Friendship Filled My Little Pony 5th Birthday Party, Part 1

A My Little Pony birthday party is sure to be full of fun, friendship, and lots of fabulous food.  And our MLP party had lots of all three!

In our house, ponies are a BIG DEAL.  Specifically, the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic reboot of the 1980s franchise.  It's something that both the 10 year old and the 5 year old adore (no fighting!).  Their uncle is a brony, my best friend is...whatever a female brony is, and cousin Ted is actually one of the authors of some of the official My Little Pony comics.  And has sent the girls signed copies.  They are both officially pony-crazy, and Niamh wouldn't consider anything else for her 5th birthday party.

I love to set the theme for a party with a fun invitation.

For this party, that was more of a challenge than usual, since I'd already done a rainbow unicorn birthday party for my older daughter for HER 5th birthday.  I guess 5 is the prime age for requesting rainbows and unicorns and ponies.  I wanted to do something unique for Niamh, not just copy things I'd done for Ainsley, so I decided to make a super simple little pop up book invitation.  

I made a felt unicorn horn headband for each of the kids, which they all excitedly donned as soon as they arrived at the party.  

I love now enthusiastic and unabashed kids are!  They jump right in and start having FUN!

Big sister manned the Cutie Mark (glitter tattoo) station for me.  She's such an awesome kid and a huge help!

And this is how awesome my friends are--wearing unicorn horns and giving each other glitter tattoo tramp stamps.  

Activities at the party included a rainbow skittles relay race...

...a Pinkie Pie pinata (poor Pinkie Pie!).  Let me state for the record that she was REALLY well constructed, and after letting the kids have several turns each, we had to bring in the dads to break her open.

But my favorite activity, by far, was the Pony Painting.  How do ponies paint with no hands?  With their mouths, of course!  (Each kid got his or her own paint brush.)

Lots of fun!

Messy, fabulous fun!

I should have borrowed more easels so I could have more than 2 kids painting at a time.  They were serious about their art, and took their time creating the masterpieces!

Luckily, we had a bouncy house to keep them happy while they waited for their turns.

I tried to make a PVC rainbow pavilion, but we had really strong winds the day of the party, and it did NOT work.  I had planned a rainbow striped tent, with the gossamer creating a striped rainbow roof, but as I started assembling it, it became painfully obvious that if I continued with my plan, the entire thing would take off like a kite.  Oh well.  Now I know what not to do!

My towering rainbow of fruit made the perfect centerpiece for the kids' dining table, and the kids ate almost all of the fruit.  Even with all the sweets at the party, the fruit was a huge hit.  I always like to have a healthy offering like this at any of my parties.

At the end of the party, each kid got to take home a unicorn horn and one of these.  I made a major score at the dollar store for these party favors--My Little Pony licensed puzzles (Niamh LOVES puzzles), and the pony toys in the bows came in 2-packs.  The favors cost a grand total of $1.50 each, and were something that the kids can actually use and enjoy.  At least my kid certainly does.  I hope the other parents found the take-homes worthwhile, because I really like to avoid just giving junk that will get tossed in the trash at the first opportunity.  Ok, so maybe those plastic ponies in the bows qualify as plastic junk, but at least my kid has added them to her pony stables and plays with them most days.  

Whew, I think that's enough for one post, so I'll write a second one tomorrow with the dessert table details.   Until tomorrow!