As you may have guessed from the rainbow party I threw last year ... I LOVE planning kids' birthday parties. They are just way too fun! So when my daughter, Julia, won a free princess visit from a local party company, the ideas began to run wild for her 3rd birthday party! First, Julia had to pick her princess and she chose her favorite ... Snow White.
I decided I didn't want to throw a "store bought" Snow White party but rather wanted to create something unique. I chose to do Snow White's Enchanted Forest, complete with a forest themed food table, a picnic table for the kids to eat their lunch at and a variety of picnic / finger foods ... kid friendly of course! In addition, I decided to incorporate the classic Snow White colors of red, yellow and blue along with an apple motif and a few other classic elements from the Snow White fairy tale.
I had so much fun being creative and putting the entire party together. I also tried to make as many things from scratch as possible in order to be cost effective ... because if you know me, that is another thing I enjoy ... saving money! :)
Most importantly, Julia and her friends had a fantastic time celebrating her 3rd birthday. It was beyond adorable to see how Julia was in awe of having Snow White in her house and at her birthday party. She won't forget this day for a long time!
Here are some of the party details in detail:
As you enter our home we have a large black mirror that hangs across the hallway from our front door. I toyed with the idea of buying a decorative mirror to hang on the wall as Snow White's magic mirror but that would have set me back at least thirty dollars and so I decided to turn our mirror into Snow White's magic mirror. I drew a fancy mirror outline by hand on a piece of red poster board, cut it out and taped it on to the mirror. Ta da .. a magic mirror for the cost of 49 cents! Can't beat that! An added bonus was that as the guests entered the party they saw their own reflection in the mirror ... perfect since all of our guests are definitely "the fairest of them all". :)
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| "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Fairest of them All?" |
For lunch, I wanted it to feel as if the kids were having a picnic with Snow White and so I put together a picnic table for the kids to eat their lunch at.
Each of Julia's friends had his/her own place setting at the picnic table. The apples were cut out of card stock and hot glued to dollar store cups and forks. The fancy napkins I found on clearance at Party City. The table I borrow from my friend/next door neighbor, and the tablecloth I borrowed from my Mom. A great way to save money when having a party is to borrow things!
Recognize those triangle banners? They are the same ones I created for Julia's rainbow birthday party last year. I simply re-purposed them by removing the green, orange and purple triangles.
"Snow White's Enchanted Forest" Food Table. The backdrop for the table was dollar store streamers just twisted and then taped from the ceiling to the floor. Total cost = $3! I designed the sign for the wall and printed the birds as well. The little trees are part of my mom's Christmas decorations! :) And the giant red bow for the table I found on clearance after Christmas.
The centerpiece for the table cost 50 cents. The silver bucket I already owned and I simply filled it with rocks. I then stuck greens in it that I had cut from the bushes in our yard along with twisted sticks I borrowed from my friend/next door neighbor. The 50 cents was spent on a Christmas decoration that I saw on clearance after Christmas that was made of greens, pine cones and red apples. I used it at the base of all the greens and twisted sticks to pull the entire look together. An added bonus is that I plan to use it as part of my Christmas decor next Christmas and so not only was it super cheep but it will serve more than one purpose!
The food was all picnic themed food and kept as kid friendly as possible. I made the food labels on the computer and then glued them on cutout card stock red apples and then on pine cones. Made for a cute presentation. We served Sleepy's PB&J Sandwiches cut out like apples using an apple cookie cutter,
Doc's Apple, Turkey & Brie Baguettes ...
Then I of course had to continue the theme for drinks as well ...
Wishing Well Water ...
... And Non Poison Apple Juice.
For the cake, my Mom made this adorable personalized size Snow White cake for Julia using a Pyrex bowl as the cake mold and then inserting her Snow White Little Person at the top of the cake. She decorated it so that the cake looked like Snow White's ballgown.
All the guests had their own personal Snow White cupcake. I found this adorable Snow White printout online (same one I used for the invitations), cut it out and taped it to a toothpick.
We also served Snow White's Sugar Cookies. Made by my Mom using an apple cookie cuter.
For the entertainment portion of the party, when the guests arrived, there were Snow White coloring pages and crayons on the table outside for them to color with.
And then the real fun arrived. Snow White herself!
She did face painting ...
Taught the girls her princess dance and played a trivia game with the kids as they ate lunch.
Then we played a wishing well game. I found the idea on Pinterest. The kid's threw pennies into the well (aka big white bucket with rocks at the bottom) and made wishes. They loved it! I had put ring pops on the bottom of the well and at the end of the game all the kids were able to pick out a ring pop.
I was planning on doing a second game where the kids would pass around an apple like a hot potato and when the music stopped whomever was holding the apple would have to faint like Snow White. At the end of the game the plan was to have Julia pass out these little magical kisses to revive all the kids. :) A cute idea but after trying the game with Julia I came to the conclusion it was a bit too complicated for two and three year olds and so we skipped it and just handed out these little magical kisses as an additional favor.
Speaking of favors, I lined them up on the fireplace mantle and they served as added party decorations.
The Party Favor
I wanted to send the kids home with a favor that wasn't full of sugar but rather was something they could do as a craft at home. I first found these cute woven baskets at the dollar store for 2 for $1 and thought they would be perfect to hold the favor! The red foam apples for the background were from the Target dollar bin, 4 for $1. I then saw these cute little bird houses at Micheal's for $1 each and thought they could become the fun craft for the kids to paint. I added a bottle of paint and a paint brush in each basket and then also a little bit of birdseed wrapped in saran warp and tied with a ribbon. The bird whistles I found on
Amazon and thanks to a Pinterest idea put them in a clear bag with the tag "Whistle While You Work" ... free printable
here. And finally the mushroom pencil sharpener and eraser were from Target and just were too cute not to include. A fun favor that hopefully the kids enjoyed when they went home!
And finally the sign that said farewell to the guests ... "And They Lived Happily Ever After."
Happy 3rd Birthday Julia!
