Albree's 5th Princess Par-Tea

I finally have all the pics together of the princess tea party honoring Miss Albree Lyn.  This party was definately one of the biggest projects I have taken on but I was really happy with the outcome.  Now of course there were things I planned that did not get done or turn out exactly as I planned  like this:

but I'm the only one who knew that and all that attended said they had a really good time.  The balloon arch did get finished and looked great but we ran into a problem trying to anchor it in the ground.  Then we laid it in the grass while we tried to device a plan and it started to pop slowly.  I was super bummed but had to move on and face the fact that it just wasn't going to work.  Maybe after years pass and I forget what a huge pain it was I will attempt this again because it looked really cool and was not very expensive to make.

I tried to make a lot of the decorations myself from different ideas I saw off of party blogs like Kara's Party Ideas.  Some of the decorations included pom pom balls made out of tissue paper.  Here is a tutorial on how to make this super easy and inexpensive decor.  I also tried to do the #5 from a party here but I ran out of the cupcake liners I was using and I went to 3 stores in town and nobody had them :(.  They were a cute pink and green plaid and I should of known when I pulled the only pack of them from the back shelf at Kroger that I was testing fate.  I also had planned on serving these really cute and delicious pink and white mini cupcakes from Kroger, but found out on the day before the party that they were a seasonal item and could not be ordered.  I had to scramble and ended up just picking some plain white mini cupcakes with sprinkles.  I was a little disappointed that I put all this planning into this party yet I had no spectacular confectionery delight as the centerpiece.   There were a lot of things that did go as planned like these ribbon topiary balls. The majority of the items were made with the help of my wonderful co workers.  The tutus, banner, topiaries and pom-poms were all made in the wee morning hours at the Schump.  I started the planning back in May and it was not a moment too soon because all of the projects took a lot of time.

The actual set up started the day before the party.  My momma flew in from FL to help and she was wonderful. Don't know how I would of done it without her.   I moved all of the furniture and decor out of the living room to set it up as our party space.  I worked til about midnight that night and left this as my starting off point

The next day we woke up bright and early and Albree called from her bed when she was ready to get up.  She wanted everything to be a surprise so we covered her eyes and she went up to her playroom while we set everything up. Here she is waiting on the stairs patiently.

The next hours involved the arch fiasco, food prep, furniture removal, and trying to find everything its perfect place.  I ran out of time to complete all of the little touches I would of like to of gotten done but this is how it all turned out:

 
The guests arrived and the party began with a craft I had picked up for all the girls.  It were these princess mirrors made by Melissa and Doug.  I got them online and thankfully I ordered them a month ahead of time because it took that long for them to get there.  Don't think I will ever use AsSeenOnTVJunkies.com again.  I did fill like I got a quality item for a good price and they were a huge hit with the girls.  It was a good activity to keep them entertained while waiting on all the guests to arrive.


We then started to munch on the food.  The menu included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut out in heart and flower shapes, rotisserie chicken salad from Sam's on crosissant rolls (delicious), broccoli and raisin salad, cheese and crackers, deviled eggs, fruit and pink dip, and jell-o with cool whip on top in little plastic glasses from the dollar tree.  Drinks consisted of iced tea, pink lemonade and raspberry lemonade.

After everyone got their bellies filled, we started getting the girls in their princess attire.  I had spent the weeks before making tutus for all of the girls out of tulle tied around a strip of ribbon.  We luckily had 2 matching vanities made by Airianna's (albree's best friend) grandpa.  We set those up with hair at one, make up at another and we used one of Albree's little play tables as the nail station.  At the hair station the girls got their hair put in a bun and topped with a tiara.  They then went outside to get sprayed with Princess dust (glitter spray).  At the makeup station they got eyeshadow, glitter gel, lip gloss and jeweled tattoos.  At the nail station they got to pick between purple or pink polish and then they picked out their sparkly diamond ring to wear.

Once everyone was fancy, the party games began. The first was a game inspired by Princess and the Pea.  Our wonderful princess read the story to the girls so they would kind of get of an idea how the game went.  I laid out four pillows and had all the girls go into Albree's room.  I then hid a small green golf ball (from Gator Golf) under one of the pillows to represent the pea.  Each girl was brought out one by one and given a chance to sit on each pillow to guess where the pea was.  After one girl finished the others went back into the room, the pea was hidden again and then they were brought out for their chance to find the pea.  After they guessed correctly, they were given their pink wand as a reward for being a true princess.

The next game was inspired by the princess and the frog.  Instead of pinning the tail on the donkey, we tried to kiss the frog.  Albree's bathroom is princess themed, so we were able to use a frog prince she had hanging in there as our frog.  I then cut out red lips from construction paper and put tacky putty on the backs.  Each girl was blindfolded and spun around the number of years they were old.  The winner was whoever got closest to putting their lips on the frog's. Sweet baby Addison wanted to kiss the frog with her real lips so we had to let that cuteness happen.

The last game was based off of our guest of honor, Princess Aurora.  We had music playing and when it stopped the girls had to drop to the ground and "fall asleep".  The first girl to move was out.  The music then started back up and the girls would start dancing again.  Airianna was our winner so she got to be first at the sweets table.

I set up a sweets table that was a huge hit because it involved every kids favorite food: sugar.  I tried to find an assortment of candies that were pink, green or purple in color to go with the theme.  Some of my finds included pink and white marshmallows, strawberry whoppers, watermelon sour patch kids, and mike and ikes tropical flavored.  We also had pink little debbie cakes, chocolate molded princess pretzel rods, chocolate covered oreos that were molded with different princess graphics and some beautiful and delicious cake balls my friend Danielle made.  My friend Meghan came over a couple days prior and helped with the Oreos and pretzel rods because there is NO way I could of completed them without her. Each kid loaded up there bag to get sugar high at their houses later.

Next we did cupcakes.  I was able to get a big pink and green flower cupcake from Brookshire's so that Albree would kind of have something special but she politely informed me after a couple of bites that it didn't taste very good.  So she ate some of the white ones which were tasty and was perfectly content.

Last thing was presents and pictures with our princess Aurora.  Speaking of Princess Aurora, she was fantastic.  She is a sweet girl from one of my friend's church who volunteered to be a Princess at Albree and Airianna's parties.  We found her dress on eBay for $35 total.  We ordered her a long wig on Amazon when she was dressed as Rapunzel at Airianna's party and then found the blond wig for her role as Princess Aurora.  She had the mannerisms down to a tee and she was extremely helpful throughout the whole party.  Honestly it would not have been the same party had she not been there. 

Overall the party was a ton of fun and all the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves including the birthday girl. I do wish I would of gotten everything done but the smile on Albree's face let me know that I had accomplished my goal.  Her daddy said that another party like this won't happen again until she is 16 but she and I have already been talking about next year's possible theme: Mermaids!!!