If your little girl wants to celebrate her birthday with a tea party, here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Games/Activities:

1. Sugar Cubes – Staying with the tea party theme, have the girls see who can stack the highest tower of sugar cubes.

2. Tissue Paper Flowers – Take 3 or 4 pieces of tissue paper laid in a stack, cut into a square and do an accordion fold back and forth over the length of the square. Cut the ends of the folded tissue into a triangle shape. Take the scissors and cut a triangular notch in the middle of the folded paper. Wrap a green pipe cleaner around the notch in the middle to make a stem. Fan out of the pieces of the tissue to make flower petals.

3. Scavenger Hunt – Like Alice in Wonderland, have the girls pretend they drank something to make them very small. Then plan a scavenger hunt around the house or yard where they look for party favors that are up high, for example at the top level of a swing set, hanging from a tree branch, etc.

Favors:

1. Tea Cups – Find mismatched tea cup and saucer sets for each guest. Set the table with them and have the girls use them during the party to drink caffeine-free tea, punch, juice, water, etc. Then let the girls take home the cup and saucer they used as a party favor.

Food/Decorations:

1. Set the Table – Make a fancy tea party by setting the table with a tablecloth, white doilies and real flowers as well as the tea party cups and saucers.

2. Tea Party Food – Make tea sandwiches by making ham and cheese, turkey and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cutting them into small pieces and putting frilly toothpicks into them. Cut up small pieces of cheese and put frilly toothpicks in them. Make fruit kabobs and mini cupcakes.

If your child wants to have a pony party, here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Activities:

1. Pin the Tail on the Pony – Here’s a classic party game that you can make yourself. On a poster board, draw a picture of a pony (a simple outline with eyes, mouth and mane added is fine) and then bundle lengths of brown yarn into “tails.” Give each child a tail and piece of tape. Blindfold them with a bandanna, spin them around and let the game begin.

2. Scavenger Hunt in the Hay – Hide piles of hay in different places around your yard. To keep the mess to a minimum, my friend put the hay in plastic wading pools she had borrowed from friends. Give the kids clues as to where the different piles of hay are located. Hide horse-themed trinkets in each spot so the kids can dig through the hay to find them. You could hide small plastic horses, horse finger puppets or horse stickers in the hay. Makes a great way for kids to find their party favors!

3. Rent a Pony – If it’s in your budget, find out if you can rent a pony to have at the party for pony rides. My friend rented one for her daughter’s fifth birthday and it was a huge hit with the kids. The kids took turns riding the pony – led by a trained professional – around the yard and neighborhood.

4. Hobby Horse Races – Almost everyone has a hobby horse, so before the party borrow them from your friends. At the party, have the kids “saddle up” and race around the yard.

Food:

My friend served apple slices and carrots for snacks since that’s what horses like to eat. She also bought horse-shaped cookie cutters to make horse-shaped sandwiches, cheese slices, etc.

If your little girl wants to have a princess-themed birthday party, here’s a few ideas to get you started.

Activities:

1. Make a Crown – When your little princess’s guests first arrive have a table set up for them to make a crown to wear during the party. You can buy inexpensive foam crowns at craft stores like Michael’s. For younger children, put each child’s name on a crown ahead of time with puffy paint. Provide the children with stickers and stick-on plastic jewels so they can make their crown unique. This is a great way to keep kids busy while you’re waiting for everyone to arrive. Makes a great party favor too!

2. Make a Wand - Buy large craft sticks and ribbons or crepe paper. Wind strips of ribbon or crepe paper around one end of the craft stick in varying lengths and use glue or pipe cleaners to secure. When you’re done, all the little princesses will have their own ribbon wand. Turn on some princess music and let them dance around swirling their new ribbon wands. Makes a great party favor too!

3. Pumpkin Coach – If your child has a fall birthday, you can buy small pumpkins for each guest and have them make their own pumpkin coach like Cinderella. Just set out paints, glitter and decorations and let the children use their imagination to turn a plain pumpkin into a magical princess coach.

Food:

1. Princess Shapes – Buy princess-themed cookie cutters and cut sandwiches, fruit, cookies and cheese slices into shapes like crowns, wands and slippers. It’s a great way to make sure little guests will eat up!

2. Make Pretzel Wands – Before the party, dip one end of a pretzel rod into melted chocolate and roll into colored sprinkles. Let stand on wax paper until chocolate hardens. Makes a great princess-themed snack.

3. Princess Cake – When my daughter wanted a princess cake, I decided I could make one myself. I simply made a cake in a bundt pan, as well as two in a round cake pan. When the cakes had cooled, I stacked the two round cakes on the bottom, with frosting in between and then put the bundt cake on the top. I bought an inexpensive princess Barbie, wrapped her legs in plastic wrap and inserted her into the middle of the cake up to her waist so it looked like the cake was her princess gown. Then I frosted the cake in pink and added star and flower sprinkles in a pattern to make it look like a princess gown. This cake was easy to make, came together quickly, and got lots of compliments from the guests.

If your little girl wants to have a fairy party, here’s a few ideas to get you started.

Games/Activities:

1. Fairy Name Drop – Cut green paper into simple leaf shapes. On each one write a nature-inspired word like sky, rainbow, rain, snowflake, daisy, petal, etc. After all the girls arrive tell them you are going to find out their fairy names. Throw the paper leaves into the air over the girls and tell them to try to catch two leaves as they fall. When we did this at my daughter’s party, the girls loved running around the living room trying to catch the leaves. Then put the words on each girl’s leaves together to make up their fairy name. For example, Rainbow Sky.

2. Fairy Scavenger Hunt - When my daughter wanted a fairy party, I went looking for inexpensive fairy items to use during the party that could also be used as favors. I found fairy shoes (pink slippers with curled up toes) at the dollar store and $3 fairy wings online. I also bought some plastic ivy and ribbon from a craft store to make fairy crowns. I simply made a circle of plastic ivy that would sit like a crown on each girl’s head and then wrapped ribbons around the ivy to make it fancy. Then I hid these items around the house and gave the girls clues on where to find them. As they found each item they put it on and by the end of the hunt they were all dressed like fairies!

3. Make a Fairy House – Little girls will love to make their own fairy house. First collect items from nature, like bark, moss, leaves, feathers, sticks, shells, acorns, rocks, pine cones, etc. Give it girl a shallow container or tray filled with sand (Styrofoam take-out containers cut in half work well). Then let the girls build their fairy house any way they want. The sand at the bottom of the container will help hold sticks and bark into place so they can create a structure. You’ll be amazed at what they create! Then let the girls take their houses home to put in their own backyards. A great idea for a craft and party favor.

4. Make a Fairy Garden – For a simpler activity, you can have the girls make a fairy garden. Simply buy small flowerpots and have the girls decorate the outside with paints, stickers, glitter, buttons, shells, etc. Then have them scoop some dirt into the pot and plant a few seeds. Provide craft sticks and paper so they can make a sign to stick in the dirt such as “Fairies Welcome.” This makes a great craft and take home favor.

5. A Fairy Hunt - If you have a backyard garden and nice weather, this is a wonderful activity. Make small fairy dolls using a clothes pin with tissue paper wings. (Or you can buy small fairy figures if you wish). Then before the party begins, hide the fairies in different places around the yard. Put them in interesting places like hanging from the branch of a tree, holding onto a flower stem, sitting on a rock, floating in a birdbath, etc. Then give the girls clues on where the fairies can be found. For example, “this fairy loves to fly really high” or “this fairy loves soft leaves” or “this fairy loves water.”

Setting/Decorations:

My daughter’s birthday is in March so it wasn’t warm enough to have her party in the yard. So to give her party the feel of nature, I bought an inexpensive canopy netting (I found one on eBay for $12) and then safety-pinned plastic flowers all over it. I pulled the netting out on the sides and arranged pillows inside to create a “fairy house” for the girls to play in. It was also a great place to take pictures of the girls during the party.

I also purchased cardboard flowers (or you could make your own out of construction paper) and hung them from the living room ceiling with green crepe paper stems hanging down, to give the girls the feeling of being really small like fairies. Finally, I got out our white Christmas lights and strung them around the room for a little extra twinkle.

Favors:

For my daughter’s party, the guests were able to take home their fairy gardens and fairy wings, shoes and headpieces. At the door, I also had made small bouquets of flower-shaped lollipops, which my daughter gave out as she was saying her good-byes.