Recently, I was blessed with a great opportunity to host my very first Disney Side Party, courtesy of Mom Select. For a variety of reasons, we kept it small. Actually, with the threat of “winter weather” heading towards Atlanta, the party almost didn’t happen – but thankfully, the “winter weather” held out until we were done showing our Disney Side. 😉 The party girls consisted of girls ages 4-6, as well as my 3-year-old son.
We started off by decorating our princess party bags as our guests arrived. The bags would later be filled with party goodies. The girls (and my son) enjoyed using our Disney stamps, stickers, crayons and markers to make their bags uniquely their own.
Then, we headed in to the den and played a few Disney-themed games. Although there were “winners” with some games, no one seemed to be keeping track, and they all just had fun. Here’s what we did:
- Musical Princess Feet: Because I have amazing friends, I was able to obtain a set of Disney Princess decorations, which included cardstock cutouts of various Princess-themed characters. So I stuck a strip of painters tape to the back of each, and wrote simple but silly instructions for each child. The cards were placed in a circle around the den, and I put on Pandora’s Disney (Children’s) Radio for some tunes for the kids to march around the circle. The kids marched around the circle, and when the music stopped, they picked up their card and one-by-one did as their card instructed. *Tip: using painter’s tape allowed me to remove the tape after the game was done, so I could customize the instructions based on party-goers’ age/interest.
- Pin the Smile on Mickey: When you sprinkle a little pixie dust on your party, you transform the classical kids’ game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey to something only Disney can deliver: pinning a smile on Mickey. With a pink blindfold in hand, the kids were thoroughly tickled to see where their smiles landed – some quite far away from Mickey himself, others a little closer. We did a few rounds, had a few good giggles, and had fun, fun, fun!
- Daisy and Minnie’s Ball Toss: One item we were sent for our party was a few packs of these adorable Minnie and Daisy snack cups, coming in 4-packs. I decided to mount a set on to a wrapping-papered cardboard surface, tape the bottoms of the cups for added stability, and secure them to the boards with a thumb tack and extra tape. At the Dollar Tree, I grabbed a six-pack of small little balls, and voila! We have a ball toss game. The board sat about 3 feet away, the girls stood in a line, with their toes on the edge of the rug, and tossed away.
- Character Karaoke: While my husband indulged the kids this Christmas with a small karoake machine, it is not necessary to have one in order for this to be a fun party activity. You can snag a “microphone” from the Dollar Tree, or just use a hair brush (c’mon, you know you did that as a kid!) and set your device to Pandora’s “Disney (Children’s) Radio” station, and let the kids sing to their hearts content. OR you can do a YouTube search for Disney karaoke songs, and create a playlist that includes lyrics for the kiddos to read. The important thing is to just let loose and have fun.
We had some other games at the ready, like Disney character BINGO, but with the threat of “winter weather” looming, we Atlantans just couldn’t take that gamble. (Lest we forget SnowJam2014!) Plus, the kids knew there was food to be had. So we took a game break and enjoyed the lovely spread, courtesy in part by CrunchPak and Brothers All Natural Fruit Crisps, as well as popcorn, Fisher Nut Exactly snack bites, nuts, and -of course- the Mickey-shaped rice crispy treat. All the treats and snacks were a big hit – one of my darling little guests kindly asked for an extra bag of the Fruit Crisps. (Since she came dressed as Snow White, and Snow White was on the bag, I felt compelled to slip her an extra bag. Shh!)
As party favors, guests each got a coupon for a free Crunch Pack product, as well as a bag of the Brothers All Natural Fruit Crisps.
Now, perhaps this has inspired you to throw your own DisneySide party. Don’t be discouraged – it’s quite easy to pull off a memorable occassion, even on a small budget! Here are some of my best tips for throwing a Frugal DisneySide party. Let me know if you have any additional tips. 🙂
How to Throw Your Own (Frugal) Disney Side Party:
* The Dollar Tree is Your Best Friend – Seriously, y’all – did you know the Dollar Tree stores are stocked well with great Disney-related items? And they’re all a buck a piece! For our Disney Side party, I got a three-pack of Princess-themed snack bowls, as well as napkins, paper plates, and cups for $1 each. They had popcorn holders, which I used for my ball toss game, too. As you can tell from the picture below, there are TONS of ways to frugally show your DisneySide at your next party!
* KISS it, y’all. Yep, keep it so simple. Do you honestly think a group of kindergarteners are going to notice if you have pink napkins, or pink princess napkins? No reasonable child has ever looked back at a birthday party and thought, “man, that would’ve been a great party, if only my paper plates had been Cinderella instead of pink flowers.” Not that there’s anything wrong with Cinderella plates – but if you’re looking to stay on the frugal side, and can’t secure the coveted items for which you’re looking at a decent price (see above tip about the Dollar Tree, y’all!), then have a plan B, y’all! (And, psst, I’ve never bought the gawdawful expensive character cake. A trip to Party City for simple cake toppers, placed upon a Costco cake or Sams cookie cake sufficed just fine for my party-goers, and tastes just the same.)
* Use what you already have. And borrow what you don’t. A friend offered up a set of Disney Princess decorations for our party, and they were perfect!
* Peruse Pinterest and other available resources for inspiration. The creativity presented in some of these boards is amazing, and awe-inspiring. Don’t feel like you need to copy party ideas precisely, but you can use them to gather ideas, and then make them fit your party and your party-goers needs.
Follow Atlanta’s Frugal Mom’s board Disney Side Party Ideas on Pinterest.
My daughter was all-too-eager to make a sign for the front door!
Special thanks to two ahh-mazing sponsors: CrunchPak and Brothers All Natural Fruit Crisps.
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--Barbara
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