it’s a small world {after all}

Paigey’s 6th Birthday Party

It was awesome.

Last weekend we hosted a “little” party for our Paigey’s birthday. She loves people, parties, Disneyland, costumes, the “it’s a small world” ride, cupcakes and lots of color…so with that in mind I was able to come up with a really fun shindig for our girl. The theme lent itself well to lots of playful color, Disney elements, world geography {which I love} and making a trip around the world in a whimsical way! It was a costume party and most of the kids dressed up {including Paige who was Merida for the evening}.

We had only 60+ people {around 30 kids} to feed & entertain…so it was a fun and creative challenge to put it all together. I decided to move it to our church so we would have enough room to let the kids run around. Here are some pictures of the party that my sweet friend Chrissie took for me. She captured the feel of it so well! So thankful! I will share more details soon.

Hope it inspires you to celebrate someone you love or take a trip to Disneyland!

::the decor::

We set up six round tables and used lots of fun details as centerpieces. Pictures from Paige’s photo shoot with Jessica, succulents, trays with the names of each continent, and pages from a little “it’s a small world” book that I had in my stash. I collected things for months in preparation. The finger puppets were from Oriental Trading Company, the doilies were from Smart & Final {I just used a stamp for the wording} and I glittered the tea-light holders myself {and forgot to turn on the tea-lights for the party}!

::the coloring table::

I found these fun printable coloring sheets on Spoonful…a great Disney craft resource.

::the favors & goody bags::

I will talk more about the goodie bags another time. There were very fun to put together and Paige LOVED making them special and helping me put them together. I decided that since grown-ups never get goody bags it would be fun to make a favor for them. I made luggage tags that each “grown-up” lady {one per family} could take home. Each person got to choose the ribbon/string that they wanted to attach to it and bring it home for a suitcase, diaper bag, laptop bag…backpack…whatever they needed it for. More on how I made these another time.

 

::the dessert table::

My goal was to have desserts from around the world and a beautiful cake. I found most of the desserts at World Market {swedish fish, hawaiian chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, green tea mochi, scottish shortbread} and my sister had the idea of setting them out in their packaging so that people could see where they were from. I added little trinkets that we had from around the world too.

Thanks to the help of my dear friend Stephanie I got a beautiful & delicious cake {along with tons of yummy cupcakes}. She is a pastry chef and totally made my vision for the cake a reality! I wanted a blue cake that looked like water so that I could float a picture of the little small world boat full of kids on top. I took a pictures {with my iphone} of the sign that is outside of the ride and just cut it out, added a doily and attached it to a stick. I also made a special candle {more on that another time}. It turned out so cute…don’t you think?

::the food::

I made the food as simple as possible.We had several families with food allergies coming and I am trying to eat gluten-free these days. So I tried to find some foods that Paigey loved {sandwiches, pickles, veggies, strawberries} and that were okay to eat for most people. My mom helped me prep and chop for a few hours and my friend Stephanie helped me wash up all the dishes after the party.

Sandwich stuff with lots of fixin’s’ and different breads

{ham, salami, turkey, mustard, ranch, mayo, pesto, roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato, red onion, cheese}

Veggies and Dip and Hummas

Chips and Pirates & Veggie Booty

Strawberry Salad

Water and Lemon/Orange San Pellegrino Sodas

All in all people seemed to eat most of the food…so it must have been okay!

Merida the little hostess and game warden!

::the games::

I came up with a fun way for the kids to each get a passport and take a trip around the world with the games. It was a challenge because we were hosting 30 kids from ages 1 to 10. I recruited some dads and a few moms to help and we took over the multipurpose room at church {thanks goodness we had such a huge room to run around in}. I will post more on the games another day but here are a few pictures of the fun. Most of the kids participated {I actually bribed them by saying that they had to get a stamp in their passports…from all seven stations…in order to get their goody bags} so I call that a win/win! I also created a “fill-in-the-blank” trivia game for the adults that had questions about geography, the  “it’s a small world” ride at Disneyland and Paige. Papa was the winner of that one!

::the costumes::

The best costume may have been Aunt Fifi as Snow White {Laura was a close second and the kids all looked awesome}!