Lydia's Princess Extravaganza!

For the past year Lydia has been loving to play dress up! She loves to throw on hat or heels and prance around the house. When she's done most of the time she says, " I just want to be Lydia." At some point this year her dressing up focused a little more on princesses and we invested in a used lot of costumes from eBay. Best purchase we ever made. Hence, it seemed natural to have a princess dress up birthday party. Most of Lydia's little friends are girls and so there we have it. Some of the things we have learned over the years of kid parties is be sure you have something for them to do beyond just running around and keep things simple i.e. food, décor, less is more idea.

I tried to do just that. A couple of highlights. I saw this on pinterest and then for the life of me couldn't find it again, so I winged it and I think it turned out well. This is just colored paper and double sided tape.


We had some extra streamers from other events so I wrapped up the center chair which is typically a captains chair to be her throne. I love balloons and I typically order a dozen for $10 at the Party City by our house. They only last 8 hours, so I order a few days early and pay, then pick them up the day of the party. I wanted things to look fancy so I pulled out only white and clear dishes.

It is hard to see here, but we made fruit wands. Using a cookie cutter we cut watermelon stars to top skewers of grapes. Super cute! I put them in a vase to add a little fancy. I used to really dislike plastic table cloths but last party I learned the beauty of throwing out the plastic table cloth.

Our main activity was the bounce house. It was awesome! However it was hot and we had to be sure to pull the kids in every 30 minutes or so for drink and air conditioning breaks. A Funny Business which is a family own and run inflatable company was amazing. They were more than accommodating and were really great at making sure we were happy with out order.
We ordered a cake from Publix. Lydia picked it out. It was so cute and all the toys on she was able to keep. The little castle opens up to store the princesses. It is hard to read but they added Happy Birthday on the walkway on the cake which actually required a very long conversation with the bakery folk. You would be surprised.

In between the bouncing we brought our princes and princesses inside. They played with the Little People castle and other pink toys to perpetuate the royal nature of the event.
We also decorated foam tiaras with stick on jewels and stickers. After they were finished they were able to prance around wearing their new head gear.

Lydia changed dresses a couple of times during the day. First she was Sophia and then she was Cinderella. After party she wore her pink hearted fedora and pink poodle purse.

For our party gift we gave out golden books. We decided that so often the goody bag is just as expensive as one usable item so we strive to continue this practice for the future. We had 2 books Princess and the Pea and The Blue Book of Fairy Tales. I added some thank you stickers on the back.

 

It was a great day! We had tons of fun!