Princess & the Pea Birthday Party

Our daughter turned 5 last week and I decided to go all out with the princess theme this year. When we decided on the general princess theme, she told me she wanted to be surprised by the details. Worked for me, I could take control! She loves all things princesses, and The Princess and the Pea is one of her favorite stories to read with my mom. I have always done a book theme for her parties, so I decided to run with that. I knew I wanted it to be pink, girly and a little over the top. To be honest, after 5, I'm not thinking I will have much control, and I wanted to do a princess theme while she still found it magical. We invited a few of her friends over, and she had the time of her life! Thank you Z Jeree Photography for capturing the party for us.

For the girls' birthdays, we decided to have family help us get them a swing set for the backyard. I ended up getting this playhouse/swing set combo from KidKraft and it has been great. Shout out to my husband for building and then painting the swing set to make my vision come to life. I ordered the pink swings from Amazon because we needed a baby swing for Genevieve, and I liked the pop of pink. Definitely recommend this set for your young children! They have been loving it, so we decided that would be a fun place to have the birthday party.

For the party, the wonderful LOC balloon team made a pink princess balloon garland to add to the playhouse. They hid a small green balloon in it as the pea, and the birthday girl had fun finding it! I also added one of our new Once Upon a Time flags, perfect for a princess party! It is now hanging in our playroom and would also be so cute in a bedroom. Love the touch of whimsy it brings.

We set up our small rainbow bounce house that we gifted the girls last year for Christmas. It worked well with our theme, and I added white balloon clouds for an extra touch. The kids had fun taking turns jumping with their friends.

At the shop, we recently got an adorable castle party supplies collection. I knew I wanted to incorporate it into the table settings. I accented with the Laduree floral napkins and cups. I will link everything from our shop at the end of this post to easily shop. For the party favors, I used green surprise balls that looked like peas. The guests had a lot of fun unwrapping!

The main event of the birthday party was a special appearance by Sleeping Beauty! I hired Happily Ever After Parties (who we frequently work with at the shop), and it made things so easy! Aurora and her helper brought a tiara craft and tattoos. She interacted with the kids and there was an adorable coronation ceremony for the birthday girl. They spoiled her with a gorgeous tiara and presents. Elizabeth felt so special!

I kept things simple, and served cake and cookies from our usual favorites: September Moon Cupcakery and Sweet Sugarlicious. In the past, I have done "fake" cakes and served cupcakes to keep things easy serving wise (and I can reuse the cakes for photo shoots or in store setups), but Elizabeth was tired of my trick and begged for a real cake. It was beautiful and delicious! I added the cute castle topper that matched the tableware. Cookies were the perfect way to work in the theme. The cookies with the mattresses and tiny pea were my personal favorite. Highly recommend both of these ladies! They've been a part of the girls' birthdays every year.

It was such a fun morning, and Elizabeth was on cloud nine. We truly could not have asked for better weather. I was nervous it might backfire on me, but surprisingly it was nice, not windy and the sun was shining. I felt like my friends that get to set up parties in California!