Monday, August 26, 2013

Ava's Pirate Princess Party

My daughter, Ava, has been lately loving the Disney show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. And she loves princesses (much to my surprise... I grew up in a family of 5 girls and one boy, and none of us were princess girls). There is an episode of Jake that is about a Pirate Princess, so I thought that would be the perfect theme for her birthday party.
I started with the idea of some mini treasure chest cakes (I thought this was going to be so brilliant). I used mini bread loaf pans to make the basic shape. Only I over-filled the first batch so they looked like they had tumors. That was the beginning of a downhill slide. For possibly the first time ever, I bought a tub of frosting instead of making my own (figuring 4 yr olds wouldn't care). That was mistake #2. I bought chunky gold sugar and rainbow confetti sprinkles to fill the "treasure chest" cakes, which was one thing done right. I liked that part. I had planned to also put a ring pop inside each one but I neglected to buy enough, so I opted for plastic rings of which I had plenty.
Mistake #3 was trusting in my cake making skills. Apparently frosting (at least with store-bought stuff) is not my forté! I'd call these a big CRAFT FAIL. But the 4yr olds didn't seem to notice. They're nice like that.


Almost everyone dressed up (mostly as princesses). Including me. (I didn't include pics of the other kids because I don't have their permission.) Ezra is giving his best Aaaarrr. This was a last minute throw-together costume. Can you tell?

Ava is showing off her tattoo. Sorry for the overexposure.

I traced a picture of the pirate princess for the kids to color. And they each got a little necklace pouch with pixie sticks (their pixie dust, like the girl in the show has).

Then they decorated home made felt pirate hats with sticky-backed gems (I bought a big pack on Amazon for cheap). They had a lot of fun with that.

To take home they got a pink treasure chest with a ring pop (every kid's favorite, I swear). A plastic necklace and another ring, a pirate tattoo, some chocolate gold coins, and Rolos. If I was a bigger fan of sugar I would have given them candy necklaces instead of plastic dress up ones.

 Not the most put-together party I've ever done, but it was fun for the kids and that's what really matters.

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