Ballerina Birthday Party

Last month, my sweet little "baby girl" turned six years old.  

How can that be?  Six feels so grown up, no longer a baby.  And with her new found grown up maturity, she wanted a new grown up party... a dance party to be exact.  No steering this girl to Rainbow Bright or My Little Ponies.  She is all about dancing.

So we put our heads together, and what started out as an all dance style party, swayed into a ballerina party and the birthday girl was still quite happy.

But if you go searching for dance party ideas, there isn't much to be had in the way of ballet and jazz so we had to improvise.  What started out as quite a challenge, ended up in a party that was a lot of fun to plan.

Decorations:

 

For decorations, I went very soft and girlie and recycled a lot of ideas from girlie parties of the past.  We reused the birthday banner from last year in pink and purple as well as adding lots of pink and purple streamers and ribbons.  I also hung streamers and balloons over the window behind the party table to cut the glare for when we took pictures.

  

 

I also hand drew this ballerina fairy from clip art on the web and hung her near the food table.  She was used for a game later on, but made cute decor in the meantime.

The Food Table:

Since it was an afternoon party, we kept the food simple: pretzels, stovetop popcorn, fruit and dip, jello cups, punch, and veggies.

We found some cute ballerina cup and plates on Amazon, and added the piñata to the table for additional decor.  Daddy also bought her flowers for her birthday and those had to go on the table too.

Games and Activities:

While we were waiting for friends to arrive, we decorated wands made of skewers and foam stars.  I threw out a bunch of glitter glue, stickers, and other crafty items, and the guests went crazy.  Minimal planning and easy supervision.

Later on, we also used this craft table to make friendship bracelets with a kit I found 50% off at Michaels.  

 

There's our ballerina fairy again...  We played pin the crown on the ballerina.  I had to be careful about where I hung her.  My kids are getting old enough to feel the wall for where the thermostate, etc is in relation to the game.  Getting tricky as they get older.

Finally we played freeze dance.  Since my daughter's birthday is right around Christmas, I pulled out a Christmas pop CD and the girls danced till they dropped.

Cake:

Grandma always does our birthday cakes and this year she did a new take on the bear pan from Wilton's.  Our cute little bear became a ballerina complete with a pink tutu.

The Piñata:

The piñata this year was easy.  We took a cardboard pepsi box and covered it with masking tape to reinforce the seams.  Then we spray painted it pink and covered it in crepe paper.  Finally, I added music notes and stars and the kids went crazy.

All in all, it was a fun party, and I ended up with a ton of ideas that I never got around to:

*a balloon relay doing curtseys, arabesques, spins, etc

*dancing musical chairs

*pass the ballet slipper (like hot potato)

*follow the dancer (like follow the leader)

*watching an episode of Angelina Ballerina

Do you have a little ballerina in your life?

*Linked to these Parties