A special princess party and review of party bags and supplies

It’s Phoebe’s 5th birthday coming up, birthdays are kind of a big deal in our house – we start planning early and Phoebe’s been looking forward to her birthday party since last year’s finished!  I love the whole theme choosing, the abundance of cakes you can have, the excitement of all the children, the party food, all of it!  Last year she had a princess theme, of course, and since then she’s wanted a different thing every week, but last year’s must have been good because she wants the same again.  We were in the midst of frozen fever last year, although it’s been dimmed a little, Elsa and Anna are still popular, along with all the Disney Princesses.

Cheesy puffs were requested!  I really went to town, with heart shaped sandwiches, fruit wands, olaf marshmallow pops and a pink castle cake with every princess ever on the top!  The girls (and boys, there were a few) all decorated their own cupcakes with sprinkles and frozen themed rice paper circles.  We had pin the crown on the princess and throw the snowball in the bucket.  The party bags were princess themed.

 

The heart sandwiches were filled with strawberry jam, and I used an apple corer for the cut-out!  Any bread wasted went to breadcrumbs.  The fruit wands were so simple and really effective and so popular with the kids.  I used melon for the stars and grapes, I’ll definitely be doing these again this year.  I bought cheap cupcakes for the girls to decorate, the main cake I bought a strawberry flan as the base and another cake on top which I decorated with icing, rice paper princesses and icing flowers.  I had the columns already and used ice cream cones turned upside down covered in icing for the turrets.  It was a great party but boy it was a lot of work!

This year I toyed with having a party elsewhere, letting someone else do the work, but I decided it would be better (and cheaper) to do it at home again.  A big helping hand has come from Party Bags and Supplies, an online party supply shop which has every kind of theme you can imagine, from branded ones like minions and monster high, to general ones like horses and dinosaurs.  They do everything from tableware to party bags and balloons.  They also cover adult parties too.  They have gifted us with our tableware (plates, cups, tablecloth, napkins) and pre-filled party bags!  Joy if joys, I used to enjoy getting the party bag fillers and putting them in the bags, but that novelty has worn off.  It was amazing to get these, they’re all done and in advance, all I have to do is give them out.  Plus, the gifts inside are really lovely and all fit in with the theme.  I left the choice up to Phoebe, I though she’d go for princesses or fairies, but she chose Hello Kitty, another one of her firm favourites.  I videoed her having a sneak preview.

I have a feeling they’re going to be well received in March.  Have you done a party with a theme?  I love Pinterest for gathering inspiration for parties and cakes, don’t you?  I’ll be writing again after the party’s done this year and I hope I won’t be tearing my hair out!

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