Princess Party Playdate

It’s no secret that I love to plan parties. At the risk of sounding lame, it’s safe to say that I pretty much wait the whole year to plan the girls’ birthdays and get so into figuring out every little detail that it kinda drives my family just a little bit crazy. Not to mention the fact that Lilly is a little party girl herself. Luckily for me, she doesn’t even care whose birthday it is, as long as there is a party. We hit a party lull this summer (lots of March babies in our family!) so we decided together to throw a Princess Party Playdate with a new friend, Natalie (from The Busy Budgeting Mama) and her sweet kids.

Photo courtesy of Natalie from The Busy Budgeting Mama.

Let’s be real for a second. Do all of my play dates look like this? Heck to the no. But every once in awhile it’s fun to make our everyday activities special. Like putting sprinkles in your pancakes or letting one baby stay up late to watch a special movie with Mom and Dad. It’s the little things. Always.

Enter Princess shennanigans that were fun but *easy* and special but *cheap*.

First, we gathered materials. Crowns, hats, necklaces, candles- all came from the Target CLEARANCE dollar bins (so they weren’t even $1.00 each).

Table cloth- old photo prop that had a few stains. Voila- perfect tablescape! It’s really just a few yards of fun fabric. Nothing more to it than that! If you are buying new fabric *always* use a 40% off coupon or buy something from the back of the store that is on clearance.

We used PAPER plates and napkins (fancy, I know) and mismatched sippy cups.

Our “craft” was decorating princess wands.  The wand was some random thing found in the teacher aisle at Michael’s. It was a plain wooden wand with a red and turquoise star at the top. They were each regularly a dollar but with coupons came out to $0.59 or something like that. Then I used thin wooden stars ($0.29/each) and scraps of ribbon I already owned and glued it all together.  The kids decorated the stars with markers and added glue and glitter- instant fabulousness. They girls were turning us Mommies into Godmother’s and frogs!

Then there was the whole cupcake decorating element.  Let me preface this by saying I am NOT a health freak. I’m a baker for crying out loud and I use ALOT of sugar, butter, eggs and oil. Ain’t no shame in that. But we just got back from vacation and I’m still not on top of the ball- let alone on top of restocking our fridge and pantry. So I had not a speck of butter left in this house. Add that to a half used bag of whole wheat flour (Lord only knows what I was making with that…) and the **perfect** vanilla cupcake was born. These were ah-mazing. Seriously. Maybe leaning over to the muffin side? I’m not sure. But something about them was addictive.

Here’s the recipe!

How cute are Sophia’s cupcakes?!

Whole Wheat Vanilla Cupcakes:

preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the following ingredients:

2 eggs

¾ cups sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

½ cup veg oil

Then add the milk:

½ cup milk with ½ tsp. vinegar

Then add all of the dry ingredients and whisk to incorporate it all.

1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Line baking tins with cupcake wrappers. Fill liners 1/2-3/4 of the way full (don’t overfill or the cakes will overflow).

Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops seem set when gently pressed and spring back up.

Top with your favorite frosting (we used my vanilla buttercream) and any/all sprinkles and candies that you like.

And be prepared to help…

Another photo from Natalie. Sienna was super serious about the frosting. Love it!

How cute is Natalie with the babies? Grace seriously loved her. And we all love little Micah!

We didn’t torture him into princess land… he was happy in the ball pit! 

Lilly’s cupcake had a very snowman esque smiley face…

For kids lunch, I made carrots and dip in little dessert glasses and mini pizzas (on burger buns). If want more fun ideas for kid friendly play-date food check out my Munchies for Munchkins board on pinterest. I’m a little obsessed with feeding my kids.

The only thing I would warn you against is leaving the cupcakes on your deck WITH your dog. Big. Freaking. Mistake.

Somedoggy likes vanilla buttercream! Ugh.

Are your wheels turning for fun, themed playdates?! Mine are! If you think of anything genius I’d love to hear. We are so doing more of these 😉

xo

J