Princess Ava’s 4th Birthday Party

Ava loves dressing up and imagining and this past year has been filled with both. She loves pretending to be a princess, so this year for her birthday, I decided to give her a princess-themed party. This party cost me $30 total (decorations and food included)! I have a lot of craft supplies and saved party supplies, so that helped my budget go farther. Read below to see some highlighted parts of the party and find ideas that may spark some ideas of your own for your future birthday party planning. Our glass doors made a great backdrop for the party, but they aren’t so great for taking pictures (sorry about that)…

• Cupcake Rose Bouquet – There are many tutorials online for creating the cupcake rose bouquet. Our cupcakes were made from boxed cake mix on clearance after Easter (just because it had an Easter-related graphic on the box), and icing was on clearance for the same reason. I dyed half of the the mix yellow and half of it pink before pouring it into the muffin cups to give us colorful two-toned cupcakes. I added powdered sugar to the purchased icing to give it more body for creating the rose tops. I bought the pot for $1 at the dollar store and then painted it with yellow acrylic paint and added lace at the top with glue. Floral foam ($1 from dollar store) and toothpicks are how the cupcakes are secured to the pot.
• Tea Cup Ice Cream Bowls – The tea cups from the set my mom and dad bought me a couple years ago were perfect for our royal party. Instead of putting drinks in them, however, I used them to serve ice cream. I also brought out my “pretty things” like vases for serving, serving tray and bowl for center piece, etc.
• Wrapping Paper – I used colorful wrapping paper as a runner down our counter to give color and continuity to the decorations. I even folded and cut it to make a small matching valence for the kitchen window. And, oh yeah, I wrapped presents with it, too.
• Palace Windows – Our new leaded glass windows are courtesy of Crayola window crayons. I just used the black window crayon and drew lines on the glass. Then, to give the windows a peaked top, I cut cardstock and taped it in the upper corners. I loved the effect! It really made a difference.
• Napkin Flower Decorations – There are many tutorials online for creating these, as well. I used this tutorial and loved the way they turned out. I bought napkins at the dollar store for a total of $2 and got these pretty decorations out of it. I also used tissue paper for the large ones.
• Balloons – Pretty Princess helium balloon was $1 from dollar store and lasts a long time! Pink helium balloons from Kroger were $1 each and were on the ground the next morning – hmmm. Regular blow up balloons were tied to the backs of each chair to add some color.
• Paper Cup Embellishment – Landon helped me stick diamond-thingys on each paper cup  ($1 from dollar store) to make them a little more special.
• Cookies – Our sugar cookies came from a bought package of mix, which was also found on clearance after Easter simply because of the Easter-related packaging. The icing was on clearance, too – I piped it on the cookies using a plastic sandwich bag.
• Tulle – I spread white tulle over our white tablecloth to give it a little more of that fairytale feeling. I also tied some to Ava’s chair to make it more special.
• Pinata – It was free! Check out our paper-mache hot air balloon pinata tutorial.
• Princess’ Scepter – I attached one of the napkin flowers to the end of a bubble wand.
• Prince’s Sword – I painted some cardboard green to match the bubble wand. Then I cut a hole in the middle and it slipped down until it hit the handle.
• Prince’s Tunic – I made this from felt, ribbon, and beads for Landon – you can check out my prince’s tunic tutorial.
• Princess Ava – Of course, the birthday girl is the most important part of the party! Her grandma and grandpa had a sleepover with her in their RV the night before the party, which allowed me to decorate, and made everything more fun for Ava. My mom fixed her up in all her princess loveliness before she arrived at our house for the party. When the princess did arrive at the “palace” she was so excited that we thought she would absolutely burst!