Princess Pajama Parties

  Growing up I was the kid who was never allowed to sleep over at a friend's house.  Slumber parties were no exception, and I couldn't understand why my Mom didn't let me stay the night.  It was completely unfair! 
Of course now that I'm a Mom I can understand where she was coming from... not that I enforce a complete ban on sleepovers, but I feel the most comfortable when I know my kids are safe at home in their beds.  Imagine my excitement then when a friend of mine started hosting Pajama Parties.  They have all the fun of a sleepover, except when the fun is over you go home and sleep in your own bed.

The Pajama Party: 
Plan you party on a night the kids can stay up late, but be considerate of bedtimes for various ages.  If they are under 8-years-old the party should be wrapping up before 10pm. 
In your invite encourage all of the attendees to come dressed in their favorite pajamas and bring their favorite pillow and blanket.

Activity Ideas: 

DECORATE A PILLOW - Make a small pillow in the shape of a crown for each girl.  Pillows are easy to make, but you may want to make them in advance unless you have an extra sewing machine and extra help.    Pick up plastic gems, ribbon, beads and charms from your local craft store.  Let the girls tie the ribbon into bows or hang charms with it.  Have an adult attach the girls designs of ribbon, gems and beads to the pillows.  The girls can take the decorative pillows home to accessories their own room.

KID SIZE PILLOW FIGHTS - A pillow fight, where no one gets injured, can be so much fun.  For the injury free pillow fight make your own miniature pillows.  The ones I make are the size of a bean bag (about 4x6 inches) and are filled with soft polyester pillow stuffing.  You will probably want at least 2 pillows per child.  Take the children to a safe running area free of sharp corners and let the pillow fight begin.  The children will throw the pillows across the room at each other and try to dodge incoming pillows.  The pillows have to leave your hand before they hit someone, and we have a no throwing at the face rule.  The pillows are so small and soft that they have little speed and do not hurt on impact.  This is a Parents Can Participate activity.  In fact, the kids love targeting the adults.

SOCK PUPPETS - Buy packages of long tube socks, swatches of felt fabric in various colors, craft eyes, yarn and other craft supplies.  You will also need a hot glue gun and glue sticks.  Place the children in groups and let them plan a puppet show to present to everyone.  Then using the socks and provided supplies they can create their own puppets to use in the show.  An adult will need to be in charge of the glue gun.  Do cake and presents while the puppets dry and then have all of the girls sit on their blankets and pillows to watch the groups present their shows.  You can provide popcorn and treats to make it theater like.

QUIET TIME - After the fun activities, the food and the gifts gather everyone together on the floor with their pillows and blankets for quiet time.  We recommend the following stories or movies:

Movie:  Sleeping Beauty (This one may scare little princesses.)

Stories:  The Princess and the Pea, Sleeping Beauty or Puppet Shows
          

Fantasy Photos

Do you have posters or pictures of your daughters favorite princess or fairy on the wall?  Why not make her the star of the wall and still keep in the princess or fairy theme?

There are different options out there for fantasy photos.  I recently saw a studio where you could pay for a shoot on an elaborate set with your daughter dressed up in a $1000 costume from France.  The costumes were dreamy and the pictures were amazing but the cost was quite high.

Another Mom told me that her photographer had a smaller scale fairyland studio.  They brought their own costumes and got to be photographed as they played with the magical toadstools.  This would be a fun photo session, and while this option was a more economical than the first, the upkeep of the permanent fantasy props meant that the price was more than normal.

If you like the idea and are looking for a lower cost option we recommend a photographer who can take the picture on their background and photoshop your daughter into her magical world like the ones pictured.  If you find a good photographer they can make it nearly impossible to tell the difference, and you get all kinds of options at an affordable price.


A huge thanks to Livingston Photography who sent us these photos they took with one of our dresses.  If you love them and want to find out how to get yours you can find them at alivingstonphoto.com.

Easy Tutu Craft

Tutus are such a multipurpose dress-up because they can be used for a princess costume, a fairy costume or a ballerina costume.  This tutu is fast and easy to make, and it does not require a sewing machine.

You will need:
5 yards of tulle (I used 2.5 yards each of pink and green.)
1 yard 1- 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
5 yards of 1/4 inch ribbon (optional)

 Take your tulle and lay it out with the folded edge nearest you.  Roll from the folded edge to the opposite edge of the fabric.  Then take the roll and cut every 2-3 inches to make 2-3 inch strips.  For a longer tutu leave the strips at that length.  For the length pictured cut each of the strips on the fold.  Take your 1-1 1/2 inch ribbon and measure it around the waist of the child you are making the tutu for.  Mark the ribbon on each side where they meet on the child's waist and then add enough on either side to tie a bow and cut the ribbon.

You are going to tie the pieces of tulle around the ribbon.  To do this, take a folded piece of tulle (if you cut the tulle then fold the cut piece), just below the folded edge and place it next to the ribbon.  Wrap the rest of the strip around the ribbon and then pull the cut ends through the center of the folded end and pull tight around the ribbon.  Make sure that you are between the 2 marks that you made leaving the rest of the ribbon free to tie.

Alternate your tulle colors as you are tying the strips.  For the tutu pictured I switched colors every 4 strips.

  If you chose to add the 1/4 inch ribbon you will need to cut the ribbon at twice the length of the tutu and fold the ribbon.  Then tie it to the waist ribbon just as you did the tulle strips.  I tied the ribbon every eight strips, so after 4 of each color.


Continue tying until all of the space between the 2 marks is full.  Tie a knot in the waist ribbon at each mark so that the knotted tulle strips do not slip out of place.  Your tutu is finished!  Just tie it in a bow around your child's waist.

Conical Princess Hat Craft

Are you looking for a fun project to do with your princess or a party craft idea?  This project is does not require a sewing machine and is a fun party craft and dress up for your princesses.

You will need:
1 large piece of Card Stock
1/2 yard fabric
3-4 yards of ribbon
and a Glue gun.

 Choose cardstock that is at least 24 inches tall.  Roll the cardstock into a cone shape that fits comfortably on the girls head.  The shape at the bottom will not be even yet.


Take a pencil and mark the spot on the had where the corner will be attached to the wall of the hat.  Then take the pencil and draw an even cutting line from that spot all the way around the bottom of the hat.  Unroll the cardstock and cut around the line.

Lay the cardstock on the fabric of your choice, and cut the fabric about 3/4 inch bigger than the paper all the way around.



Fold the 3/4 inch fabric over the cardstock and glue into place with a hot glue gun.  Pull the fabric tight so that you don't have any wrinkles on the front of your hat.

Take your ribbon and cut it 1 1/2 inches longer than the length you want your streamers to be.  You can also cut long, thin strips of fabric to tie into the streamers as well.  Put all of the ribbon and fabric pieces together and tie a large knot at one end. 

Then roll the hat into the conical shape with the streamers tucked into the small end.  Glue the edge of the hat securely into place.  Take another piece of ribbon and glue it over the seam. Take 2 20 inch pieces of ribbon and tie a knot on one end.  Poke a hole in each side of the hat about 1/2 to 1 inch above the bottom edge and string a ribbon through each side that can tie under the chin.

Cute Ice Cubes

These reusable ice cubes are party makers.  All of the little princesses will love them at your princess party, and then impress all of your girlfriends by adding them to their drinks at the next grown up girl party you host.  These cute cubes would add flair to a bridal shower or just be a fun topic of conversation at a house or card party.  The cubes come in a pack of 6 and are available at amazon.com or at http://www.kitchenkapers.com/tipsy-toes-high-heel-ice-cubes.html. 

Throne Chase Game

You will need Thrones (chairs), for all but 2 of your princesses, set in a circle with space between each to run.  Choose 2 princesses to start the chase and the other princesses all sit on their thrones.  One of the two standing princesses will be chased by the other standing princess.  The princess who is running away is trying to get a throne before she is tagged. 
To get a throne she will run to and stand by or hold on to one of the thrones, and then she is safe.  The princess who was sitting on that throne has to quickly climb off and run from the chasing princess.  She will try to find another throne before being tagged, and so on. 
The chaser is trying to tag the princesses before they can get to a throne.  If she succeeds and tags a princess, then roles reverse and she is chased while she tries to find a throne before being tagged.
This game works best outside with 7+ players.
We recommend a limit on how long each princess can be it, so that no feelings are hurt.

Duck Duck Goose - The Princess Version

Try this spin on Duck, Duck, Goose for your little princess guests.  There are a couple of different ways to do this. 
Simple Version:  The child who is it first goes around the circle calling Princess, Princess, Princess, Witch.  She then runs from the witch.
Advanced Version: The child who is it goes around calling the name(s) of one or more of her favorite Disney princesses.  When she is ready to be chased she calls the name of a villain.  If she is calling only one princess name chose the villain that matches the princess.  Otherwise choose a villain from her favorite princess story.

Princess Bingo

Looking for a fun activity for your next party?  We've just added a new printable Princess Bingo game to our Free Stuff.  The game comes with 10 unique bingo cards for your guests, and we've kept the game simple enough for small princesses.  We recommend using Skittles or some other small candy as your Bingo tiles so that while only one person gets the Bingo prize, everyone gets a treat.

Princess Basket Game

You will need a chair for all but 1 of your princesses.  Place the chairs in a circle, and choose someone to stand in the middle and be it first.  The rest of the girls should sit down on their chair.  For each round of the game all of the girls sitting must secretly choose a princess that they are going to be.  Have a list of 3 or 4 princesses the girls can choose from.  When all of the girls have a princess name in their minds the girl in the middle calls one of the princess names and any girl sitting who had chosen that name has to stand and find a new chair.  The girl in the middle tries to take one of the empty chairs before they are full.  If she succeeds the new girl standing follows the same pattern.  If she doesn't then she can try again.  In case you need it  we suggest a limit of being it 3 times before parent intervention so as not to make one girl it for too long.

7+ Players

The Perfectly Simple Menu

Planning the menu can be the most stressful part of the party. You want to serve beautiful, yummy food, but kids can be hesitant to try new things. Here are a few fun ideas that are sure to please.

Jesica Medellin shared a simple, yet deliciously darling idea for food at your next girly party. At their party they used pink and purple bread, (she got hers at Wangsgards), to make peanut butter and jam sandwiches. She then used a flower shape cookie cutter to cut out a flower shaped sandwich. We love it. Cute, simple and tasty!

I've recently discovered that my daughters love eating off skewers, and we couldn't think of a better way to round out your menu than with a fresh fruit skewer. Fill the skewers with fun, colorful fruit like strawberries and grapes, and place them in the fridge before the party. If you have cut fruit that will brown you may want to drizzle the pieces with lemon juice to keep them fresh. Serve with a spoonful of your favorite fruit dip and there won't be any leftovers.

Looking for a cool way to dress up your drink? Ice trays now come shaped like butterflies, flowers and stars, and you can find them online or at your local craft and cooking stores. Mix some pink or red kool-aid and pour it into a shaped ice tray. When you are ready for drinks poor a clear soda or punch into a clear cup and place the ice cubes in right before serving. It will be the talk of the party.

Hair fit for a Princess

After the dress, what makes you feel more like a princess than the right hairdo? This fun party is for the creative girl who loves cute hair.

Activity:
Each of the girls will get to create a collection of hair accessories and get a hair makeover. At a paper covered table set an assortment of silk flowers, plastic gems, beads and buttons. Allow the girls to take apart the flowers. Make sure that they remove the funnel shaped brace on the back of each flower so that they can separate the layers of petals. Now the fun part! Let the girls mix and match various colors and sizes of petals to create their own unique flower. They can then choose a gem, bead or button to fit in the middle of their new flower. When the girls have completed their flowers they can take them to an adult with a hot glue gun to have each of the layers and the center glued together and then attached to a hair clip. A bit of advice... if you have very many girls you may want more than one adult with a glue gun. Once they realize how fun it is they produce clips quickly. Have a paper plate or a card with each girls name written on it for them to place their drying clips on so that they aren't misplaced.
While the girls are making their hair clips you can take one girl at a time to the princess salon chair to have a princess hair makeover. Leave a spot for one of their new clips when it is dry.
Have a gift bag ready for the girls to place their remaining clips in to take home.

Prep:
You will need a variety of silk flowers. Choose flowers like daisies that have soft petals that will flatten out. Choose a variety of colors and sizes for the girls to choose from. The flowers, plastic gems, beads and buttons can often be found at a dollar store. If your local dollar store doesn't have what you need the craft store will, and you will need to go there to find the hair clips. Make sure you have one or more glue guns on hand and extra glue sticks. You may also need bobby pins and small plastic elastics for the hair makeovers.

You'll need extra help for this party, but it will be worth it. Girls of all ages love this activity, and when the guests are gone you may find yourself at the table making flowers too!

Princess Theme Halloween Party

Pumpkins and Princesses have a history. Just think about poor Cinderella who never would have made it to her Happily Ever After without one. So if your princess has an October birthday, here are some ideas for her pumpkin'd out party.

Activities:
Cinderella's Royal Pumpkin Coach - Create 1 large or individual pumpkin coaches for Cinderella to ride in to the palace. If you don't want to use real pumpkins use sugar cookies and frosting instead of pumpkins and other supplies.
Make a Pumpkin Princess - Jack-o-lanterns don't have to be scary. Dress up and turn your pumpkin into a beautiful princess.

Prep:
Cinderella's Royal Pumpkin Coach - For whatever size coach you decide on choose a larger pumpkin for the carriage, and 4 smaller pumpkins for the wheels. Place them on a piece of cardboard for assembly and decoration. You will probably want to use hot glue to attach the wheels if you are using mini pumpkins, but if you want something more authentic get some wooden dowels from a craft or home improvement store. You will want to drill a hole in the large and small pumpkins, insert the dowel and attach. Next you can use ribbons, glitter, sequins, gems or anything else that you can think of to make your coach beautiful.

Princess Pumpkin - You will want a pumpkin per girl, but they can be smallish. Use corn stocks, yarn, or twine for the hair, and include some ribbon for bows. Tiaras would be an extra bonus. If you want to dress them up just pick up some tulle or other princessy material from a fabric store. If you sew you can stitch some elastic to the tulle to make fabric skirts for the pumpkins. If not, get creative with hot glue. You could paint, use colored markers, glitter, or even a touch of makeup for the faces. Stick on earrings could be fun or other jewelry.

Extras:
Be careful with hot glue and kids. They don't always remember that it's hot. Make sure you have paper or cardboard underneath the working area so you don't have a problem cleaning up after.

Tea Party Etiquette

You should have good manners all the time and a tea party is no different. Follow proper etiquette in the Emily Post-school of dining by being a gracious host and a polite guest. For a tea party, you'll need to know how to navigate a table setting, properly interact with other ladies and daintily drink your tea. And always ask the host if she needs any help.

Follow Proper Etiquette Skills

Step 1:
Know how to understand a table setting. The dinner plate is always in the middle, with two forks to the left of it and a knife and two spoons to the right. You work from the outside in for each course.

Step 2:
Place the tea cup to the top right of the plate above the knives and spoons. Other dishes are on the table based on what is being served. In the case of a tea party, the main dish is used for sandwiches and breads and a smaller dish, set to the left, is for desserts.

Step 3:
Make use of your napkin. Proper etiquette is to place it on your lap unfolded before you start eating.

Step 4:
Dispose of tea bags properly. If the tea is not already brewed in a pot and you are using a tea bag, never discard it on the table. A good hostess will provide you with a little dish.

Step 5:
Be considerate if the tea party has a serving table set up. It is customary to wait your turn and not reach in front of or over other guests. If something needs replenishing, discretely inform the hostess or server.

Step 6:
Refer to the text "Emily Post's Entertaining" by Peggy Post for guidance in hosting a tea party or attending one (see Resources below). Post offers advice for properly introducing someone whose name you can't remember and how to serve tea correctly.

Step 7:
Follow correct etiquette while mingling. Make good eye contact and listen to others when they speak to you. Never interrupt a person in mid-sentence. Be a good conversationalist and not too quiet. If a lull in the conversation arises, bring up a subject or compliment what someone is wearing.

The Princess Adventure Relay Race

Activity:
Place pink and purple ribbons on a table for the girls to choose from as they come in. You will need the exact number of ribbons as girls and evenly divided pink and purple. When the girls arrive tie their chosen ribbon around their wrist like a bracelet, and the color they chose determines their team.
The girls will line up in their teams behind a starting line, and you will place their dress ups on a chair some distance away. When you say, “Start,” the first girl in each team races to their dress ups and puts them on over her clothes as quickly as possible. Then they have to complete a quest (take an item from the dress up table to another place) before they can take the dress off and return to let the next princess go. The first team to have all of the girls finish or, if you have uneven numbers, to finish an equal number of quest items wins.

Quest ideas:
Snow White: Fill a basket with apples for Snow White's pie.
Cinderella: Help Cinderella put away her cleaning supplies so she will be ready to go to the ball.
Belle: Help Belle put her books back in the library.
Sleeping Beauty: Rescue forest (toy) animals by taking them somewhere safe.

Prep:
You will need a princess dress and a collection of other dress up items, such as tiaras, jewelry, heels, purses, boas, ect., for each team. You can use items you already have, or we recommend our wrap dresses for this activity. These dresses come in pink, purple and blue, and you will love them because they are easy to put on, they fit on top of your regular clothes and they are only $7.99. You will also need items for the quest. You will want an item for each girl, or if you have an odd number of attendees an even number for each team.

The Princess Treasure Hunt

Have you played the game, Pretty Pretty Princess, by Hasbro? It's a cute game and it gave us an idea.

The story: A thief has come to all of the Castles in the Kingdom and stolen all of the princesses jewels. They have nothing to wear to the royal banquet this evening, but there are clues left behind. The princesses must all work together if they want to find their missing jewelry.

Activity: There are bracelets, rings, necklaces, tiaras, gloves, slippers, dresses ect., hidden in secret locations. At each spot is a piece of jewelry for each princess and a clue to the next location. They go from location to location collecting pieces of jewelry. At the end they are ready to attend the banquet of Birthday Cake or whatever the refreshment of choice is.

Prep: You will need guests to RSVP so you know how many pieces of jewelry you'll need. Find an assortment of princess accessories and jewels and place them in secret locations, difficulty dependent on age. From there it's a standard treasure hunt. Make clues and hide the clue for the next location with each jewel stash. Keep the fist clue to start the hunt.

Extras: You can have extra special jewels for the birthday girl.
Everything in one color can be boring, but keep in mind that some colors may not be as popular. If you are going to have different colors have them pre-assigned so there isn't a debate at every stash.

The Fairy Party

Does your daughter believe in fairies? Make sure you bring her wings to this party!

Invitations:
Create your own invitation with glitter or flowers. Buy the colored glitter in tubs from your local craft store and design delicate flower and wing patterns on the front of your card.
Find small flowers at a craft store and remove them from the stem. Glue the Flower onto the front of your invite. You could also accessorize with ribbon.

Activities:
Face painting with soft, glittery colors and delicate patterns can be perfectly pixie-like.
A little fairy would love a hair makeover with ribbons and flowers included.
Flower tiaras are an essential fairy accessory and can double as a party favor. Make the tiaras with silk or real flowers for your activity and let each fairy take hers home.
Everyone knows fairies love flowers so let her paint or decorate a little pot and plant a flower seed or bulb to take home.

Prep:
The face painting activity will require paints, brushes and glitter. You will want to make sure that you have enough people to help so that someone is taking care of the girls that are not having their faces done. For some instruction on face painting and ideas on designs click this link http://www.ehow.com/how_2192538_paint-fairy-princess-face.html.
Hair makeovers will require bejeweled or flowered hair pieces. Real flowers can even be twisted and placed in hair.
Flower tiaras are ageless and girlish. For an easy level craft use pipe cleaners for the base and to twist the silk flower stems into the circle. If that will be to complicated for your age group use hot glue. Ribbon is a great accent. For a more difficult project or real flowers you will want florist wire and tape. Here is a link to some instructions for the more complicated project. http://www.ehow.com/how_6217302_make-flower-tiaras.html
Look for plain 2-4" flower pots for less than $1 at your local home improvement or craft store. For something more unique search local thrift or garden stores. You will also need a supply of paints, brushes, stencils, glitter, stickers, jewels and glue. Have the dirt to fill the pot pre-measured in little bags or cups to prevent mess and choose flower seeds or bulbs that are hardy and will bloom indoors. Include a little instruction card so the parents will know how to take care of the flower.

Extras:
Don't forget to mention in your invite if the guests should dress up. Make sure you have something to protect the working surface and the guests clothing, and remember that they will have the most fun doing it themselves even if the end result isn't perfect. Try out some of the more difficult projects in advance to make sure you know how to do it before the big moment. For dessert keep it light with fruits and sorbet.