shadow puppet party!

LM's birthday party was this weekend and we had so much fun! She was truly the happiest little girl surrounded by all of her cousins and was spoiled with love! As you know, the theme was 'Shadow Puppets'. We kept the agenda simple, starting out with a puppet show and popcorn, then we let the kids try out different hand shadows, ate hot dogs and Izze, and finished things off with cake, ice cream, and presents!

(invitation)

The birthday girl was very concerned that we needed to have three things at her party: party hats, balloons, and candles on the cake. Pretty easy requirements! So, we made some simple cone party hats, as well as a few fun pillbox hats with big feathers on top for the girls (see first picture, inspired by). I thought Lark looked so cute in her party hat!

I made a theater  for the puppet show using a cardboard tri-fold and white butcher paper. It worked great, but if I were to do it again I would use sheets so it would be easier to store and wouldn't potentially break or tear. 

For the puppet show we thought it would be fun to do a Mad Lib type story, so we wrote one and had the audience yell out adjectives, verbs, etc. to fill in the blanks before we started, it was a great way to make them more involved. Then we dimmed the lights and passed out popcorn. The story turned out so funny with the random words thrown in, and Husband saying a silly phrase every time a character was mentioned in the story. For example, whenever the knight was mentioned he would pause and say, "Hey, how you doin'?" like Eugene in Tangled, then continue on with the story...

Above are pictures of the main scenes. The story was about a Princess who was having a birthday party, but didn't invite the mean dragon and witch. They were mad and decided to cast a spell and turn her into a donkey! Her fairy Godmother gives a knight a gift to make the dragon and witch become nice so they will tell him how to reverse the spell which turns out to be...can you guess?... a kiss! So the knight kisses the donkey and she becomes a Princess again. Everyone is happy and becomes friends, the end!

It was a silly little story and all of the kids loved it! The story uses all of the shadow puppets in this set.

For her present we got her a bike and helmet, but the bike isn't coming until today (I thought I had ordered it in time for the party, oh well!). She was very excited for her head protection though, ha! She got a lot of fun presents like art supplies and music toys which she has been playing with ever since, what a lucky girl!

When it came time for blowing out the candles she got a bit shy so I had to help her out. Husband made the entire cake from scratch and it was so yummy, I wish I got a better picture. I think it is going to be tradition that daddy makes the birthday cakes since he did it last year too!

For party favors I gave each family a copy of Fun with Hand Shadows to take home. It was such a nice time. Thank you to everyone who could come, I know LM felt special on her big day!