Once Annabel settled on the My Little Pony theme for her party, I really wanted to get her involved in the planning. We sat down together and went through Pinterest, and she showed me the things she liked. What became clear to me right away was that she was very focused on her friends’ enjoyment. She’d say things like, “Oh, my friend M loves that kind of fruit, we have to have it!” or, “T and L and I play unicorns at school, so can we please make unicorn horns I can give them?” She wanted to make sure her friends had a good time.

This year’s party was pretty low-key, at least for me! Because Annabel only wanted to invite girls, that really cut down on our guest list. We also had the party start at 2:30, allowing me to skip a big meal and instead put out basic snacks like veggies, chips, dips, and jelly sandwiches, plus maybe the saddest fruit rainbow I’ve ever made, LOL:

taste the rainbow
I was sure to include M’s favorite fruit.

When they arrived, every little girl got a set of wings, a unicorn horn headband, and clip-on pony ears.

wings, horns, and ears

I used my own tutorial for the wings (except I sewed the elastic straps on), this tutorial for the ears, and I modified this tutorial for the horn (I made the horn half as big, and I combo sewed/glued it onto a headband).

wings, horns, ears

They were a big hit. I like giving kids things they can use after a party is over.

I had a few activities planned, and mentally ranked them in order of importance because I knew that the girls would likely end up making their own fun. Every girl loved (I mean seriously LOOOOOVED) making their own ponies. I shopped around on these for ages, and the cheapest option was on Hasbro.com. Either order them in bulk (10+ ponies) or sign up on their site and wait for them to send you a coupon code. You’ll save so much. I thought it was a good bang-for-my-buck activity – cheaper than a bounce house (which we don’t have room for anyway) and they got to take ’em home!

decorating their ponies

I put out paints, markers, glue, glitter, glitter pens— basically every craft supply I had— for the girls to use on their ponies. Their end results were amaaaazing.

DIY Ponies

DIY pony

IMG_0902.JPG

My friend Amanda was also on hand to give every girl a glitter tattoo.

getting her glitter tattoo

glitter tattoos

I also had hair chalk and a ton of different nail polish colors, but only a few girls took advantage. The other big thing we did was a piñata, one of Annabel’s favorite party activities.

fierce-abel

piñata free for all

After the piñata, it was cake time!

birthday cake

The girls decided that instead of playing Pin the Cutie Mark on Pinkie Pie, a dance party/chase each other/squeal a lot game was the way to go. It looked fun (parents were not invited to participate).

In all, I’d say the party was a big success. Every girl left smiling, but none of their smiles were as big as Annabel’s. That girl is in her element when she’s surrounded by her friends.

Pony Family

She’s pretty happy with us, too.

edited, because so many asked:

I got my sweater through my local swap group (such a lucky find!), but it’s still sold here (Annie’s Pinkie Pie dress is from the same shop). I found Mike’s on Amazon!