Buckets of Ballerina Princesses

I'm finally getting around to posting some of my pre-blog parties.  Since I've already featured Ethan's Cars birthday party I thought I'd start out with one of Grace's parties.  For her 5th birthday (it seems so long ago) she wanted a Ballet/Princess Party.  That was the first of her combined theme challenges for me.  Luckily, the themes went together pretty easily.  Let me give a few disclaimers first - I put this party together long before I even knew a party planning blogging world existed.  So I did it without the benefit of all my talented party planning cohorts' ideas or products or printables.  Also, this was prior to having a good camera.  So I apologize for the picture quality.

Here are some of the pictures from the party.

Decorations

I stole this idea from my friend Rebecca and made it using a wire wreath form and a marabou boa.  Very easy!  I purchased the "G" from the unfinished wood department at Hobby Lobby and painted it.  You'll see a repeat of those "G's" throughout Grace's various birthday parties! 

 

Grace's photo board.

 

I intertwined tulle through a cake stand and placed Grace's ballet shoes in the center with a tiara and wand.

 

This was my very first attempt at a candy table - long before I discovered "Save the Date for Cupcakes" or Amy Atlas.  The containers are from Ikea.  I took tulle and hot glued it to the top of the glass jars.

I hung tulle and Christmas lights from the ceiling. 

 

My attempt to turn a Pottery Barn drink stand into a tutu.

 

Tulle tied to the back of chairs.

 

Wands from Oriental Trading that I hot glued tulle to.

 

The Favors

I purchased canvas bags from Hobby Lobby and hot glued tulle to the tops of them and added each of the girls' names in puffy paint.  The bags were full of ballerina trinkets and dress up items, mostly from the Target dollar aisle, Oriental Trading and LTD Commodities.

 

The boys each received a "Knight" bag that I found in the Target Dollar Aisle filled with knight dress up gear from the Dollar Store. 

 

The Food

Long before I knew what "printables" were and before I discovered party blogs I made these cupcakes.  Looking back, I still think the ballerina toppers are cute.

 

These were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut with a tutu cookie cutter.  The bread was from our local grocery store.  Grace's birthday usually falls around Easter and this bread was their Easter bread.

 

The Activities

As I've admitted in other posts, I'm pretty loyal to a version of "Pin the [you name it] on the [you name it.]"  For this party, I cut out "tutus" and the kids pinned the tutu on the ballerina.

 

I found a ballet shoe pinata.  It's amazing how kids love pinatas!

 

The Birthday Girl

Grace's skirt was from Etsy as well as her top.

 

I had grand plans to make her cake, but unfortunately an out-of-town work seminar always falls around her birthday so I wasn't able to get to it.  This one was delicious though!

 

This was a really fun party to plan - especially because the year before, she had a baseball party - no girly details that year.  Stay tuned for that post!