Ellie’s Princess Birthday Party!!

Baby girl turned four last Saturday!  We had seven little girls and two little boys (my two nephews that are Ellie’s age) over for a princess luncheon.

I apologize ahead of time for the crappy pictures.  My good camera had a dead battery so I had to resort to the older not so clear and crisp camera.  *SIGH* That was a lot work to not have amazing pictures to show off. 

We started things about 10 days before the party by passing out the invites.


{Freebie template coming soon!}

Now before I go any further I have a confession.  I. . .  Holly Marie Archuleta, am NOT a good party planner.

I am not detail oriented.

Frosting will not bend to my will. . .my cakes typically look more like mud slides.

I may or may not have issues with time management.

So before I even got started I studied, and I do mean literally studied, the amazing parties that Jamie and Brooke from The Crafting Chicks have thrown their girls. 

Those two know how to throw some serious weddings . . .I mean birthday parties.

I do however know how to entertain children.  That I can do.  When I was online I found LOTS of ideas for decorations, the cake ect., but really nothing on how to throw a party with a good flow, activities and the like. So, I thought I would go into a little detail about what we did along with some tips on how to keep things running smoothly. 

Plus a few decoration and food ideas. 





I made this princess banner, a little time consuming, but pretty easy and inexpensive to do.  Totally stole the idea from Jamie.  {Told you the pictures were crappy}.

To help get our princess into party mode we greeted them at the door with a fancy little plate covered with costume jewelry.  Each girl got to choose a bracelet and a ring to wear at the party and than take home.  Another idea I took from Jamie’s Cinderella Princess Party Once they selected their jewelry I sent them down stairs to watch Tangled.  

I have found that having some sort of “quite” activity for kids to do while they wait for everyone to arrive helps keep things under control.  Once everyone arrived we had them pick a fingernail polish.  Than while they continued watching Tangled I went around painting their nails.  I had told my husband earlier that I wasn’t sure if this part of the party was actually going to work.  There is NO way I could have gotten 8 little boys to sit still for anything during a party, not even to watch Star Wars.  I know, I have tried.  But they were so excited about getting their nails painted that they all sat still and watched the movie.   It only took about 10 minutes

Notice my nephews and my two older boys are MIA.


After all the little finger nails were painted {and dry}, we played, “Find the Princess”.  Basically sardines.  One princess would hide and than the others would go find her, if you found the princess you hid with her until the whole little group was crammed in a bath tub, or closet, or my laundry room.  They thought this was HILLARIOUS.

We probably could have just played “Find the Princess” the rest of the afternoon, but what would a princess luncheon be with out lunch? 

Here’s the spread.  I know it pales in comparison to Jamie’s and Brooke’s but it did the job.





Lunch consisted of pink lemonade, heart shaped PBJ’s, Raspberry Pudding (a fabulous recipe that is a sure kid pleaser) and fruit kabob's.



The boys did show up when it was time to eat.


After lunch we had cake and ice cream.  I choose a simple cake idea I found online.  Ellie was very impressed with it.  Put a crown on anything and she’s impressed.


Than some simple cupcakes.  We ate the cupcakes at the party and saved the cake for a family celebration we had later that day.  It is my experience that kids LOVE cup cakes and that they are much simpler to serve. 

Don’t look too closely at the cup cake toppers.  My husband cut them out and he thought that little bracket shape was just ridiculous.
   

This is just a random picture of my sister April during the party.  She LOVES princesses so she thought the party was pretty awesome.  My husband loves taking pictures of her doing weird things.

  

After cake and ice cream we cleared away the plates and kept the girls at the table to make these cute princess hats.   They were really easy, and another big hit.  I had swords for the boys, but they took off again.



After hats we opened presents.  {Can’t skip that part}



Than did the piñata   Those dainty little girls where barely even tapping the thing, but my older boys quickly took care of that problem.

I am not so sure about piñata's at parties.  Kids love them, but they scare me.  And honestly I over planned.  We would have been fine without it.

As the girls walked out the door Ellie handed them their little gift bags.


A million hours of planning and prepping for a two hour party.  It was well worth it though to see how thrilled this little princess was over the whole thing. 

This is Ryan’s {the hubby} idea of a cute picture of the two of us…. not so sure I share his opinion on that one.



Check back next week for free pintables/tutorials including the invite, princess banner and princess hats.
Looking for more birthday ideas?  Check out Kim’s Spider Man birthday or this cute idea for a 1st b-day invite.