Princess Tea Party

Last Saturday was the girls joint Birthday Party. Brooke really wanted a Princess Party and Aubrey happily agreed to share the party with her. With the girls birthdays just 3 weeks apart I thought we'd give a combined party a shot. It worked out really great. (We celebrated as a family on their actual birthdays so neither one felt like the missed out on having their own "special day".)

Here are the invitations.

Our Royal Palace. (Big thanks to Esther for working all Friday with me to help me get it up and Jeff for helping with the lights.)

The castle cake.

These centerpieces took the longest by far of all the preparations. They are pretty and inexpensive, but beware they are very time consuming! Luckily Brooke and Aubrey thought they were very pretty.

The birthday banner.

The food tables. I thought it would be fun for them if the food was at their level.

 

I decided to keep all the food "clean" for the party, but still fun and kid friendly. I made Whole Wheat English Muffin Heart Shaped Pizza (They were topped with organic-sugar-free pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and turkey pepperoni), Mini Strawberry Muffins, Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (I use extra-dark choc. chips to lessen the sugar), Fresh Fruit & Strawberry Juice. These are all things my girls LOVE and they were healthy. Win Win. The pizza's turned out seriously awesome. I have been craving them ever since!

The birthday girls are all dressed and waiting for their guests to arrive!

I love how Aubrey is posing and Brooke is showing that her hair touches all the way to the ground.

The little Princesses start to arrive! I have to give a big shout out to Rachel for helping with food set up and helping serve the little Princesses!

Brookie enjoying her pizza.

Aubrey chatting with a friend.

All the adorable little Princesses (minus Isla who showed up a minute after we took the pic.) There were 22 cuties at the party.

I included lots of videos so the grandparents could feel like they were there with us!

After the food we played our Princess themed games. 

First was Jasmine's Musical Magic Carpet Ride. I printed pics of carpet and taped them in a circle. I played "A Whole New World" as they walked in a circle. Then when the music paused I picked a carpet and those standing on the matching carpet got a prize.

Second was Snow White's Pass the Poison Apple. They sat in a circle and passed an apple while I played a song. When the music was paused, whoever had the apple was to fall over like Snow White.

Third was Rapunzel's Toss the Tiara's onto the Tower. Flynn Rider stole 3 of Rapunzel's tiara's. The girls were to toss the tiara's and try to get them to land over the tower. (I just made the tower out of homemade salt dough. It was simple and my girls loved it! When Aubrey saw it she said as she was running off to get her camera, "I've got to take a picture of this!")

Fourth was Belle's Dancing Adventure. I happened to find a CD at home that has Belle retelling the whole story of Beauty and the Beast in song form and instructing the listener to act it out and dance along with it. The girls were so cute and loved the adventure!

My Brookie looking sweet.

Aubrey galloping away!

Spinning in the air like the Prince at the end.

Fifth was Find Aurora's Fairy Friends wands. I told them that Flora, Fauna & MerryWeather had brought them all magic wands, but that Maleficent had cast a spell on them and they had gotten lost in the sand pit. They had to dig through the sand to find their wands.

 

Sixth was Ariel's Fishing Game. I cut out pictures of Ariel and her sisters and taped a little prize to the back. Then I slipped a paperclip onto each one. I made fishing poles with magnets at the end. They each fished for a mermaid to get their prize.

Seventh was Tiana's Frog Hopping Contest. I told them that Prince Navine had given them all a kiss and now they were all frogs. Then they had a frog hopping race.

Eighth was Find Cinderella's Lost Slipper. I told the girls that Cinderella had lost one of her glass slippers in the yard and she needed their help to find it.  

Once it was found the girls closed their eyes and the finder hid the shoe again. I thought it was cute with the girls hands over their eyes.

Then we came in for cake and ice-cream. The cake was also clean (except the fondant and icing used to decorate.) A friend sent me a Beet Cake recipe (frosting included as well) that is surprisingly delicious!

The littlest Princess enjoying some food. I hope she's not taking a bite from the poison apple!

 All the kids ate up their beet cake and had no idea that it wasn't regular cake!

With the amount of little people we had there I was worried about opening presents and the chaos that might ensue. Brooke however really wanted to open her presents at her party. So I quickly decided to have them open them outside where the kids could watch if they wanted to or play instead. It worked out really great.

Aubrey waiting patiently for her turn to open a present. We ended up tossing the one at a time idea because Brooke didn't grasp the concept.

Aunt Esther did an awesome job running back and forth and jotting down who the presents were from.

I felt the party was a big success. I was concerned it might be a bit chaotic with the amount of kids we were hosting, but it wasn't at all. All those cute Princesses were on their best behavior! Thanks to all who came, all who helped and for all of the fantastic gifts! My girls have felt like they are living in a toy store all week!