Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Candyland Party!

 Hello again. We're still stuck in the hotel (ahh!) which makes 5 weeks without a house. I would try to pretend we're on a great Vacation but the traditional army lodging, nothing to do, lack of husband most days, constant snow, and nasty below 0 tempatures outside kind of ruins that for me! On the flip side...we've been offered a home for next week which is much sooner the originally expected! Praise the Lord! So of course I have nothing new to offer, but I do have something I've never posted! Last year we threw my daughter a pretty cool Candyland themed party. But soon after was Christmas and lots of events and the dozens of pictures kinda ended up stuck on my hardrive and never shared here :) Whoops?! So 13 months and several parties later....here is her candy land inspired party!!

 I should warn you I am about to go in picture overload! We had so many RSVPs to this party we ended up having 22 kids there! YIKES! I figured so many people we were coming we should make it good. So..I went a little overboard BUT in my defense the hubby was gone for training and I had nothing but time! The clip art I used came from J.W. Illustraitons. She has since came out with some really cool Candyland images that would have made this party so much easier! I made almost all the treats, cake, ect so I don't have too much vendor info for ya!

Since I don't currently have acess to my older files I will add the invitaion later!

The food choices were kind of obvious...CANDY! I wanted create a layout where the kids would just get to go crazy for one day! No one cookie after dinner here :)
 (I sent a warning to the parents hehe)
The ONE request for her pary Cadence has was a 3 layer cake. One for each of her birthdays lol. This was my first 3 layer cake but I was happy with the out come.

I was only a few months into teach myself cake decorating so this was an accomplishment for me!
I made little paper dishes to create the look of the squares on the gameboard.

I selected a food to represent each "stop" on the board. Peppermint forest, licorice, ect. Yes I am THAT much off a detail freak!
My FAVORITE part! Gummy bear juicie boxes! These honesy containers were a trick to hunt down, but worth it in every way! Loved these! The big juice containers are animal cracker tubs from Target!

We served fresh fruits, pretzels, and subs so nobody died from a sugar high. Of course I did add a little "theme" to the subs..couldn't resist.
Decorations: Where to begin...they were everywhere! Guest were greated at the door with a Candyland banner and a gumdrop wreath.We wrapped out white porch pillars in red to look like candy canes. I used the graphics from J.W Illustraitons to create lots of different posters then I basicly bought lots of solid colored paper, tissue paper, balloons and started cutting squares! I posted them around the room to make it look like the game. It was a really easy theme because everything was just simple solid colors found just about anywhere.
First the kids picked their game pieces, which were cookies I made to look like the game pieces.
The "game" began right inside the door at the start,  gingerbread tree!






The game ended at the Candy Castle! Which was a bounce house set up in our garage..not sure where that picture went.


The garland here I made with tissue paper scraps and bottle caps. The party buckets came form Party city $1.00 each.
Each kid went home with several different favors, and of course...a toothbrush. I also made the baby attendees "lollipops" out of paper spoons and wrapped wash cloths.
Centerpieces easy buckets with lollipps and 3 cutouts I made.
Activities: We had lots of thing for the kids to do! I bought foam gingerbreads from Micheals and we had a gingerbread hunt (think easter eggs). I had two tables set up for the kids one with candy string and fruit loops to make necklaces, and another with coloring sheets.
Over the weeks coming up to the party I found a bunch of candy themed party treats as game prizes. I also filled a dollar store gumball machine as a guessing game.

And the kids favorite part of course..the candy buffet! When the kids were done they were able to come up and fill their bag with as much take home candy ad they wanted! (I got a little TOO much here!)
Here's my birthday girl ready to party! Can't belive this was already a year ago!
I hope this post fills you with inspiration for your next creative party!
Happy creating!

...now onto Valentines day...