4 Yr Old Disney Princess Party

I have a super great idea for you if you want to spend a little bit of money. Go to a Goodwill store or Salvation Army store near you and purchase used prom gowns and fancy dresses and some high heeled shoes and maybe some fancy purses if they have any. I have two daughters and when they were little I bought a whole pile of stuff and through it in a trunk. My mother even gave them a couple old wigs she had in storage. I gave them the trunk for Christmas one year. My girls played with this stuff for many years and enjoyed the stuff so much. It was probably one of the best gifts I ever bought them. Have fun with whatever you decide and take lots of pictures. They grow way too fast. Now when my daughters put on a fancy gown....it means they are going to a high school semi-formal or a prom.

I just had a blast doing a 4-yr-old princess tea party for my daughter this summer. I was able to keep the cost way down too. Ours was outside, but you could modify it.

For the invitation, I found $1.00 small wooden hinged boxes and put inexpensive pink jewels in them along with a rolled up and tied invitation that said something about...you're invited to a royal birthday tea party...feel free to come dressed as a princess! My daughter painted and decorated the boxes with glitter and stuff. We passed the invite boxes out. (We invited 4 girls) The girls absolutely loved them, and we had lots of fun making them together while we talked all about the party.

For the activities at the party I made stations around our yard by laying out big floral sheets. 1. One station had all princess books from the library and princess puzzles and paper dolls that we had on hand. 2. One station was a standing mirror that I actually bought for the party at K-Mart ($5.00) draped in dollar store flower vines with some dress-up items (clothes and jewelry) in a trunk next to it. 3. Another one was dollar store wands (like 6 for a dollar) that they used to run around with to pop bubbles from a bubble machine in our tree. (Absolutely adorable...best pictures of this one) 4. Another station had a princess craft...create a foam picture frame. (Michael's was selling a tub of like 40 mini princess magnet frames with stickers and jewels to decorate for around $7.00 on sale) We took pictures of each friend with our daughter and put the picture in the frame.
I figured games would be hard at that age, and the freedom to roam around and do whatever worked out really well.

To decorate the table, I taped white paper doilies all over a dollar store tablecloth. Each girl had a paper crown, party favor cup and pretty tea cup and saucer (with lemonade) at their seats. For lunch I cut cantaloupe and grapes to look like a flower, filled a reusable flower cupcake holder with mac-n-cheese so that the yellow looked like the center of the flower, and also had baby hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough all arranged on individual plates for each of the girls. For dessert we had cupcakes in the same flower holders and rice krispy treats cut out with a flower cookie cutter. I put each one on a long wooden skewer to look like real flowers and served them from a flower vase.

A nice table centerpiece can be made using a disney princess gift bag. I always see the one of a castle that has doors that open on the front. You can put a vase of flowers in it so they show out the top.

Our favors were in decorated pink dollar store paper cups. We filled them with dollar store jewelry sets, colored pens and little notepads....Like $2.00 per child.

It was so much fun and as you can tell, the dollar store had lots of princess party items and other things that worked out really well. It made for a really cheap party. I'm sure we spend less than $50.

Have fun with all the great ideas you've been getting...and if you can, update everyone so we can hear how it went!

We had a frog fishing game the girls got to throw a pretend fishing pole over the "well" it was a sheet with DH on the other side. And they "caught" a frog. When they kissed the frog it didn't turn into a prince so they could throw it back and get a "prince". They each got a paper cut out prince doll to color and decorate. They also got princess dolls. I got them from a web site for paper dolls. They loved them and all they cost me was paper and ink. We also did the crowns and wands made of straws with ribbons and glitter glued on!

I agree that making foam crowns could be a lot of fun, easy, and fairly inexpensive. I've seen the foam at AC Moore but not sure if it would come in sets or if you would need to precut everything.

We had a tea party where the girls wore something special or a dress, I got different color ribbons to put in their hair, put on eye shadow and lipstick. Ribbons can be anything from the curling ribbon from the dollar store to fabric ribbon at AC Moore -- it doesn't have to cost much. The eye shadow was a pale blue or green, and the lipstick was "princess pink" -- lip gloss with a little bit of color. We then had tea (I got real china cups and saucers from a thrift store for 25 cents, then the girls could take them home). After that the girls played "freeze dance" -- dance to the music then, when it stops, everyone has to freeze. It made the girls giggle a lot seeing what positions they had to freeze in. You could also blow up a balloon and have them bop it around so it doesn't touch the floor. No one has to win or lose any of these games. We purchased small purses from the Dollar Store and put in a lip gloss and hair thing (pony tail holder, barrette, etc., depending on the girl) and that was their favor along with the tea cup. The girls had a blast.

Keep it simple, and have fun!

Two of my nieces just turned 4 and 3. Each had a princess party. One was held outside the home. The girls dressed up in tutu-like outfits, necklaces, etc. They received crowns in a ceremony. They sang karaoke...not that they were reading, but they just enjoyed singing into the mike along with the CD. It was a tea party...no real games. They had their hair done up, too. The other was at home, and Cinderella and a pirate came. They made foam crowns, colored and glued things on. They dressed in princess costumes. They also received crowns and necklaces. Neither party had real games. Both were cute parties. You could get some of the materials at US Toys.

Have fun!