Ballet, Dance

Age of Birthday Girl: 8 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 3-12 years, depending on specific focus & activities

When our middle child turned 8 she was taking dance class and wanted a ballet birthday party.  (Who knew at the time that this recreational dance class would turn into the hours and hours of dance it is today?!)

Invitations: We cut ballet slipper shapes out of pink card stock and glued them onto white card stock.  A pink bow was added to the front with "You're invited... (A little bit like this...).  Party details were printed on the back.

 Cake:  We used a 9x13 cake pan and then created a template out of wax paper and carved ballet slipper shapes out of the cake. These were then covered with pink frosting with white in the middle for the inside of the shoes.  Pearlized candy was added around the edge of the white area with a small frosting bow on the toe.  Real pink ribbon was added to turn them into pointe shoes. We were greatly inspired by this tutorial.

Activities: The party guests each decorated crowns found at Oriental Trading Company using stickers, jewels, ribbon, and markers.

The kids also had the chance to take strips of ribbon and tulle to create a simple tutu by tying the strips onto a main waistband piece of ribbon.  Most guests didn't finish at the party and took strips of cloth home with them to finish it up there.

 They all got a brief ballet lesson, led by Dad of course - what a good sport! - and then we played a version of musical chairs where the kids had to dance around the basement and when the music stopped they went to a photo of a ballerina in a certain pose.  They had to copy the pose as they stood next to it.

Then, in two teams, they created poses with props and costumes. The other team got to look at it briefly and then the original team would change something.  The other team had to figure out what had been changed.

Another variety of this game would be to have one team create a pose and the second team looks at it briefly. Then that second team has to recreate it themselves.

Goodie bags: Pink and blue goodie bags were filled with candy treats, ballet/dance stickers, ballet pencils and notepads, hair scrunchies, and bracelets.