The Paper Bag Princess Birthday Party

I usually foster independence in decision making for Little Miss - hence the Carrot Party last year and all of her crazy clothing choices. But when she told me she wanted a princess party for her fourth birthday I started making suggestions. I just didn't want to do a princess party  - all the pink, and the dress-ups...it just seemed so typical. But it's what she wanted. So here is my twist on a princess party...

Of course we had to have a castle sign with mote and alligator...The river is blue poster board I cut to look wavey like a river. And the alligator head is actually a dinosaur foam hat I got at the dollar store and spray painted green. 

Some princess stickers I found at the dollar store - this was Little Miss's special project to help decorate.

One of the signs Little Miss and I made together - it points to the bathroom...which I thought was hilarious, and Little Miss didn't. To help her get involved I would do the block letters and she did all the coloring...

The Happy Birthday sign I surprised her with in the morning.

The book we read a little later - super cute book. I'll get to that later. Note the poison apple decoration...

More decor. A magic mirror on the wall next to the princess dress-up station...

Mirror, mirror...ignore my ugly masking tape. I couldn't find my clear double sided stuff that morning...good thing four year olds don't care!

The sign next to all the princess dress-ups...when Little Miss and her friends dress-up every few minutes they are changing their clothes and who they are - so this sign was mostly to entertain the moms...

The cake - totally worth staying up late to make! For the towers I frosted rice krispy treats for the bottom that I molded with my hands. And the pointy tops are sugar cones dipped in melted white chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. She loved it!

Each party-goer got their picture taken at the door with the princesses, paparazzi staging of sorts. Totally fun.

Playing "Poison Apple" - which is just hot potato with an apple. The boys wore prince capes that I made out of dollar store men's shirts. I just cut off the arms and fronts so the neckline was still intact to keep the cape in place.

Playing "Magic Carpet Ride", which was actually just musical chairs with magic carpet squares instead.

Reading The Paper Bag Princess - super cute book! It's about a princess who doesn't wait to be rescued and takes matters into her own hands. She works hard to rescue her prince from the dragon. Her prince in turn tells her to come back when she looks like a real princess (she's a mess from all the rescueng), and she in turn calls him a bum and rides off into the sunset by herself. Girl power! A great moral, not to mention entertaining. So we gave Little Miss a copy for her birthday, family tradition to give the kids a book on their birthday.

Slaying the dragon after reading the book. I bought a blue and pink unicorn pinata - it's all I could find. Nothing a little spray paint and poster board couldn't fix. I added the spikes and wings, dehorned it, and I seriously love spray paint.

The kids collected their candy in paper bags, to go along with the book.

Candle time...

And it wasn't a royal ball without a dance party at the end...so I cranked the disney music from pandora and the girls (and boys) went wild...

After her friends left and Mr Man went down for a nap we did a quiet time activity together. I took a plain white men's shirt I found at the dollar store - sewed it down to size. Let her choose how to decorate it (flowers and the saying "I'm 4 and I like it!"), helped her block it out and she colored it with some fabric crayons.

She loved this! Oh, and she chose some ribbon to go around the bottom. She wore it the rest of the day - and many days since.

 I got the shirt idea from a tradition my sisters and I used to have. We had these pink pants with pom-poms on them that we called our birthday pants. Whoever's birthday it was wore the pants and the other two sisters decorated a shirt for her...usually horribly embarrassing. And we had to wear it all day.

I wish I had a picture to post - I loved that tradition. I wonder who ended up with the pants...

On a side note...How is Little Miss 4 already!? It's freaking me out!!