A Very Tangled Birthday

Boo's favorite princess is Rapunzel.  The girl is obsessed!  She was never a girly girl or into princesses until the movie Tangled came out.  Then that's all she thought about.  We didn't need to ask her what kind of party she'd like to have for her 4th birthday.  I did draw the line at a princess party though.  I told her that she would have to include the little boys she was inviting and make it a more gender neutral party.  So the result was a Tangled Painting Party.  If you haven't seen the movie, which I can't even fathom since I've seen it over a hundred, Rapunzel loves to paint and she paints every square inch of her tower.  I got on Pinterest to get some ideas.

We didn't really decorate for the party.  We thought it'd be lost on that age group and had so much to do that weekend with my mom visiting, Boo's last day of school, her dance recital, and the party that we took the minimalist approach.  The one decoration we decided to go with was Rapunzel's hair.  We bought a roll of yellow plastic tablecloth at Party City and Hubby hung it up from the ceiling and then dropped it down from the second floor.  Again, you have to watch the movie...  Boo loved it!  Hubby put it up during nap time so when she got up she was excited because Rapunzel had come while she was sleeping.

Rapunzel's hair wrapped around the ceiling

For the food we stuck with the painting theme.  Pretzel sticks were dipped in chocolate to look like paintbrushes.  We dipped Rice Krispy treats on a stick in icing to resemble paintbrushes as well.  And of course it wouldn't be a Tangled party without Rapunzel's tower.  The base is made out of styrofoam and a dowel rod.  I stacked iced cake donuts on the rod and topped it with a jumbo muffin and an ice cream cone that I painted with melted chocolate.  Then a little green frosting piped along the outside to resemble leaves and vines (humor me, I tried my best) and the tower was done!  We decided to serve cupcakes instead of cake because we thought it'd be easier to serve to a room full of 3 and 4 year olds.  Sticking with the painting theme we made painter's palette cupcakes.  Hubby had some leftover wood from a project and cut out a artist's palette big enough to hold the cupcakes.  Then we simply frosted confetti cupcakes with bright colored icing and arranged them on the palette.  Boo loved it and it was definitely the easiest birthday cupcakes we've made.

Blowing out her candles

For an activity that doubled as a party favor, we gave each child an 8x10 canvas.  Before they arrived we used vinyl letters to put their names on the canvas.  Everyone had their own palette of paints and free pick of the paint brushes.  Once they were dry you could peel off the vinyl letters and the child's name was in white.  We had some beautiful pieces of art when they were all done.

Of course, what's a party without a piñata?  Our kids have always had a piñata at their parties, but this was the first year that we had a store bought one.  Usually my parents pick one up at the San Antonio flea market, but now that we live farther away that wasn't really an option.  We bought a pull string kind because the picture was better but decided that we'd let the kids hit it because that's the fun part.  Hubby  hung it up using a ladder and curtain rod because we didn't have a very good tree branch available.  After the first few hits though it was obvious it wasn't going to work.  He was brave enough to hold it for the kids while they took turns hitting his fingers the piñata.

We sent the guests home with a set of watercolors that had an adorable note, courtesy of Pinterest, thanking everyone for coming.  Boo had a great time playing with her friends and is already planning her party for next year.