Wizard of Oz Party -5yr- 4ft Tall Lollipops

For my daughter's 5th birthday the theme was the Wizard of Oz. I used a lot of ideas from this site as well as some new ones I came up with myself.

INVITATIONS: The invitations were purchased from a store and had ruby slippers on the front stating, Put on your party shoes".

DECORATIONS: Coming up to the house the guests were greeted with a sign saying "You are now leaving Kansas". At the front door please knock."  On the deck next to the food table was my daughter's plastic playhouse; I stuffed a pair of tights with newspaper made stripes with electrical tape and put glitter using spray glue onto a pair of red heels from the thrift store. I set these "legs" under the playhouse to represent the house falling on the witch. I had green balloons with some mylar balloons in the shape of a rainbow attached to the deck railings.

We had a moon bounce in the shape of a castle. On either side of the moonbounce I had 4 foot tall lollipops; these were made out of pvc piping my mom wrapped cellophane (red green purple etc.) around a piece of cardboard shaped like a circle and then we tied the cellophane at the bottom and attached it to the pipes. These were scattered about the yard as were red "poppies" (made out of tissue paper folded and scrunched).

By the swingset I had made "munchkins" made out of cardboard; I printed free coloring pages from the internet and I copied them freehand and colored them in with markers; I then attached them to wood stakes I bought at the craft store. Leaning against a tree was a lifesize cardboard standup of the lion tinman and scarecrow that I purchased online. Next to them was a broom and a witch's hat that was in my Halloween bin; the broom was leaning against the tree and the witch's hat was on the ground to make it look like she melted.

From the tree to the moonbounce we made a yellow brick road- just a yellow roll of plastic with "bricks" drawn on with marker.Inside my dining room was the Emerald City; everything was green the tablecloth the cupcakes balloons a sign that said "Welcome to the Emerald City".

PARTY SNACKS: For the food we had a table set up on the deck outside with hot dogs as the main fare (a nod to when Dorothy runs into Professor Marvel after she runs away). Then we had green bowls/dishes filled with pretzel rods labeled "broomsticks" potato chips labeled "Oz chips" Skittles labeled "Catch a rainbow" and animal crackers/cookies labeled "lions and tigers and bears oh my!". These labels were made of green index cards and each had a sticker on it. I also put stickers on a green plastic table cloth to customize it they were just scattered about stickers of the ruby slippers the lion tinman scarecrow witch Dorothy Toto etc. There were also munchkins for dessert.

CAKE: My mom made the cake;  she decorated it with a yellow brick road and little red flowers and on top she put little Madame Alexander dolls from McDonald's Happy Meals of all the characters. She had printed and mounted on cardboard a picture of the Emerald City and propped that behind the cake.

FAVORS: For the favors I filled Toto baskets (ordered online) with stickers swirly lollipops rubber bracelets that said "there's no place like home" and other little trinkets.

COSTUMES: All the while the movie was playing in the background and costumes of the bad witch good witch Dorothy etc. were in a bin in case anyone wanted to dress up. It was fun but oh so exhausting! But for our kids definitely worth it.    "