Eva had her first pajama party last week and it was the kind of night that makes you wish you could freeze kids and keep them just at this age. We had three friends over and they ate and played and dressed up like princesses and thought everything was magical. A perfect evening.
Some of the things we used for the party were things we had on hand from past parties, like the tassel garland from Eva's 2nd birthday and a few serving dishes, but most of the party goods came from one big Walmart shopping trip.
The theme of the party was a Disney princess sleepover, but realistically I knew that inviting three girls in the 3-4 year old age range over for a sleepover was like inviting madness wrapped in glitter over to the house, so we had everyone over for comfy pajama movie time instead. I told them all to go ahead and eat dinner before arriving (bedtime theme, etc.) but I wanted to have some snacks on hand so I used some of the party goods I picked up to do mini pancake stacks and fruit kabobs.
As for the decorations, the party goods I picked up at Walmart made it easy. The big hit was the paper chandelier - it really set the mood for the royal ball! I also added Eva's little Disney princess castle and some fresh flowers as centerpieces.
As I mentioned, each girl got a crown and a matching pair of heels for a different princess. We had Snow White, Aurora, Rapunzel, and Cinderella in attendance and I thanked a million lucky stars that nobody fussed about which princess they ended up with.
They also all had a tray at their seat with some Disney princess party favors in the middle, a pink or purple shoelace, and a bunch of Fruit Loops sorted into colors by my amazing husband. The trays are from Walmart as well and they're surprisingly inexpensive so I was excited to find them - lots of uses for things like this!
The shoelace and fruit loops were so that the girls could make edible necklaces to have as their snack when it was time to watch Sleeping Beauty. There was a bit of a learning curve with the necklaces...mainly because it was hard to explain why everyone shouldn't just shovel handfuls of cereal into their mouths, but once they got the hang of it it was a good way to keep everyone occupied.
As for the movie room, I had Eva help me drag all of the extra pillows and blankets onto the floor and we spread them out into a big fluffy pile. I thought about creating a more formal seating area, but since the girls would be in their pajamas and I thought they'd be pretty hyped up on sugar it didn't seem like a good idea to force them to sit in one particular spot.
Instead, I used fairy lights to set the mood and hung some more of the American Greetings Disney princess party decorations from them. It was quick to set up the lights because I just used removable hooks to attach them to the walls, but it made a big impact on how festive the room felt. It also helped to set the sleepover mood - tricky since the sun was still up when the girls were here!
I thought that the girls might be too amped up to sit quietly but they all lined right up and munched on their necklaces and watched Sleeping Beauty, even though a couple of them had never seen it. It's amazing how much of a spell those movies weave. The really fun thing is that while the girls watched the movie, Kyle and I took over the dining room with the rest of the parents and we all had big bowls of Fruit Loops and had our own royal ball.
All in all we had a great time and everyone left quite happy. It was also an easy clean up (maybe a half hour?) and since I barely had to cook anything I think this might go down as one of the least labor-intensive parties we've ever thrown! The toughest part was explaining to Eva why we couldn't do it again the next night.