Helena's Wizard of Oz party

We celebrated my middle daughter Helena's birthday with a Wizard of Oz themed party. It was her first friend party and she had a blast (and I had a blast planning it!)

I created these invitations on our computer, then printed them out on normal paper and traced illustrations from a vintage copy of The Wizard of Oz (the book). Then I made copies on scrapbook paper and added sparkly red paint on Dorothy's shoes.

Here's our food table. almost all of the decorations are from DI, our local thrift store--the little red chair, the vintage book, the basket and Toto, the red box that the "Toto in a Blankets" are in. I made the cake stand out of a plate from Pier One and a pillar candle holder from Target.

The blue gingham cupcake wrappers are from Michael's. I made the cupcake toppers.

The birthday girl's cupcake needed a sparkly blue "3" candle, of course! I wanted to set it apart from the other cupcakes, but didn't have a cupcake stand, so I flipped this square glass vase over and set it on top, then added a blue gingham bow.

My mother-in-law let me borrow a Munchkin barbie. He was perfect to hold the "Over the Rainbow Fruit Salad" sign. The fruit salad was strawberries, oranges, bananas, kiwis, and blueberries layered in clear plastic cups to look like a rainbow.

Here is the book that inspired the party!

Helena was excited to dress up as Dorothy. The dress was a hand-me-down from a neighbor--it's Tommy Hilfiger. The shoes are from Wal-Mart.

One of our games was Pin the heart on the Tin Man. Simple, easy, and classic children's birthday party! We also played Wizard of Oz Says and did all Oz-themed things ("Click your heels together like Dorothy", "Melt like the Wicked Witch", "Spin like the twister", etc). Our arrival activity was painting little wooden house cutouts (from the unfinished wood section at Robert's) with sparkly red paint.

I was excited to find mini baskets at Michael's!

Inside the goody baskets were Glinda the Good Witch bubbles (inspired by the bubble that she came out of in Munchkinland), a handmade gingham hairbow, a strip of rainbow star stickers, and a few "bricks" from the Yellow Brick Road (yellow Starbursts).

This party was featured at U-Create Parties.