Grace's Hannah Montana/High School Musical/Rock Star 6th Birthday Party

I am finally getting around to featuring Grace's 6th birthday party.  Prior to having this blog, my fellow party blogger, Betsy Pruitt from Belly Feathers was kind enough to post this party on her blog.  I am eternally grateful!  She was part of the inspiration to start this blog and has been so helpful as I continue this journey! 

Grace challenged me for her 6th Birthday.  It wasn't long after she turned 5 when she decided she wanted a High School Musical and Hannah Montana party - as if one Disney star wasn't enough!  As I think I've noted before, I'm not too crazy about "character" parties, let alone having two characters in one party!  But as any mom out there would do, if that's what your child wanted, you'd do it.  So like the baseball party, I gave it my all :) 

I thought one way that I could "de-character" the party would be to tie it together with a "Rock Star" theme.  The "rock star" aspect of the party really pulled it all together.  And the best part of the party, was the look on Grace's face when she came home from school to see all of the decorations and especially the stage.

This was the first year I let her have a "friend" birthday party.  I still think it's important to celebrate birthdays with family.  So I decided to host her friends from 11:00 to 1:00 and then have family arrive at 3:00.  That arrangement worked out great!  I only had to decorate and get ready for one day.

The guests were invited to come dressed as their favorite Rock Star.  The girls looked adorable!  This party was so much to plan and even better to throw given the excitement of all the girls!

The Invite

PaperStyle

The Favors

The Favor Containers were actually Easter baskets from Kohl's that I got at 90% off from the previous Easter!

 

Favor Tags - Ciao Bambino from Etsy

The guitars were full of Hannah Montana and High School Musical items, all fit for a rock star!

Each girl also received a microphone headset, blow up guitar and feather boa.

Each girl also received her own backstage pass that I created using my Creative Memories Digital Scrapbooking Package.  They were placed in backstage pass holders from Oriental Trading Company.

The Decorations

 

I printed off 8x10 backstage passes to place next to the posters.

I also created a number of signs to be placed around the party.

The Stage

Grace insisted on having a stage for the party.  When I told her we wouldn't have a raised platform, she was a little disappointed.  However, when she got home from school and saw this stage, she was ecstatic!

 

I made the speakers using large cardboard boxes.  I spray painted them black and used a stencil I created to make the circles on the boxes.

A vinyl sticker from UpperCase Living that I placed on the "stage floor."

The Activities

We had a Hannah Montana Tattoo Parlor and a Girl Power Salon.  I had make-up, fingernail polish, hair extensions and hair spray paint for each girl to create her own rock star!

I purchased cardboard guitars from Oriental Trading for each child to decorate.  I added the black center circle prior to the party so the kids would have a reference point from where to decorate the guitar.  

The girls played "pass the microphone" - our version of Hot Potato.

I had a guitar pinata.

And a rock star birthday party wouldn't be complete without karaoke!  My great neighbors let us use their karaoke machine.  I purchased a Hannah Montana karaoke C.D. from Great Party.  All of the girls LOVED karaoke.  I think we heard "Best of Both Worlds" 30 times.

Ethan was quite the karaoke singer!

 The Food

Cupcake Toppers - Ciao Bambino from Etsy

I adventured into cake making for this party.  Because some of my family (including me) is celiac, we have two cakes at most functions - one that tastes good and a gluten-free one.

The Birthday Girl

Grace's dress was from Etsy (the shop no longer is listed on Etsy).

Ethan's shirt was from the same seller on Etsy.

My rock stars!

I gave the adults who helped with her friend party, t-shirts that said, "Security."

Adventures in Novice Graphics Design

T minus 3 days until my baby boy turns 3.  And T minus one week until his big Lightning McQueen Birthday Bash.  Just like Grace, I look at him and wonder how he grew up so fast!  My baby is no longer a baby and is such a little man. 

For the kids' birthdays, I usually order my invites from places like Paper Style or any other online invitation place where I can find them at a good price.  I order them blank and print them myself - so much cheaper!  Unfortunately, every invite I found for a Cars/Lightning McQueen birthday party was so commercial and in my very humble (and I mean VERY humble) opinion, cheesy.  So, I decided I'd try to make my own.

I don't have any fancy graphic design software.  But I do have a digital scrapbooking package from Creative Memories.  In my pre-children days I was quite the scrapbooker.  Now it just seems like too much effort for me to get ALL that stuff out after the kids go to bed, set it up and then get one or two pages done.  So my last scrapbook page that is currently left in an unfinished state is of me when I was 7 months pregnant with Grace.  I have ideas of grandeur that I'll finish it, but Grace turned 6 this year and it still is as undone as it was 6 and 1/2 years ago!

So for me, the digital software is so much better.  It's all in one place, only takes the time to turn on your computer to get it "set up" and you can use the same "paper", "stickers" and "embellishments" over, and over and over again!  I actually have not used it to scrapbook at all.  I've used it to make photo cards of the kids.  It's super easy.  After you "scrapbook" your card, you can save it as a JPG file, and then upload it to something like Walgreens and print it as a picture.  I've printed mine as 4x6's or 5x7's.  Here are an example of some that I've done.

Halloween Card from 2009

Christmas Thank You from 2009

Valentine Card from 2010

Not that I want to sound like a sales person for Creative Memories, because believe me I'm not getting any royalties for this post :), but one of the great things is that they have all these mini themed packages you can purchase for around $4.95.  And luckily for me, they had a Cars package.  The one I purchased has been revamped to include the new "Toon Town" cars, and frankly I like my older version better, but here is a link to the package.

Here is my version of a Cars invite for Ethan's 3rd Birthday.

To plan for this party, I literally searched all the party blog sites and found some truly inspirational ideas and "met" (online version) some really great people.  Here are some of the ones I found:

• Belly Feather's Race Car Party (Betsy is one of the sweetest, nicest people I've met.  She's a "real" party planner and has lots of great ideas and real things you can buy from her to plan your party.  Check out her site here.)
• Bliss Bloom Blog Race Car Party
• Just Deanna Race Car Party
• Belleza e Luce (this party has been featured on a ton of party blogs)
• Party Love Hot Wheels Birthday Party

I'm not going to lie, using (or stealing) these ultra-talented people's ideas I created some signs for the party using the software as well. 

(I'm going to use this by the gift table.)

(If it wasn't obvious, I'm going to put this by the drinks.)

(I'm going to put this by the Cars Tattoos I have for the kids.)

(I'm going to put this sign by the favors table.)

I still have a TON to do for this party, but I'm very excited, as is Ethan!  I will be busy this weekend.  Wishing you and your family a splendid and safe weekend!  And happy party planning!