Today I’m back with my first thrifty birthday party idea! For my daughter’s 11^thbirthday, she wanted a theme that had a “grown up” feel to it. As for most girls, my daughters love to dress up in their best costumes, and parade around the house, singing and dancing! Incorporating things that your child enjoys doing, always helps with party themes and activities! We used those fun, playful ideas in coming up with a Hollywood Fashion Show Theme! My daughter was so excited, so we started planning right away! I always start brainstorming ideas, and special details that will really stand out and be remembered. I also browse online and in magazines. Our first thoughts for this fabulous Hollywood Fashion Show Party were to ask all of the girls to come Dressed to Impress, and expect a fun time dancing and walking a runway! My daughter also insisted the party be early evening, so it would be dark outside. Great! Let’s get started! I removed all furniture and toys from my back porch, and strung Christmas lights all over the ceiling….Voila! Instant Dance floor! Next step….Runway! I knew I needed something that was slightly elevated from the ground, and sturdy enough for the girls to walk on…we don’t want any accidents. We ended up borrowing 3 used wooden pallets and scraps of plywood from our neighbor’s yard, and lined them side by side down the backyard. Because the pallets weren’t solid, I used small nails to nail the plywood to the top of the pallets, creating a walkway. My next thought was that every runway has a red carpet!

So I had a leftover red plastic rectangular tablecloth leftover from a previous birthday party and cut it in half…If you don’t already have a spare red tablecloth, lol, they are sold for $1.00 at your local Dollar Tree. I used half of the tablecloth and taped it down the Runway! It looked great! I own an archway that I thoughy would be a great source of light, at the end of the runway, if covered in lights and balloons! I used the other half of the red tablecloth to stretch from our front door, down the driveway, to create a red carpet for each of the party guests to walk down as they enter!

 Our next thought for the party was to have small appetizers and finger foods, prior to having cake and ice cream. I wanted to make this party as much of a “ grown up” environment as possible, so I used small snacks that most kids would enjoy, and they could eat with their fingers. I decided to make an assortment of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pressed in the shape of stars…to incorporate our Hollywood theme, using a cookie cutter. I also baked 3 Totinos pizzas, in variety of flavors, and cut them into small bite size pieces. I know that 3 doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you cut them up, it looks like a whole lot more! Our last tasty treat is one of my kids all time faves….pigs in blanket! It’s an oldie, but always a goody! I ended up with a large assortment of warm, delicious finger foods that all of the guests would be sure to love! My total spending on appetizer snacks was $8.47. You can’t beat that! I then asked my daughter what kind of cake she would like? She said she wanted to keep the bite size theme going and have cupcakes instead. Cupcakes! That’s , a piece of cake, lol. She wanted strawberry flavored cupcakes, with glaze, not frosting. I purchased the cake mix and glaze at my local Dollar Tree for a total of $2.00. I have a tiered cupcake stand that would perfect for blowing out the candles!

Next, decorations! I looked online for some ideas, and decided to make the decorations myself! I used sturdy cardboard boxes, and painted Holywood themed pictures and words. For larger signs, i used the back side of wrapping paper, which is usually white, and used the kids alphabet stencils for the wording! After painting the signs, I used glitter and stars to make sure they dazzled in the sparkling lights! While I was at the Dollar Tree, I also found a variety of decorations, including small gift boxes to use as parting favors (on sale for 2/$1.00), small 6 pack bags of trophies to give to each party guest on the runway. They even had a wedding section with beautifully decorated paper plates, cups, napkins, balloons, crepe paper and cutlery. The cutlery was made out of plastic, but was silver, and looked just like real silverware! I even found 6 packs of small champagne glasses, in the thoughts of having a toast to the Birthday Girl! I also made placecards for each of the guests.   The glasses made me start to wonder what type of drink the girls would be drinking at party….Punch!

    

 I looked online for a non-alcoholic punch recipe. I found a super easy one that simply mixed together fruit punch and sherbet! How easy is that?  So while at the Dollar store, I also picked a punch bowl and ladle. My total purchase at Dollar Tree was a whopping $21.40, including all decorations and cupcake mix! Wow! We’ll finish up this shindig tomorrow! Thanks for reading!