I’m excited to have gotten my amazing photos back from my sweet friend, Rachel, and to have finally gotten through all of them so that I can share my daughter’s Barbie: The Princess and The Popstar birthday party with you all. The movie is a classic “grass is greener” tale of a princess and a popstar who each think the other’s life is so fantastic that they trade places for a day and learn some valuable lessons along the way. Hey, I could write DVD sleeve copy. My Sweet Caroline was introduced to the movie by some neighborhood friends and quickly became obsessed with being “Keira,” the popstar.
Here’s the invitation and the envelope in which it was delivered. We kept the guest list to a few girlfriends and invited them to come in costume for an on-stage performance.
Most of them were hand-delivered in the neighborhood so we were able to embellish them a bit.
We kept things simple with the party entrance this time, opting for a sparkly door sign and some backstage credentials.
Backstage passes hung from a guitar stand on the front porch. I wasn’t happy with the materials I found for ID badges at the local office store, so I printed 4×6 cards and had them hard laminated, adding a lanyard to each.
When guests entered, our Stage Moms were directed to the left into the “Green Room.” We had earplugs on hand just to be silly. Purple, of course.
Our “Talent” was directed through the lit doorway to the concert stage.
We also had directional signage for the “Green Room,” “Wardrobe” and this one for the bathroom.
C’mon. That’s funny.
There are my kiddos “tuning” the inflatable guitar before the party started. This is the only photo I have of my son at the party because he hightailed it down to the neighbor’s house when he heard he’d be outnumbered.
We built the stage with a piece of plywood and some scrap wood from our playset.
I painted it purple and added a short shimmery curtain to hide the legs. It fit right over the fireplace hearth, and gave the girls a few square feet of room to get their popstar on.
We covered the fireplace and mantel with pink and purple goodness and lit it up with Christmas lights.
Overhead was an over-sized tree ornament we used as a disco ball. It even had a pink tiara on its head.
Guests passed from the stage area to the “Green Room” through this sparkly pink curtain, which was a source of great entertainment for the girls.
(Read: they ran back and forth through it until it bit the dust.)
We kept the food light with items you might find in a real Green Room.
Maria from Love & Sugar Kisses made these AMAZING fondant topped Oreos for us. I swear to you that they were so perfect, people felt bad biting into them. Ha!
The pink Princess versions featured crowns and magic hairbrushes and the purple Popstar versions had guitars and magic microphones.
Since most everyone walked to the party, we offered mimosas to our stage moms. In keeping with our color scheme (and because I don’t really love a classic mimosa) we mixed 1 part champagne or sparkling juice, 1 part orange juice and 1 part V8 Fusion Pomegranate Blueberry juice. The concoction was a beautiful pink color, and the sweetness of the different juice really cut the usual bite of the drink. Two thumbs up.
The girls drank regular juice out of these easier to handle cups.
I made this centerpiece for around $10, wrapping boxes with matching table coverings and using inexpensive princess and popstar props from a party store.
I told the birthday girl she could eat when her guests arrived, so five minutes in, she was ready to chow down.
The girls ate and then took their time warming up to the stage. We had a small craft area where they could make “rock band” bracelets using stickers, rhinestones and leather wrist bands.
I was sure if the parents made themselves scarce, the girls would be fighting tooth and nail for a turn so I made these names to draw from to see who was next. As it turned out, they were pretty shy about getting up there. Who knew? We had a karaoke machine with songs from Barbie: The Princess and The Popstar movie and other faves the girls could choose from like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Call Me Maybe.”
Everyone wanted to be on stage, but very few wanted to sing alone. Safety in numbers. That’s my girl at the mic rockin’ and rulin’.
They had cake, the birthday girl made her wish and everyone took the stage again.
When it was time to head home, everyone left with one of these light-up wands, which I thought looked a lot like microphones.
I hoped they would sing into them in the mirror like we used to do as kids!
The tags said, “You royally ROCKED it, girl. You really did your thing. Take home this magic mic, look in the mirror and SING!”
After the party, I snapped a pic of Caroline in her purple Keira wig and we used the photo on these hilarious thank you notes, designed to look like autographed headshots.
Every time I look at them, I laugh all over again.
My baby is five. Wow. When did that happen?
Special thanks to Caroline’s Nana and Mrs. Lauren, as usual, for their hands-on help and party inspiration, and a special thanks to Mrs. Stacy for taking me in her giant truck to the home improvement store and staring blankly with me at a wall of plywood varieties. How could there be so many?!
Photography: Sweet Magnolia Photography
Cake: For Heaven’s Cakes
Oreos: Love & Sugar Kisses
Invitations, Paper Goods and Party Planning: www.pinkpeppermintpaper.com
