Alice In Wonderland Party

My daughter just turned seven and we had so much fun at her Alice in Wonderland inspired party! I always have fun making little decorations and such to make things extra special, so I'll start by sharing a few of those.

Decorations and Details:

I made a door-knob decoration for our front door to greet our guests as they arrived. I think this little guy might have been my favourite extra touch of the whole party. And he was made from nothing but a scrap of grey scrapbook paper, a black sharpie, and a little chalk. Love it.

I made two of these sign posts. If we were doing this party outside and we had a nice big tree in the yard, I'm sure I would have just stapled them onto the tree. As it is, I used the cardboard tube from a roll of carpet as a sign post. (Just a tip, one of our local carpet stores will give you these for free. They are HUGE and strong, so keep your eyes open for ideas to use them) The second sign had arrows that read: BEWARE, THIS WAY, WRONG WAY, DOWN, and KEEP GOING.

Mome Raths! Aren't they adorable? They were a snap to make. I just raided my kids' art supplies in our craft cupboard. Two colourful tongue depressors, fluffy feathers, and googly eyes. A dab of glue here, a dab there, and they were done. To make them stand up, I used paperclips that I unfolded the centers out from to make an L-shape. Then I hot-glue gunned them onto the backs, and it worked like a charm.

Of course, they needed a sign to warn guests, "Don't Step on the Mome Raths"

I got some artificial flowers at the dollar store, added some googly eyes and some little lips, and we had Wonderland's flower garden.

I painted the Cheshire cat. The party just needed to have him.

And he must sit perched up in a tree.

And because nothing could be simpler, I set out a chess set on the top of a table.

I knew I'd want to play croquet at the party, so I made these card soldiers from poster paper and duct-taped them onto the wickets that we would hit the balls through. I made five; three hearts, and two spades.

And you can't play croquet at an Alice in Wonderland party with a regular old mallet! You simply must have a pink flamingo. To make these, I traced the mallet on a sheet of pink poster paper and then drew a flamingo shape that covered that area. I cut it out and used it as a template to make all these. Then to add details and definition, I used a lighter shade of pink craft paint for feathers and the beak, and used a black sharpie to outline them and make them stand out more. As a finishing touch, I added googly eyes and a tuft of pink and purple feathers on their heads. For the party, I just used tape (lots and lots and lots of tape!) up and down the length of the handles and pressed the flamingos on. I knew they wouldn't hold forever, but they made it through the croquet match, and that was all I needed.

Onto the party!

Activities and Games:

"Do you play croquet?"

We started out by going into the yard and playing croquet. With her early March birthday, we have never had good enough weather to do any of her parties outside before. But we lucked out and had a beautiful sunny day. It was windy, however, so we did the croquet course first before the wind could destroy the cute decorations.

Here are a few of the girls tapping their balls. Doesn't it look so cute??

Mad Hatter's Workshop:

I made this little sign and attached it to a hat stand to help set the scene for our next activity.

I topped it off with a cluster of brightly coloured hats, and tucked a playing card into the ribbon of my son's magic top hat for a little extra fun. (the 7 of hearts, since she was turning 7)

I also had the ceiling dripping with paper lanterns of all different colours. I really wanted the Mad Hatter's shop to be bold and colourful.
I piled up the center of the table with ribbons, pom-pom strings, beads, sparkly gems, flowers, lace, and anything else I could think of. Then each guest was given a bright glittery bowler hat and turned loose to decorate it as they would.

The creations that came out of the workshop were as wild as anything the Hatter himself could have come up with!

After the kids had finished, they each had their picture taken beside the Cheshire cat in his tree. And while they did their little photo shoot, I set up the kitchen for our next activity.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party:

A tea in Wonderland simply must include 'eat me' cookies.

I also made these Rice Krispie soldiers. All I did was make their faces from construction paper and tape them at the top of a toothpick. Then after the squares were cut, I pressed the toothpick down the center to create a head on a body. A little red icing in a piping bag for the hearts and numbers, and we were done.

I made a flock of pink flamingo cupcakes.

And I saw these great skewers with pinwheels on the end at the dollar store and loved them. They seemed quirky enough to join us for a Mad Hatter tea.

I made a chess board of little sandwiches. You can't really tell in the picture, which is a shame, but the sandwiches alternate with white bread and brown bread to create the board. Then I topped them off with a grape tomato or a black olive on a toothpick featuring a suit of cards decal on top. I thought it turned out really well.

I didn't serve tea. I did serve four different kinds of kid-friendly beverages though (juices and koolaid). I also borrowed tea sets and tea pots from a couple of people so there would be a variety of sizes and patterns all around too. It was so fun! We had full-sized standard cups, medium sized (that would hold maybe about 1/4 cup of liquid) and then there was a set that had cups the size of thimbles. I loved it! I also had a great big teapot, a middle sized one, a few smaller ones, and a teeny-tiny one to match the thimble sized cups. All the teapots were filled up, so the kids were pouring their drinks from every size. It was so silly and they had so much fun with it.

And as a final touch, we had a little dormouse nesting in a creamer.

Here are the party guests, hats on, and tea partying at the Mad Hatter's.

Off With His Head!

In this game, I made a card soldier's body and taped it onto my daughter's art easel so that the shoulders were right at the top. Then I made a head for him, and attached it to a container. The container was set on top of the easel, and then the kids were given beanbags. When they took their turn throwing the bean bag, they had to shout "Off with his head!" It was a total hit. I loved it.

Alice in Wonderland Trivia Game:

For this activity, I got an end table and set it in the middle of the room, and put the buzzer from Taboo in the center.We divided the kids into two groups, (Team Alice and Team Queen) and then we had them face off in pairs. Two kids would stand on either end of the table with their hands behind their backs. I would read a trivia question, and the first one to 'buzz in' got to answer. It was so fun. I'd never done something like that at a party before. I kept the questions pretty basic in case not everyone there was super familiar with the story. Examples of questions I used were, "What happened to Alice when she ate the 'eat me' cookies?" (she grew) "How did Alice get to Wonderland?" (she fell down the rabbit hole)

Card Toss:

No pictures here, I'm afraid. The girls were each given 10 cards and they had to try to toss them into a top hat.

Games and Activities I had, but didn't do:

I always have too many plans for my parties. I could make the party longer, I know, but I think that once parties get to be more than 2.5 hours or so, the kids start to get tired and things just aren't as fun. I want them to go home thinking 'wow, I had so much fun' instead of 'I can finally get out of here.'

That being said, here are some ideas you can use if you want to do a party:

1. Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum race: a three legged race based on the fact that these twins stick together

2. Painting the roses red: This was my first idea when I started planning the party, and I'm so disapointed we didn't get to it! I had artificial white roses, and red paints, and paint brushes at the ready. Drat!

3. White rabbit sack race - rabbits hop, and the white rabbit is in a hurry, so why not make it into a game?

4. Pin the smile on the Cheshire cat - a themed twist on the party classic.

Cake at the Queen's Banquet Hall:

Since her birthday is so soon after Valentine's Day, I thought I'd shop the clearance sales for heart-shaped supplies and have some fun creating a Queen of Hearts theme at the party.

To start out, I borrowed my mom's long red tablecloth which went almost to the floor. Very glamorous and royal. Then I got a length of black and white checkered cloth and ran it down the center of the table. To make things fancy, I used three spools of gauzey ribbon and tied each chair in a big red bow.

I had red heart doilies running down the middle of the checked cloth, and between each was a home made card guard. (I also made these guys and used them as the invites for the party; I just wrote the information on the back of their capes) I loved these guys. I found them here, where they were actually used as Valentines, but I thought they'd be perfect for this party.

I found an over-sized deck of cards at the dollar store, which made a very quick garland. I made two and draped one on each of our dining room windows.

I took down all the coloured lanterns that were there for the Hatter, and left up only the red. I also swapped out the hat stand and put clumps of red heart-shaped balloons in each corner.

I used red plates, cups, and napkins, and had a doilie place marker for each girl. Then I added two heart chocolates to each setting, again taking advantage of the post-Valentine's sales.

One last thing I found were these cute double heart straws. The kids loved them.

The cake! I looked around on Google images for 'Alice in Wonderland cakes' and saw lots of fun ideas, but I loved the idea of making a Cheshire cat. I did my best, and thought it turned out pretty cute. I had no idea how I was supposed to make the head shape though, so I asked my friend who is a brilliant cake maker and she suggested that I just make the shape from Rice Krispie treats and then frost it like I would a cake. It was such a great tip, and worked out so well. So yes, the cat's head is a giant Rice Krispie treat. I even found pink and purple candles that I put on it's back in an alternating pattern - just like his stripes. Ha!

Following the White Rabbit:

Since Alice spends a good deal of her time in Wonderland searching for the white rabbit, I made a treasure hunt with clues that sent the kids all over our house trying to find him.

When they followed the final clue, it led them to a white rabbit pinata! (When I asked her what kind of pinata she wanted for this party, she said she wanted "the white rabbit, but not when he is wearing regular clothes - when he is dressed up to work for the Queen." This was my attempt to recreate that look) I made the ruff from white card stock that I folded accordion style and then stretched and glue gunned into place. His face is made from blue googly eyes, two white pom poms, one pink pom pom, and craft wire for the wiskers.

Then we took him outside and the kids all had turns swinging at him until he burst open and the candy flew out.

Presents Time:

We played spin-the-bottle to determine which guest got to give their gift next. But we didn't just use any old bottle, we used a 'Drink Me' bottle.

The Take-home Gift:

I went to the craft store for something unrelated, and when I walked in, they had a table set up right at the entrance with glassware they weren't going to keep carrying. And there they were! The perfect Drink Me bottles! For a dollar! I bought one per child, and when I got home I set to work making little labels and tying them on with ribbons.

Each guest left with a bottle of Drink Me juice, and a bag of Eat Me cookies. I thought they turned out so fun.

And that was how we celebrated. I loved it, she loved it, and we had a great day.

Candy Party

Everyone in our family likes sugary treats. But our middle son LOVES them. I have never met a child who can eat candy the way this boy can. So when his birthday rolled around, I knew that a party featuring all his favourite sweets would be a hit with him. And was it ever! You can find our cute invitation here, if you are looking for ideas.

I had my usual fun putting together the festivities.

The Bags:
I kept the treat bags simple, and just added 'I love candy' labels on vibrant paper bags. I used a larger bag than usual since at most of the games the kids would be adding to their treat bags as the party progressed.

The Cake:

I saw my idea for this cake on Pinterest and I loved it. I had planned on making a square cake and buying lots of bulk-bin candies and pressing them into the icing until the cake was completely covered in candy. And I still think that would have been cute. But when I saw the Pinterest cake, I dropped my plans and opted for this. All you do is bake your regular 9" double layer cake, and then after you spread on your icing, you press KitKat bars around the circumference. The KitKat bars are a little taller than the cake, making a nice 'bowl' on the top. Then I poured a party-sized bag of plain m&ms on into my KitKat bowl. The few extras I had, I just scattered around the edge of the cake plate, and I think that looked really sweet. I tied a little blue ribbon around the chocolate bars, which not only looked cute, but kept them from falling down. The only down side to this cake was that it was kind of expensive to decorate. It took 9 KitKat bars to make it around the whole thing, plus the bag of m&ms.

The Decorations:

I found ideas for decorating a Candyland party on the Family Fun website, and while I wasn't throwing a party based on the game, the decorations were easily transferable. This candy is just a paper plate wrapped in cellophane. I made dozens of these in all different colours in an hour. Super cute, super easy.

These over sized lollipop decorations were my favourite. I saved my wrapping paper tubes from this past Christmas and enlisted a couple of friends to save theirs for me too. Then my kids and I worked together to paint them white with just regular craft paint. I blew up assorted colours of balloons, and wrapped them up in cellophane, and voila! Lollipops! I had some in almost every room, and when the party was over a couple of kids asked if they could take one home. Ha!

Fun and Games:

Chocolate Making

We did so many fun things! Our first was to turn our kitchen into a chocolate factory. I bought coloured candy melts at a bulk store and came home and melted them in individual bowls. I got a new package of children's paint brushes and divided them up. (Where possible, I tried to put a matching brush and chocolate together, (ie: red paint brush in the red chocolate) just to help the kids get the right brush back in the right bowl)

At the same store, I purchased plastic candy molds. The kids all got to choose their molds, (some were butterflies, some dinosaurs, some flowers, etc) and then they used the melted chocolate to paint the inside of the molds however they wanted. Once they were done designing their treats, we filled the molds up the rest of the way with regular melted milk chocolate. We did this activity very first because I knew the chocolate would have to have time to set before we could pop them out and put them in their bags, and I didn't want them to not be able to take their creations home. It worked out well, and by the time parents arrived to pick up their kids, the chocolate was firm and ready to go.

Life-Sized Candyland Game

For this game, I went to our craft cupboard and tore out all the colours of the Candyland game board, and then set one up in our home. It wound its way from the kitchen, through the living room, down the stairs, and ended in a great spiral in our play room. At the end of the game I had a bowl of candy popcorn balls, and when each child finished the course, they got to add one to their bag. To play, I just used the cards from our actual Candyland game, and the children themselves were the game pieces.

Licorice Eating Contest

In this game, the kids were put into pairs and given two strings of long, shoe-string-style red licorice. One partner first held up a strand, and the other had to eat their way up to the top of the strand. Then they switched and had a turn doing the other's role. The team that had both strings gobbled up the fastest was the winner.

Pin the Gum in the Gumball Machine

I made a basic, but very cute, gumball machine from felt and white glue. I cut out extra gumballs and the children were blindfolded and had to try to put their gum into the glass ball part of the machine. The great thing about this version of the classic game was that I didn't need any adhesive or tacks to attach their gum to the picture; the felt stuck on its own. (Funny side note - one little party guest saw the game waiting for us in the living room, marched over and was trying to figure out how to get a gumball to get out of the machine. He was trying to turn the felt dial and even asked me for some money to put in. Ha!)

Candy Memory Game - read how to make and play here.

Chocolate Fondue

This was a smash hit! I borrowed a chocolate fountain from a friend and set it up in the kitchen while my husband was managing the candy memory game. I served homemade brownie bites, and marshmallows, as well as the healthier options of strawberries and bananas. The kids went wild and ate until every last morsel had been dipped in warm melted chocolate.

Musical Candy Grab

This game is kind of like musical chairs. I placed prizes in the center of a hula hoop, but only had a couple of bundles available, far less than the number of children playing.

We had them dance to the tune of the Oompa Loompa Song from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie, and when it stopped playing the kids had to scoop up a prize. If they were lucky enough to catch some treats, they were 'out' and put their bundle into their treat bag, and watched as the other children kept playing until everyone had won a prize. We played several rounds until everyone had won.

Since we were going to be playing the game to the tune of a Wonka movie song, I wanted the candy prizes to all be Wonka brand. These are what I found.

I piled them all up and held the bundles together with a length of polka dot ribbon. So cute! I made identical bundles for each child so that there wouldn't be any arguing or hurt feelings over not getting the one they wanted.

Lifesaver Pass

I divided the kids up into two teams to make a race, and each child was given a lollipop to stick into their mouths. Then I slid a lifesaver onto the end of the lollipop stick of the first person in line, and they had to try to pass it down through their team. This was TRICKY but so funny to watch. After the game was over, they all got a package of Lifesavers to add to their stash.

Pixie Stix Drop

This was just a slightly tweaked version of the traditional carnival game of 'clothespin drop.' The children were each given a pixie stix candy and they had to try to drop it into the milk jug at their feet . I had them hold the candy stick at face level before they dropped it to make it more challenging. No bending of knees allowed!

Gumball-in-Spoon Race

Another classic game with a simple candy tweak. Everyone has played an egg-in-spoon race, we just substituted in gumballs for eggs. I gave each child a brightly coloured wooden spoon and a matching gumball. I thought that this way, should more than one gumball fall off and roll away, they could easily find which was theirs, and not mistakenly take another child's.

Candy Bingo

I made up these bingo cards, and replaced the word 'bingo' with 'candy.' It worked out nicely that they both had five letters. I only used numbers 0-10, so that the younger children could identify them when I called out. When we were ready to play, I passed out a handful of smarties chocolates and we used those for our markers. Then when the game was over, they all got to eat them. This game went well for most of the children, but there were a couple who weren't strong on their number or letter recognition skills and they needed some help to play.

Cake Time:

The candles I used were so much fun. They actually burned with different colours of flames. The purple candle had a purple flame, the blue candle had a blue flame, etc. It was so great. One more candle tidbit - the layer of m&ms was so thick that the candles weren't really poking up very high about them, so I stuck them into some gumdrops and put those on the cake. You can't see them, but they are adding some height to my candles. Also in this picture, look at the chocolate milk the kids got to drink with their cake. I dipped the rims of the cups in melted chocolate, and then in sprinkles to give them a candy edge. I thought it was so festive and fun looking.

Candy Shop

I had gone to the bulk store and bought candy, candy, candy. Then I came home, filled up glass jars, and lined them all up on a little table to create my very own candy store. When the kids were done their cake and ice cream, they got to have a turn 'shopping.' They were given a plastic baggie, and told they could fill it up with as much of anything they wanted. I had jelly beans, gum drops, gum balls, sour cherries, lollipops, Giant Whirlypops, gummy worms, Smarties, Reese's Pieces, and licorice ready and waiting for them. Their eyes all got so big when they realized they could pick and choose and there wasn't a limit. Little hands started flying, grabbing fist-fulls of sugar as fast as they could!

Pinata Time

I always do a pinata for my children's parties. They love them. I have had parties where the pinata has been a very time-consuming effort to create something very complex. But not this time. It was a cinch to make a giant candy. Round balloon, paper mache, paint, cellophane. Done. The pinata, of course, was filled with more candy that went straight into their party bags.

Present Time:

Our very last activity at parties is usually the gift opening. I do it last so that the birthday boy or girl doesn't get so distracted by their gifts that they just want to play with their new toys and ignore their friends, or don't want to participate in the party games. So while my son unwrapped his pile of presents, (people are so generous!) his friends opened up the bags they had been filling the entire party long, and munched on a few treats as they watched.

It was a great party, and a huge success. He loved everything, and couldn't stop talking about it for days afterwards.