Wizard of Oz Party -3yr- Emerald City Kool-Aid

For our daughter's 3rd birthday on March 8th we had a Wizard of Oz party.  I started planning this party the beginning of January.  I bought all themed plates, cups, napkins, etc. at Party City.  I ordered numerous themed decorations, goody bag treats, Toto in a basket, etc. from Toto-ly Oz. 

I wrote the invitations using a rainbow pencil and for place, I put "Madison's House (cause there's no place like home!).  I bought Happy Birthday stamps, made ruby slipper return address labels, and decorated each invitation with tiny, glittery hearts and stars stickers. 

For girl's goodie bags, I bought $1.00 baskets at Family Dollar and lined with gingham fabric. I made labels with a picture of Dorothy and each child's name and hung the label from a rainbow heart bracelet attached to the basket handle.

For the boys, I found galvanized buckets for $1.00 at Wal-Mart.  I put straw in the bottom of them.  I made stickers with the Tin Man's picture and each child's name.  I filled goodie bags with red and silver kisses, rainbow-colored necklaces and bracelets, wands, pinwheels, bubbles, skittles, rainbow-colored slinkies and jump ropes, Wizard of Oz activity books, tattoos and stickers, red glitter nail polish and lip gloss, and numerous other red or rainbow-colored items.  I bought those medals that say "winner" and I made stickers that said "Badge of Courage" with the Lion's picture on them.  I stuck them over "winner".  I made each child a "Th.D. Doctorate of Thinkology". 

Each one had their name on it saying "This certificate presented to NAME for having the brains to attend my 3rd birthday party.  "Think" you for coming.  It wouldn't have been the same without you"  I had the Wizard of Oz logo at the bottom and the scarecrow's head in each top corner.  I had a signature place at the bottom for my daughter to "sign" her name.  I rolled them up, tied with green yarn, and put in goodie bags.  I also had lollipops in each bag and I made stickers with a picture of the Lollipop Guild on them and they said "We represent the Lollipop Guild". 

When guests started arriving, they walked up our yellow brick road, which was a yellow table cloth rolled out along our sidewalk that was lined on each side with real bricks.  I had signs along the way that said "Just Follow the Yellow Brick Road".  I had used my scarecrow from Halloween and made a sign that he held that said "If I Only Had a Brain".  I had the witch's legs coming out from our house with ruby slippers on and a sign beside them that said "Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead".  We had our CD player playing the soundtrack on the front porch.  I had a hot air balloon hanging from the porch.  I had a sign on the door that said "Bell out of Order. Please Knock". 

On all my signs, I had the Wizard of Oz logo and corresponding clip art.  I had rainbow "Happy Birthday" banners hanging in 4 places.  I made a tornado by hanging black streamers from our ceiling fan and a picture of Dorothy's house that spun around in the middle.  On our mantel, I had Toto in the basket, a plate, cup, napkin, blowouts, and party hat, and red glitter streamers covering like garland.  Her cake was the Yellow Brick Road and I had ordered all the cake toppers of the characters to stand on it.  There was a forest on both sides. 

The main food table had decorations around the food such as the movie box, CD case, Wizard of Oz book, small plastic characters, lollipops, magic wand, etc.  I made and laminated labels for all food.  I attached each label to rainbow-colored Popsicle sticks and taped them to each food bowl.  We had things like Glinda's Goodies (star-shaped sandwiches), Rainbow bites (rainbow-colored cookies), Crystal balls (sausage balls), Toto dogs (cocktail weenies), Auntie Em's Secret Recipe (cheese dip), Hay chips, Emerald City Kool-Aid, Poppie seeds (nuts), Munchkin Mix (fruit tray), Professor Marvel's Marvelous Munchies (veg tray), and other star-shaped sandwiches with a label that said "And Kansas she said was the name of the star".  All labels had corresponding pictures.  We had 4 dozen rainbow-colored balloons hanging from ceilings. 

Games were "Melted Witch Musical Numbers" (which I made and laminated numbers with various Oz clipart and taped them to the garage floor in a circle.  I put a witch's costume and hat in the middle and poured water around it.  My husband cut out green letters that said the title to the game and I had them taped to the floor as well.  The children walked around the circle to the soundtrack and then when the music stopped I called out a number.  Of course, the game was rigged so every child won a prize). 

Another game was "Give the Tin Man a Heart".  We had an art teacher draw and laminate a Tin Man with "Happy Birthday, Madison" at the bottom.  The kid's were blindfolded and had to stick a heart on the poster.  I had bought heart stickers and written each child's name on the sticker in silver ink.  This game was titled with the letters around it also and hearts were stuck on the wall surrounding the words and poster. 

The last game was the piñata.  It was a hot-air balloon and I had scanned a picture of Dorothy and the Wizard in their balloon and cut it out and glued it on all four sides of the piñata.  I gave each child a themed goodie bag to pick up the candy once the piñata was broken.  The prizes were laid on a table and as each child won in each game, they came up and chose their prize. 

Of course, prizes were Oz puzzles, books, glitter items, etc.  We had 26 children and 31 adults.  Everyone had a wonderful time and kept saying I should be a professional party planner! Oh, and of course, our daughter was dressed as Dorothy in the complete costume.  I sent themed Thank You's the week after the party.