CANDYLAND BIRTHDAY PARTY

SUCCESS!!!

This past weekend I threw a birthday party for my 6 year old daughter (Shelby), My 1 year old daughter (McKenna), and my 6 year old sister (Danica). I have never really been a crafty person or a blogger, but I have been inspired by other bloggers and Pinterest users to give it a shot and the party turned out to be a huge success dispite the extreme summer heat here in Vegas!

INVITATIONS

These lollipop invitations have 3 different layers of scrapbooking paper that I found at Hobby Lobby. The top layer was just printed from my home computer and cut into a 4 in circle with I glued to a 4.5 in circle and then a 5 in circle. I hot glued a lollipop stick between the layers and finished it off with a little bow. I also stuck a small magnet to the back so it could be placed on the fridge for safe keeping. I know I always misplace invitations my kids come home with! People really loved that idea.


SKIRTS

So, I really love the little tutu skirts I've seen kids wear and I thought a Candyland birthday would be the perfect place for them to wear one. I originally went online and found people selling similar outfits for around $50-$55 each! Sorry, but that's too pricey for me. I found a wonderful tutorial on YouTube that teaches you how to make a No-Sew Tutu. It is so easy and cheap! I made each skirt for $9!! I also found plain shirts and an iron-on patch that said "Birthday Girl" in rainbow colors that for $8. By doing it myself I actually saved $114!


DECORATIONS

We made our walkway look like the path from the Candyland board game. I used table clothes that I found at the 99cent store and cut them into 3'x3' squares and taped it down with black duct tape. At first I wasn't sure how the tape would look, but it made the colors pop and seperate the squares just like on a game board. The lollipops I made from painted posterboard, celephane, and PVC pipe that we staked into the ground.

I thought it would be a good idea to paint the "gingerbread" game piece onto a piece of poster board and cut the face out for the kids to take pictures. He turned out pretty well I think! The gumdrops are also made from potser board and covered in glitter to look like the sugar.

I found this adorable banner at Shindigz.com. They have so many great ideas for parties!

I came up with a candycane ring toss game to play. We just took 3 different sizes of PVC pipe and wrapped it with red crepe paper and staked them into the ground. They used a styrophome ring to throw. Each ring was worth a different amount of points (1, 3, and 5) and had 3 chances.

Instead of pre-made goodie bags, I let the kids decorate plastic buckets with foam stickers. No glue was needed so clean up was easy! They then filled their buckets with candy from the candy bar and they each got a new toothbrush to take home!


FOOD

The Smore Pops I found on Pinterest were way better than I thought they would be. I love smores and these were so easy to make!! I just put jumbo marshmallows on lollipop sticks that I had left over from the invitations and dipped them into melted chocolate chips and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs.

Rainbow Slush! I saw this and just HAD to try it and I'm so glad I did! The link has a wonderful tutorial on how to make this with plenty of pictures. It was actually pretty simple. I found that 6 pops per layer was perfect. I also put the pops in the microwave for about 30 seconds to make them soft and used a potato masher instead of a fork and it was a lot easier. When it melts, it turns into a slushy drink. My guests thought it was too pretty to eat, so I had to take the first glass and it went fast after that! The adults loved adding a shot of vodka in it too.

Ok so I am far from a cake decorater, but I am so proud of my cake!! I made alomost everything else and I didn't want a store bought cake with a picture just pasted on top, so I gave it a shot. I started out with 2- 9"x13" cakes, one chocolate and one yellow, and put them side by side. I covered them with cream cheese frosting (the hardest part), but I whipped it a little bit first to make it easier to spread. Then came the fun part. I wanted to make sure I covered all areas of the board. I used Starburst candies as the path. The gingerbread tree is covered in berries so I used Welch's Berries 'N Cherries fruit snacks, peppermints, gumdrops, licorice, circus peanuts, spiral lollipops, coconut for snowflake lake, chocolate chips, and mini ice cream cones with frosting for the castle. I found princess candles that looked like wands with stars on the end and thought those would look perfect in snow flake lake with Princess Frostine. Everyone loved it and it tasted great too! Although the kids were being picky about which piece they wanted. Actually, the adults were just as bad! :)


Over all, the party was so much fun and everyone had a wonderful time. Kaydence will be turning 8 in September, so I guess I better start planning! :)