Tessa's Strawberry Shortcake Party

All year long my kids are telling me what kind of birthday party they'll want.  Currently Tessa has the next 4 years themes ready.  Of course they change their mind on a very regular basis so I try not to think about it until about a month before the birthday.  About a month ago Tessa was very sure about wanting a Strawberry Shortcake party.  I tried to find premade invitations but could only find some online and the shipping costs were twice as much as the invitations themselves.  So I made invitations.  I printed off a photo frame printable from Hasbro's strawberry shortcake site and then modified it to become an invitation.  We invited all the little girls within a year of her age in the neighborhood and ward.  Then we invited all our family members 2 hours later.  I've decided it's easier to have two separate parties--one friends and one family--rather than trying to do it all together.

As I was trying to decide what games or activities would be good for 3 & 4 year olds, I decided to do a craft project.  I took an idea from my neice's birthday party and decided it would be fun to decorate baskets.  But I needed strawberry themed baskets and the only ones I could find online were much too pricey.  So I went for the paper mache instead.  I bought red and green craft paper and tore it up.  I paper mached the bottoms of the balloons with red and the top with green.  I tied yarn around the balloon and hung them outside from my trampoline during the process and once I had all 20 done I moved them into the garage for the night.  I did this for 3 nights.  Then after the last drying I popped the balloons and cut out half ovals to make a basket.  Then I spray painted the handles green and the basket red.  I bought foam flower and bug stickers, stick on jewels, little flower blossoms with glue dots, and some lace.  The kids at both the friend party and the cousin party seemed to enjoy decorating these baskets.  Here's Tessa's:

Tessa really wanted cupcakes for her birthday so I made her vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry gelee and topped off with freshly whipped (and colored) whip cream and sprinkles.  Then I had to make a chocolate cake so I layered it with the same strawberry gelee and covered it with green whipped cream and green coconut.  I then put Strawberry Shortcake in a hot air balloon on top.

Here's when she saw the cake and the new Strawberry Shortcake toy:

I also made a pinata out of a cardboard box to resemble Strawberry Shortcake's house.  I tied ribbons in it so the little girls could just pull on the ribbons to make the candy come out.

Then the girls used their baskets to get all the pinata candy, which was all strawberry (the hard strawberry flavored and shaped candies, frooties, and Twizzlers):

I also put a strawberry lip gloss, a strawberry shortcake charm bracelet, and a strawberry fruit by the foot in each basket.  Then we opened presents.  At the end of the presents Brodie and Spencer returned (I had shipped them off to the Chinese Moon Festival during the party).  After the girls all went home I went to my mom's to pick up Clara (I shipped her off as well so I could focus on the girls).  I came home to re-fill the pinata and put out some more decorative stuff for the baskets before the family group came.  It made me realize how much more calm 6 little girls are than a group with boys.  There is really a very big difference.

Spencer had a lot of fun with his favorite cousin, Logan.  Tessa loved playing with her best friend/cousin Afton and the older girl cousins whom she ADORES!  I tried to give Clara a nap but that obviously didn't work, which combined with me shipping her off for a couple of hours made her very clingy and whiny.  It was fun and Tessa got even more presents and we had more pinata candy.  She was so excited to get so many Strawberry Shortcake toys as the only ones she had before her party were a couple from McDonald's.  She has been playing with these toys soooooo much.

After the parties it was dinner time so we headed over to Cafe Rio with my sister and her family, since they needed to eat before heading 1 1/2 hours back home.  I sure do love Cafe Rio!  I think that is one place I could actually eat at on a weekly basis and not get sick of it.

I have a great husband who helped immensely with the clean up after the parties.  Only Brodie's parents came from his side of the family so we had tons of leftovers.  I had made 3 dozen cupcakes, 2 9 x 13 pans of chocolate cake (layered on top of each other with the strawberry gelee in the middle), and made 20 paper mache baskets.  We ran plates of cupcakes to a couple different neighbors' houses, ate leftover cake for almost a week, and I have a few strawberry baskets still sitting in my garage that I can't get myself to get rid of after all the hard work I put into them.  I'm sure I'll come up with a good use for them soon...or else I have a feeling Brodie will help "get rid of them".