Princess Party Ideas - Seattle,WA

You can have princess stuff for the girls like the pretty shoes that come in 8 packs at Sams club and Tiaras from the dollar store.

For the boys you could have prince stuff like dollar store swords and crowns and the riding bouncy balls for their "royal stede". If the riding bouncy ball are too expensive they can even have the horses that come on sticks which are available in the dollar store

We just had my son's 4th birthday party. We just let the kids play for the first little bit. We had gotten out the hot wheels and set up a train track and had my daughter's dress up clothes out. As soon as we were fairly sure everyone was there, we did cake and gifts and they spent the rest of the time playing with the gifts while the parents socialized and my husband cooked up hamburgers and hotdogs. As far as decorating - balloons go a long way, and if you have non-helium balloons around the kids love to play with them. I get my helium/mylar balloons at the dollar store. I really liked the having cake & gifts at the beginning of the party. That's what my son really cared about and then everyone was free to leave whenever they wanted. Good luck - it will be fine, don't stress. Kids don't need much to entertain themselves when there are a bunch of other kids around.

My daughter (Madison Cheyenne) is having a princess party for her 4th too. I have lots of ideas for you. In addition to having coloring pages available, you could let them decorate their own crowns/tiaras (I bought multi prism colored ones for both boys and girls) w/ gems, glitter, etc. The girls could make a septor/magc wand while the boys could make a sword and/or royal shield. We are using plastic wine glasses and letting the kids decorate their own (self sticking gems). All of the above are also the take-home gifts for the party attendees.

I also ordered a princess castle backdrop to take pictures in front of.

I found lots of goodies for take-home bags but most are really girly so I have had trouble thinking of boy things unless I go into the knight theme...really trying not to though...let me know if you think of something.

Best of luck.

For my daughters 4th birthday we did the princess theme too. Lets say we had 8 little girls here to help her celebrate it. Pretty loud but really fun. For her birthday she wanted a princess castle and little princesses. So what we did is had our neighbor build a wooden castle since he is a carpenter. Next we went to the craft store and bought little wooden furniture, some craft paint and brushes. For the party we lined the table with newspaper and placed a piece of furniture in front of each child with an egg carton of different paints and a brush. Each child was to paint the furniture for the castle to make it more special for our daughter. All the kids loved it! After the painting, we went outside to play games, eat cake, open presents, then back inside so the girls could play with the castle, furniture and the little princesses. It was so much fun watching them all play.

I would do cake before presents so non-opening kids are entertained personally. :)

You can let them make crowns and decorate them. They can be simple cardstock or they can be foam. Either one will work well with stick on gems, stickers, markers etc.

Hi K.,

It sounds like a pretty ambitious party. I agree that coloring pages and crayons might not be as enticing as one would expect, especially as you have very young children coming and will need something for them.

One thing most mixed-age groups of kids love is making collages on sticky paper. At our preschool, we use clear con-tac paper (two matching pieces, the collage is sandwiched in) ; companies like Constructive Playthings (google them! it's worth it!) have packages of 'collage boards'--paper with a sticky adhesive on them. CP also sells collage kits, as likely does your local store for things like pompoms, googly eyes, sequins, even cut-up squares of colored paper...anything that might stick is fun. This is also more novel than coloring pages, which aren't much different from what they might already have at home. My toddler groups used to love this sort of activity, too.

Or you might just have some toys available for kids to play with and move right to snacking first thing, as kids sometimes get too busy to eat and then sugar-up on cake.

In regard to another/different item to put in the eggs, I have discovered that parents LOVE when I put stickers in them instead of candy. We did this years ago at a church egg hunt and parents thanked us; add to this that families have different feelings around sugar, and this makes it all the better.

When my husband thinks I'm overthinking things, I am. If it were me, I'd just keep it at streamers and the activities you are already planning on. Three activities may be overstructured as it is for a group of this age. Cake before presents is right; I know some families that actually "do" presents after the party, because youngsters can have a hard time with watching the birthday child open a pile of gifts. It might be worthwhile to have a little activity book to give--Dover Books makes some great, inexpensive books, which you can also order online.

I think there's a propensity to overdo the kid birthday thing altogether. We see these coordinated-down-to-the-napkins parties, where the parents are burnt out before the festivities have begun. If we go the whole nine yards each time, it ups the ante for the next year. Get what you can online, see if you can hire someone to come in and do a quick housecleaning beforehand..or even do it outside if you can, weather permitting, keep it simple and try to have fun.

And Happy Birth Day too you too, mama!

Sounds great so far! My daughter wanted a princess party foher 4th birthday too and we also had about 50/50 boys and girls. For a craft, I went and bought a multi pack of those foamaies crowns at Michaels. It came with all the stickers. Then I bought foam letter stickers and added them in. Each child made his or her own crown with their choice of decorations and most put their name on it. The pack came with pink and purple crowns of course, but also blue and white ones. The boys were just as happy as the girls to make and wear them. Also, there is no glue or cutting involved, just stickers. It was easy and fun and fit with the theme. I had it out for kids to do as they arrived. Other than that and te cake and decorations, there really wasn't anything princess about the party and my daughter still loved it!

Good luck! Don't forget to have fun!

First of all, it all sounds great. Secondly, you are way too stressed about it. :) I mean that in a nice way. I hear that you don't like throwing parties, that is probably why you stress over them. I do have a couple suggestions:

1. Instead of coloring pages (like you said they could be boring): Go to the dollar store or somewhere and get brown lunch pages, some stickers and crayons/markers. Let each kid decorate a bag, then they can use it for their goodie bag for the pinata...you could even have a bowl full of "princess' Gold" (candy) and they can fill up their loot-sack. Something like that.

I personally would do the party in this order:
1. free playtime (let everyone get aquanted) and the dragon egg hunt. Tell the kids as they arrive to make sure to find the dragons eggs as they play.
2. Pin the tail on the dragon.
3. Cake and presents. I would do the cake first that way the kids can eat it while the bday girl opens her presents.
4. Craft project, then pinata.
5. more free playtime.

However you plan it, be flexable and let the party flow. If kids don't want to do a particular game or craft, let it be. Everyone will have a great time. And what's wrong with 1 princess and all the princes she could ever want?! Just kidding. :)

We;re having a princess tea party, with a "ball" and music playing for them to dance too, also, were going to make a nail salon and hair station and have the dresses to play dress up. My daughter will be 4 too

I had a princess party when my daughter turned 6 or 7. It was really fun, and very easy! I bought a tiara cookie cutter and made sugar cookie cutouts prior to party and then mixed 3 or 4 colors of frosting and bought pretty sprinkles and they decorated cookies to take with them as favors- they also ate cookies as treats. You can subsitute the cookies for a cake if you want. I also went to the local craft store and bought foam tiaras (blank- in several colors) and some foam stick-ons and bling (sticky gems) and they had a blast making their own tiaras! It was easy, and a lot of fun!! They also came dressed as their favorite princess which made adorable pictures and I even bought little (very little) frames for $1 each and printed off the picture and sent each princess home with a cute little framed picture momento of her friends.

Hi K.,

I would start with playtime (let them warmup with eachother). Play 1 or 2 games, do cake and then presents. If there is still time left, let them do playtime. I do think giving them options of coloring is great, but most kids at 4 will just want to run and play. Check out Party City. They have a lot of princess decorations.

Have fun!

I don't think you have to plan activities and games. Most Birthday parties are too long as it is! I had a princess party at MCDonalds. I didn't buy the party package we just used the room and bought chicken nuggets. I asked in the invitation for all the girls to wear thier prettiest princess dress and the boys to wear something that protects the princess. (We had a pirate, a policeman, and a ninja show up!) As we waited for all the kids to show up, they played on the equipment and I ordered some food for the kids. Then I gathered all the girls in a circle and put blush, lipgloss, and glitter on them. I gave them dollar store wands and crowns as favors. I had plastic swords for the boys. Then we took a group picture. I brought the cake over and we sang. Everybody had a piece and then we opened presents. Just that simple stuff took 2 hours! But it was fun and super cheap - a lot of the parents told me what a cool, fun idea it was.

Do you have a climber type thing in your back yard? Drape it with some pink or purple fabric and decorate it to look like a castle. Not sure how much the younger kids (or boys) would like it, but she would love it!

For a minute there, I thought I wrote this question! I too am doing the "Princess" theme for my 4yr olds birthday and I have been struggling with ideas. I will have at least 12-15 kids ranging in ages. I went online and bought kits so the kids can decorate their own tiara or crown. I figure a craft would keep them busy for a bit. I am doing the pinata and found a pin the Princess in the castle game. I aslo will leave out the dress up clothes for the kids. I figure 3 little activities is plenty. With food, cake and presents, I think you will find you won't have a down moment. Good luck!