Enchanted Prom Birthday Party - Part III, Fun and Games

Part III of the Enchanted Prom Birthday Party posts features the activities from the party.  One of my "pet peeves" should we say about gorgeous, styled children's parties is that they are just that - styled parties - and not really about the kids.  Having a "real party" means that you have to have "real" things for the kiddos to do - not just a pretty favor table (see here) or a pretty sweets table (see here) to look at.  Frankly, the kiddos could care less whether your tables are symmetrical and and sweets that you know what they are by looking at them have coordinating labels informing you of the obvious.  (I can say this because I do just that!)

So, in thinking about what Grace's friends could do at the party, I wanted to keep it fun of course, but also keep the activities with the theme of the party.  The problem is, however, proms don't really engender a ton of activities - time to be creative!

I always try to have an activity the kids can do as the other guests arrive.  They never all come on time so it is nice to give the early arrivers something to do.  With girls, finding things is pretty easy - they love seat work and any craft project.  I found some cute free printable coloring sheets (Coloring Book is a great site) for the girls to do as they arrived.

Prom Coloring

Pin the Corsage on the Prom Princess

Once all the guests arrived, we played "Pin the Corsage on the Prom Princess."  I made the poster by transferring the prom girl from the invitation to a transparency and then used an overhead projector to trace it on poster board.  After outlining my tracing with marker, Grace went to town painting the girl.  She always likes to help me get ready for parties so it was a good activity for her to do.

Prom Masquerade Masks

Grace LOVES art or craft projects like most girls so I wanted to come up with some sort of project for the party.  Watching a (bad) Disney movie one night with Grace gave me the idea of masquerade masks. (I think it was some kidnapped princess movie with Selena Gomez and Demi Levato - whatever it was the storyline was awful.)  I found the masks at Oriental Trading and purchased self-stick beads and feathers for the girls to use to decorate the masks.  I decided to use glue dots so we didn't have runny, sticky glue all over their pretty prom dresses.  The glue dots worked out well.

(Ethan thought it was a superhero mask!)

A very well planned, color coordinated masquerade mask!

Let's Dance!

Of course, what would a prom be without dancing!  My husband put the kibosh on renting a dance floor (probably a wise idea) so the next best thing was creating out own.   We used peel and stick tiles to create the dance floor - a set of 45 was $25 - a fraction of the cost of renting a dance floor (and it still did the trick.)

I LOVED how the paper honeycomb globes turned out.  I strung them together by running ribbon down the middle of the globes before opening them.  I taped the ribbon to the inside of the globe using duct tape.  It held very well.

The Prom Dancers

I LOVE this picture.  One day I'll look back at it and remind them that they really do like each other!

I LOVE this picture even more.  Grace insisted on having a "father daughter" dance - her idea.  She was so excited to dance with her daddy.  I'm not quite sure what Chris' tongue is doing hanging out of his mouth though!

I realize that proms do not typically have the cheesy dances that weddings do (well, at least the weddings in Northeast Wisconsin!)  But, I thought those cheesy dances sort of flowed well with the prom theme and that the girls would have fun - so we did them anyway.  The girls LOVED the limbo.  I also taught them the Macarena (or so I tried) and the Chicken Dance.  And, the cheesy dances would not have been complete without a version of the Hokey Pokey!

Prom Castles

I found these adorable pop-up tents and the price was right and they looked so cute for the party.  At the end of the party, the girls had fun all piling inside and acting goofy. Ethan especially enjoyed his "man cave!"

Prom Fashion Show

Grace and her friend (our neighbor) recently started giving us "fashion shows."  I vaguely remember from prom some sort of "parade of couples" or something to that effect.  So, I thought a fashion show would be sort of consistent with the party.  The girls were a hoot and loved putting on a little show for us moms.  Ethan especially was a ham!

These pictures make me laugh out loud!  These are so my kids!

Prom Pinata

The idea of using a bat to try to crush something just seems like such a fun activity for kids.  I was able to find a disco ball pinata from Amazon.

Prom Pictures

A universal prom experience has to be the very staged and choreographed prom pictures.  I still have the picture of Chris and me from when we went to my high school senior prom (4 dress sizes ago!)  This party would not have been complete without the prom pictures!  We are very fortunate to have a very talented, kind and generous aunt who happens to be a professional photographer - Debbie Daanen Photography.  She graciously let me use her backdrop and props for prom pictures. 

While my pictures are not even half the quality of hers, they captured some cute moments from the party!  Each girl had her picture taken when she arrived (just like the real prom!)

(Yes, that is me in a prom dress!  What we won't do for our kids!)

(Poor Ethan was not feeling well by the time we took these pictures!)

(In real clothes - much better!)

Grace and her good friend Emily.

One more post to come - more of the decor!  Thanks for looking!