Come One, Come All to the Princess Ball

One of the reasons I started this blog was to share my not so secret obsession, planning parties. I tend to go kind of overboard with kids' parties. I met Lisa at Mom 2.0 and was reminded about how great a source the web can be when planning a party. I also love TipJunkie, Today's Creative Blog, and Creative Parties and Showers for party ideas. I hope my ideas can help someone out there plan the perfect Princess party for a little girl. A few months ago, my daughter turned 5 and requested a Princess Dress Up Party. Here are a few scenes from her party.
First, the invitation, selected by my daughter because it had a "diamond." I've included the wording in case anyone wants to use it:

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Princesses, Queens, Knights, and all good people,

Her Royal Highness, Princess Em is turning 5 years old!

In celebration of the joyous occassion of Princess Em's 5th birthday,

The Princess requests the honor of your presence at the Princess Ball.

Come One, Come All to the Princess Ball,

DATE, TIME, LOCATION
Please dress as your favorite princess. Finishing touches will be provided by the Royal Salon.

Follow the pink carpet to the castle where the Princess and her Royal Court eagerly await your arrival.

There was much dancing and glee at the Royal Ball.

We played "Pin the Jewel on the Crown." This was a big hit.

The Royal Salon, ready for Princess make-overs.
We painted nails and offered princess tattoos; you never know what princesses will want to wear!
We put out bowls of jewels for all the girls to make their own necklaces and bracelets.

One of my favorite ways to decorate is to hang lots of curling ribbon on the chandelier. Easy, big impact. I know, but I like it better without shades on my chandy bulbs.

I found a great sticker by number crown craft for the princesses.

My daughters and I made tons of tissue paper poufs in coordinating colors. We had these hanging on the stairs, on the chairs, all over the house. The girls really got into decorating. I kept them to hang in their room but will end up using them for a baby shower in a couple of weeks.

I drew a crown on our chalkboard to take pictures of each girl (this one is of one of our neighbors) at the party. I wanted to do a cut-out, similar to what Amy did for her daughter's mermaid party. But, I ran out of time.

Goody bags full of lots of Princess paraphernalia.

Other ideas we used for the party:
* Princess story time, read by the Fairy Godmother (Grandma), we read "The Paper Bag Princess"
* I laid out pink vinyl on our front sidewalk as a pink carpet for the girls.

* For the moms who stayed we served pink champagne. The girls dined on pink lemonade and various snacks.
* One of the best ideas I had was to "hire" two of our neighbors for the salon. We have two awesome tween girls who live on either side of us. They were great. I put them in princess aprons and they painted nails and then stayed to dance and play with the girls.