A Sweet CandyLand Party
I plan my kids' birthday parties every year, and we've done some fun themes including superheroes, Star Wars, Little Blue Truck, and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. But, I have to say, this CandyLand themed party for Lucy's 4th birthday has been my absolute favorite. What's not to love? You have a legit reason to stuff your face with as many sweets as possible. In other words, it's my idea of heaven. And, I guess the kids liked it a little bit, too. I mean, they did get to play on a giant board game. So here's the lowdown on how I did everything for the party.
INVITATIONS: I designed the invitations on my computer using the Silhouette Studio software. I Googled "rainbow swirl background" and used white text. I wrapped the invitation in plastic wrap (because everyone just loves how it sticks to all. the. things) and tied it with rainbow yarn I had on hand.
PARTY FAVORS: I bought small, inexpensive rainbow bags from Party City and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out a candy shape onto white sticker paper. The message says "Thank you for making my party so sweet!"
TABLE: I used 6 inexpensive plastic tablecloths from Hobby Lobby that I cut to size and taped to the table in a rainbow pattern. I added cheap gold chargers I already had because I knew I wouldn't care if they got messed up. (In fact, one of them broke, and I assured the mom it was no big deal because the charger only cost $2.) For the table "runner," I just tossed some dum-dums and smarties down the center of the table (I promise that was not intentional).
FOOD: I hope you're not looking for healthy options here because you won't find many at a CandyLand party. I even made a letter board to warn parents.
I got the cute polka dot plates and napkins from Party City. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the morning of the party and cut them into fourths. I cut up strawberries and bananas because I felt the parents would be awfully upset if I didn't have at least couple reasonably healthy options.
I used glasses and trays I already had to hold different candies, donuts, brownies, and cookies.
I felt like I gained 10 pounds just from looking at this buffet, but it was so worth it to see Lucy's face when she spotted all that candy. She is my daughter, after all.
CAKE: Let's take a sec to talk about the coolest cake on the planet. No joke, y'all, I pinned the idea for this cake on Pinterest more than 5 years ago because I loved it so much. I thought maybe I would make it for a game night, but that never happened.
A few months ago, Lucy became obsessed with playing CandyLand, and we played approximately 21,450 times a day (at least it felt like that). When we started talking about her birthday party, I suggested CandyLand as the theme, and she happily agreed. The very first thing I thought about was making this cake.
I mean, can you blame me? It's a pretty awesome cake. I made the cake from boxed mixes and homemade buttercream frosting, but I have a much better idea in hindsight. Of course, it didn't occur to me until after the cakes were already cooling. Next time, I would just buy a sheet cake from the grocery store and ask for plain white frosting. Those cakes are bigger than my 9x13, and they're so cheap. All I would have to do is decorate the cake with the candies. It would have been a big time saver the day before the party when I'm trying to do a million other things.
I used Starbursts for the game board squares, and the other candies/sweets are spice drops, jelly beans, lollipops, Reese's mini peanut butter cups. chocolate brownie muffins with leftover buttercream frosting I colored brown (my wonderful brother-in-law made the delightful observation that it looked like poop). The castle at the end was made with mini ice cream cones stacked up, and I used a piping bag filled with extra buttercream frosting. You know you want to make this cake right now. Have a game night and go for it. Don't wait more than 5 years like I did.
GAME: Since this was for Lucy's 4th birthday, I knew the kids needed some sort of activity to do. In past years, they were young enough that I could get away with just opening up the playroom. Now they're old enough that I actually have to think of a fun activity. Le sigh. At least it was easy for this party: a life-sized CandyLand game board. I made the banner (sorry for the backlighting) with the same colored paper I used for the game board squares and I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the candy shapes with the text cut from white cardstock.
I bought a package of 50 sheets of pastel colored paper in the 8.5x11 size (12x12 paper is crazy expensive) and just used a paper cutter to cut the paper into 8.5x8.5 squares. I used clear packing tape to tape the squares to the floor. It only took me about 20 to 30 minutes, and I did it the night before the party after the kids went to bed so no one would mess it up. I added balloons for a "Gumball Lake", lollipops made from white cardboard cake plates and colored cellophane for a "Lollipop Lane," and pixie sticks made from dollar store pool noodles and white duct tape for a "Pixie Stick Forest."
There my 2 kiddos Lucy and Ricky playing with the "gumballs" right before the party started. I used jumbo dice I already had from my teaching days covered in squares of the same paper used for the game board so the kids had something to tell them what color to go to next.
They finished the game at the Candy Castle. The letters are from Hobby Lobby, and the cute pop-up castle tent is from Amazon (you can find it here). And, there you have it: the coolest kid's birthday party ever! Seriously, this was the most fun I've ever had planning a party. Who wouldn't have fun at a CandyLand party?
