Recently, we arrived at that wonderful time of year again when I must figure out how to throw a fun party for Miss A while trying to stay within a budget. Actually, it was much easier this year than I thought it would be!
The theme of choice? A Royal Ballerina Ball.
Knowing how time is a precious commodity for many of us mothers who are the event planners, caterers, bakers, etc. for our families, I thought I would post what I did with some links. Hopefully, this will provide a shortcut of sorts for like-minded moms on a budget who don't have a lot of time for online searches! :)
For starters - we did not have to buy our invitations this year! We found them FREE along with piles of coordinating party items (also FREE for download) here.
They are cute on their own, but can be embellished as well (which is what we did).
This wreath is made of feather boa and more tulle (check for sales on spools of it at craft or sewing stores).
The ballerina hanging in the center is a Christmas ornament (often craft stores like Hobby Lobby will start putting these up halfway through the year AND start having early sales like 40% off)! :)
Instead of serving a full meal with fourteen little girls - we served cake (homemade and decorated) and ice cream. The figurine at the top is a miniature doll that I hot glued to a skewer.
Bonus - if you are careful (try running under hot water), you can remove the figurine from the skewer and it becomes a little extra gift at the end of the party! This can also be done with Christmas ornaments and it becomes a yearly keepsake - something for her to hang on a Christmas tree each year to remember that year's birthday!
I cut some shiny pink paper and tulle to wrap around water bottles for each girl. I also used some pink vases I found on clearance and wove long pieces of remaining tulle along the center of the table. The faux flower petals were another clearance find (I think I found them right after Valentine's).
For our craft, we made ballerina boxes. What is a ballerina box, you may ask? Why, a box for putting your ballerina items in, of course (ballet slippers, fancy hair clips, etc)!
I found these pink and purple sparkly boxes at Michaels for only $1 each (I think they are actually school supply boxes)! I also bought a package of "jewels" for the girls to use when decorating their boxes. A silver permanent marker worked perfectly for writing the name of each little girl on her chosen box.
What's a party without a game, right? I searched and searched for a ready-made Pin the Tutu on the Ballerina pattern or game but failed to find one. Soooo, I made my own ballerina pattern, and long story short, she is also now available in my TPT store for only $1.50!
The pattern is pieces of the above ballerina which can be cut out and put together on posterboard OR cut out and used to trace around on posterboard or another surface. The pieces are black and white so each family or birthday girl can decide how she would like to color her ballerina (I also included a blank face template in case someone wanted to make the face differently than the one I drew above).
The girls also watched some ballet AND practiced ballet moves. I LOVED the video we bought for this - just the right fun mix! See link below the post).
Once the crafts and activities were completed (and food eaten) - the girls settled in to watch a Barbie ballerina movie (we checked with moms beforehand to make sure this one was okay with everyone) and munch on pink-coated popcorn.
After presents and the movie, it was time for our ballerinas to head home. We sent them off in royal ballerina style with gifts of "jewels". Each bag was made to look like a ballerina leotard complete with tulle tutu.
Our parting sign:
"Thank you for sharing this special day with our prima ballerina. You are "tutu" kind!
(P.S. - speaking of tutus, one thing we did NOT do but ALMOST did, was to provide tutus for all of the guests. I found a place on Amazon that sells a dozen for around $16 total! That is only about $1.33 each! I posted the link below as well if you are interested.)