Fairy Party: Easiest (and Cheapest!) Party Yet

So I hosted our first Big Girl-Drop-off party yesterday for our 5 year old. I hadn’t really planned on posting about it, but after years of throwing big bashes where I serve huge meals to big groups of family and friends, stressing over trying to get the house clean with 3 little kids under my feet, etc etc, it hit me that maybe some of my readers would like to know how I pulled off one crazy easy, stress-free, AND totally cheap party! (Almost 100% Dollar Tree!). Seriously, at one point I could have put my feet up and read a magazine. This was awesome.

There were 7 girls total. It was a fairy theme, and I had written on the evite to come dressed up (if they wanted to of course). It was from 1-3, so all I had to do was throw out some snacks. I picked up some popcorn and pretzel sticks and called it Fairy Mix (?! Not sure where I pulled that one from…) Stuck that, along with some cut up fresh fruit (the only thing not from the Dollar Tree), some utensils, cups, napkins, etc on the buffet table and that was the extent of my food preparation. Sweet. We did also have some raspberry lemonade to drink, gotta go all out with the pink, right? 😉 Oh, and I threw some wands in a mason jar for a festive touch (and also to hand out to the girls).

I threw a plastic pink tablecloth on the table, placed my Spring runner back on (and kept my forsythias on there too), and set some paper wings and crayons for each little girl. Just cut a wing shape out of posterboard, draw some swirlies around, punch two holes in the middle, and loop a large piece of pink string/yarn, so the girls can wear them.

I tied the monogrammed mini totes onto the backs of the chair. I had visions of huge tulle bows everywhere, large ribbons hanging down, all that cute girly stuff, but I’m a busy lady and decided to just make do with the smallest bit of ribbon I had laying around the house. Ah well…

I don’t think the girls minded;)

Of course, my chalkboard fridge had to get in on the fun. Always does…

And that was the extent of my decorating!

As the girls arrived, they made their way down to the basement, where I had a basket of extra wings, tutus, crowns, etc for the girls to wear since a couple forgot or didn’t have any. They had a dance party, ran around, “flew” on the couches, played for a bit. I was up in the kitchen twiddling my thumbs. Far cry from my previous parties;)

Little girls. So stinkin’ cute.

After a bit, I called them upstairs and they sat around the table coloring their wings. They meant business, working on these for a good while!

While they were hard at work, I walked around and made them the easiest “crowns” ever. I picked up some 5 feet garland from the Dollar Tree, and roughly wrapped pieces around their heads to see how big to make them. Cut the piece, tied a string around it, and placed them on their heads! Instant crowns. I bought 4 and had some to spare. They looked so sweet.

Then we decorated our cupcakes. All I had to do was bake some cupcakes, and they did all the work, which they had a BALL doing – total win-win;)

I gave them each a paper plate, a plain cupcake, a plastic knife, and a spoonful of white icing. Then I walked around and gave them each one drop of the food coloring of their choice. They mixed it up and spread it on their cupcake. I had little chocolate coated candies and sprinkles out, and pretzels if they wanted to make wings.

My 6 year old, being the artsy gal that she is, decided to also make antennae by breaking up the pretzels! Isn’t that some, um, lovely purple-ish icing?! 😉

They had a ball creating their masterpieces (and even more fun eating them!)

We opened presents, they played with some of the new goodies, and their parents came to pick them up.

Easiest. Party. Ever.

Oh, and the bags were perfect for their goodies – the girls were so cute collecting their stuff and placing everything in their own bag!

Most importantly, my birthday girl had a blast with her friends. I think I’ll chalk this one down as a success all-around;)