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For my daughter's 5th birthday we decided on a princess theme. I planned long and hard by selecting the theme last December and purchasing stuff for the party throughout the year. That way I
got in on all after holiday sales, dollar stores constantly got new merchandise and in the end, I didn't have to go to a big party store and drop a bundle of money on just a few
supplies. The invitations They were cards with purple "glass" slippers on them detailed with silver glitter (from the Dollar Store) inside they had pre-printed scroll work
around the edges so I just typed out the party information on my computer in a fancy font, cut it out with decorative edged scissors and pasted it inside. The invites read: Here ye Here ye you are
cordially invited to Princess Zoey's 5th Birthday Ball. Wear your royal attire to this gala. Pizza and drinks will be provided for all little prince's and princess'. The celebration
begins at 1pm at Round Table Pizza. Please arrange for your coach to arrive for you at 3 pm when the ball commences. RSVP to the Queen mother at 555-5555. The decorations The room we
reserved was really plain so I could really dress it up. I hung (cardboard) gold shimmery stars all over the walls (Found packs of 36 stars at the dollar store). For the adult tables I
didn't use tablecloths, I just loosely wrapped white Christmas lights in pink or purple tulle (got the tulle by the roll on sale at local craft store)and layed it down the middle of the table making
sure the lights were wrapped inside the tulle. Then in the middle of the table on top of the lights I placed a jeweled crown (Discount store for .88 cents) and on each side pastel colored beaded
wands. I did this to all of the adult tables. Kids Tables My daughter wanted both Disney Princess and Barbie Princess and the Pauper so I put two long tables together (each one sat 8) draped them
with purple table cloths and did one Disney Princess and the other Barbie. On the Disney Princess table I placed the large heart shaped Disney Princess plates and napkins at each of the eight place
settings. I then strung silver wiry star garland down the middle of both tables and sprinkled with silver shimmers (like the icicles you put on your Christmas tree). On the Disney table I also
put large pieces of confetti with the different princesses' faces on it and sat three (plastic)champagne glasses with pink bows tied on them evenly spaced in the middle part of the table. In the
glasses I placed mini candy bars that I had made wrappers on the computer for that said Thank you for coming to Zoey's 5th Birthday... We hope you had a ball! and each wrapper had a snow globe
on it with a picture of Cinderella and the prince inside (found the clip art on the Internet). On the Barbie table I used the Princess and the Pauper plates and napkins, sprinkled crown confetti
around the table and also put some champagne glasses on there as well. For my daughter to open her presents I had fashioned a throne out of a regular dining room style chair. I took a piece of white
poster board, rounded the edges made some scroll like designs at the top, added some gold paint around the edges and spelled her name across the top in colored gems. For the bottom I took another
piece of poster board and made some scrolled looking "feet" for the chair, leaving enough poster board to go from the bottom of the chair seat to the floor. I placed the poster board
throne pieces on the chair and duct taped in place on the back. I then sat a big gold pillow with tassels on it on the seat of the chair. Crafts I purchased cardbaord crowns (Dollar Store)and
had foam shapes scattered on the craft table. The foam shapes were mirrors, combs, lipstick tubes etc. I also had some stars and shapes for the boys. They were not the self sticking kind
which would have been nice, but I improvised and used cupcake tin liners and put a small amount of school glue in each one and put out glittery paint brushes to be dipped in the glue. I didn't
want a bunch of 5 year olds with full glue bottles so I thought that was the best solution. The kids had fun decorating their crowns and I had a pen handy so their name could be written
inside. And clean-up was a snap since the paint brushes were really inexpensive I just tossed them all at the end and didn't have to deal with a sticky mess. I also had copied off a bunch
of coloring pages (some of Sleeping Beauty etc, but also some ones for the boys like Aladdin and Abu) and had crayons there if they wanted to color. The object was to keep them busy and having
fun! Favors I began buying hair barrettes, lipglosses, mini Disney Princess frisbees etc. to fill the goody bags with. That's when I hit the jackpot at a local discount jewelery store in
the mall. They were having a 10 items for $5.00 sale. I found exactly ten little purses with fur on them, some had sequins, and they were all filled with stuff from make-up to hair
things. I took them home dumped everything out of them and divided all of the loot equally and placed it in the little purses. For the boys I used cellophane loot bags and filled them with
small cars, little plastic firefighters (like the green army men, but no guns) candy, bubbles etc. I also picked up some plush trains and cars for a few of our guests that were only two years
old. I stored all of these goodies in a treasure chest that I made out of a box that cases of paper come in. The deep lid was great. I painted the whole thing gold and added some accents
with brown paint, punched a hole in the front and hung an old luggage lock on there. I hooked the lid on the box by punching holes in each and tying with ribbon, so the lid would looked
"hinged." You should have seen the kids when I broke out the treasure chest and opened the lid. Game I enlarged (poster board size) a picture of Cogsworth (the clock from Beauty and
the Beast) then I painted it using craft paints complete with gold shimmer paint for some parts. I left off the hands of the clock. I then made pairs of clock hands and cut them out and painted
with gold shimmer paint, I put a piece of double stick adhesive on the back of each one then all I had to do at the party was peel the top off and give it to the child to try to "Pin the hands on
Cogsworth" Of course the children were blindfolded and I wrote each child's name on their set of clock hands so we would know the winner. The closest girl and closest boy got a small goody
bag with candy and other little prizes (ie. bracelet, necklace, matchbox car etc.) All the other children also got something for playing. I had taken plain sandwich bags (the ones that
aren't ziplock) and placed a sucker, a small candy bar and a few other pieces of candy in them, tied with blue curling ribbon-those were for the boys. For the girls I used the same bags, but I
had found Disney Princess Gummy bracelets and Disney gummy Mickey Mouse heads that I put in the bags for the girls. The children were thrilled to get a little treat. I think they thought that
was their "goody bag" but we still had a surprise for them. Cake Table I baked cupcakes using Disney Princess cupcake liners. I decorated them with white frosting then put a pink
flower on top of each one (with a frosting/tip bag). The cake table had a blue tablecloth on it and I had strung white lights around it and strung the silver icicles over the lights so the light
would shimmer through. I placed the cupcakes in a heart shape on the table. I also had "glass" slippers (wedding section of the craft store, but I found mine much cheaper at the
Dollar store)that I placed around the table. I had also taken small blue tulle circles and put butter mints in them, tying the tops with silver curling ribbon and attaching the same label I used on
the candy bars with the Prince and Cinderella picture on it. I placed the mints around the cake table also. Then on the left side of the cake table I had the rice kripie treat wands. I made a
batch of rice kripie treats and then used a star shaped cooking cutter on them. With some cleaver maneuvering of the cookie cutter and rolling left over scraps back together I got over 19
wands. I then stuck a bamboo skewer in the bottom of each star, placed a sandwich bag over the rice kripie treat and tied with blue curling ribbon. The party turned out great! My
daughter and all of her friends had a ball! All of the girls dressed up and even one of the boys came decked out as a knight. The moms all raved at what a great job I had done and what fun
their kids had coming to a "real princess party" where they could dress up and everything. I like to go all out, but not go into debt doing so. I really watch sales, dollar stores
etc. If you look carefully and visit the stores often you can usually find some real treasures! Well, another successful party in the books, now it's time to start planning next year's bash!
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