a month or two in advance so I can keep my eye out for items that will go well with the party. I planned for the party to be in my parents back yard.

First I found the supplies online (Unicorn party supplies were impossible to find in a brick and mortar store) and ordered plates, napkins, blowouts, favor boxes, unicorn cake top and a pinata. Instead of ordering matching cups I instead purchased plastic, gold goblets with blue moons and stars on them from the same online retailer to keep up with the fairy tale magical theme. I knew there would be one little boy in attendance, and the website I used sells individual place settings so I purchased one place setting and one goodie box of the Royal Knights themed partyware which featured on its plate a dragon. I also ordered him a knights helmet which was a lot of fun for him and still kept with the magical theme.

I made the invitations on the computer using a beautiful piece of unicorn clip art I found on the internet and a fancy font saying that my daughter was having a magical unicorn party in our fairyland home where there will be served an enchanting feast, I took the invitation I had made to Kinko's where they printed it on a nice card stock and were also cut out for me. I put the invitations in lavender envelopes and then again using the computer printed out the names of the girls invited onto labels using the same pretty font and I used a piece of unicorn clipart as an accent to the return address label. The invitations were not difficult to make and ended up costing less than store bought invitations.

Instead of hats or tiaras I hand made unicorn horns for everyone using plain colored (and less expensive) cone hats. I first detached the elastic, then I took the tabs out so that I could unroll the hat flat, I then re-rolled the hat tighter as to make a horn, I then cut about 2 inches off the bottom of the hat to make them more stable to wear and more relative to size for a small 4 year old, then I repunched holes in the new "horn" and threaded the removed elastic back through. When that was done I wrapped tissue paper that I had fringed around it securing it with white glue. They took some time, but they looked great when I was through. 

About a dozen little girls RSVP'd they would be attending so I ordered from the local party rental store a child size table and some chairs.  When party day arrived I set up the kids table with a pink plastic table cloth and a flower garland down the center I had purchased at a home store a few years back. I also set up place settings for each girl with a plate, napkin, fork and a goblet. I put balloons on the mailbox so people could easily find the house. I set up the regular dining room table with all the food and used the pinata as a table decoration.

I decorated the inside of the house with pink and lavender streamers twisted across the ceilings and lots of balloons.  For lunch I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and used cookie cutters to shape them into hearts and stars, I also made muffins, had a fruit and vegetable tray with cut up apples, grapes, carrots and celery, there were dole fruit cups, and unicorn horns (bugles). For drinks I had water and magic punch (which is berry punch concentrate mixed with sparkling water).  As each little girl arrived she was given a unicorn horn.

When all the girls arrived we started with a storybook called the Enchanted Unicorn. Now my daughters love of unicorns goes way back and she had built herself a unicorn at Build a Bear Workshop and when she built it she put a "magic" sound effect in it, during the story whenever I said the word unicorn the little girl holding the stuffed Unicorn would squeeze its leg to make the magic sound and then pass it along, the little girls loved this. We then played pin the horn on the unicorn, a game I found at the local party store. It was now time to eat and each girl sat down while the parents put their plates together, they loved drinking their magic punch out of their goblets!

While the girls were eating I set the pinata up outside. We then went outside for the pinata which was filled with great candy since my daughters birthday is 2 weeks after Halloween so we got all the funsized candy on sale. During the pinata fun my Mother cleaned up the table so when the pinata was done we went back in for cake I had purchased at the store with the Unicorn Cake top on it. 

Next to their plate was a goodie box. Rolled and inserted into the handle of the goodie box were three coloring pages featuring a unicorn I found online that I printed and made copies of. Inside the box was a box of crayons I picked up during the back to school sale (I always purchase quite a few as I always add coloring pages and crayons in the goodie bags every year) a plastic star bracelet, a packet of stickers with unicorns and fairies I found by chance at Target and a spiral lollipop that looked like a unicorn horn. 

We then did presents I had my daughter in a chair and a second chair for the gift giver to sit in while she opened their gift so that she could say thank you and we took their picture. When the party ended we took a group shot of all girls. During the entire party my close friend who is also an amateur photographer took pictures on her digital camera. She later gave me all the photos on a cd, the photos were beautiful, which was great because it left me with hosting and one less thing to worry about especially because I am terrible photographer. I was also able to email the photos to the parents who left me email addresses and I also printed some out to include with the Thank you cards.  Overall the party was a great success, it lasted about 3 hours. All the little girls interacted and socialized well and not a single kid asked where the jumper was.