Invites ~
Have to admit I didn't put a whole lot of effort into invites this year as I am also in the midst of planning my August wedding. My fiance found a great Wicked poster image that we downloaded and put at the top of the invite, then worded "Fellow OZians, Please click your heels & join us for Sidney's Wicked 9th Birthday ... Wear your favorite Emerald City green clothes & follow the Yellow Brick Road to ... Please RSVP to the Wicked Witch of the West at ..." Wording inspiration came from a couple of invites I saw on Pinterest & Etsy.
Decorations ~
I kept it simple. In front of the house we put out Wicked Witch of the East legs and made our own chalk paint to create a yellow brick road. (1 cup cornstarch + 1 cup water + Yellow Food coloring) Inside, I hung 4 garlands I made from various green calico fabrics & green satin ribbon. I used various shades of green for the napkins & cups and kept everything else white & black (since that is what I have the most of for dishes and linens and find it easy to create a variety of looks with).
Activities/Games ~
We started with G'linda Wand making. Honestly, this was a repeat with a new spin from the year before when we did Harry Potter wands. I just bought new dowels and hot glued on wooden stars a couple nights beforehand. I already had a variety of pink paints in my craft stash and just bought two more glittery kinds to add to the mix. (Starting with this activity is great for allowing guests to arrive in waves.)
Then we played Pin the Heart on the TinMan. I created a heart template on my computer then used red cardstock (from my stash) to make hearts. I took an old Oz book to Office Max and had them make a poster-size pic of the Tin Man for me. The girls got a big kick out of seeing how each other did. The girl who got the closest won a Badge of Courage which my girl friend, Marie, and I had made a few nights before out of glitter scrapbook paper, hot glue & computer print outs. Then we headed back into the kitchen to make Emerald City bracelets out of "emeralds" (a.k.a. green glass beads) & to write a spell or draw a picture in their Grimmeries. I pre-made the Grimmeries out of cardstock & swirly, laser-cut scrapbook paper & green craft string. I copied some of the spells from the musical with explanations about each spell from a fan page I found online and printed those off on the cardstock. Then the girls went back into the living room to play "Hot Toto" with a Toto in a Basket I purchased from orientaltrading.com. My fiance and future-mother-in-law coordinated three rounds of this game -- with the winner of each round winning a Courage Badge -- while I cleaned up the crafts in the kitchen and made my tablescape and laid out the snacks. After snacks, they took charge again for Broomstick Limbo -- another repeat from our Harry Potter party the year before -- so I could clean up the snacks. They did two rounds of Broomstick Limbo for two more winners of Courage Badges. We also had a "G'lindafication Station" where we painted the girls' nails with their choice of either shimmery pink (SpaRitual Up at Noon) or green (SpaRitual Yes I Can) polish. All the girls chose green ... but painted the pink on my mom's and my future-mother-in-laws nails. Then we finished off with present opening followed by handing out the goodie bags.
Snacks ~
For the snacks I ordered absolutely fabulous cupcakes from our local cupcakery, Sweet Lola's. (This was my big budget splurge but so worth it.) They made Strawberry & Buttercream G'linda cupcakes & Mint Chocolate Elphaba cupcakes. I knew I wanted witch hats on the Elphaba ones ... and, yes, I do know how to make these because I made them the year before for the Harry Potter party and, yes, I am a good baker ... but I remembered what a pain in the ass those little hats were to make and decided to leave this important element to the professionals to preserve my sanity. I also had my fiance and daughter make Witch's Brooms out of mini peanut butter cups and pretzel sticks. (They ate a few during the process to make sure they weren't "poison".) And I served green mint chocolate chip ice cream and Wizard's Elixir (green berry Hawaiian Punch redistributed into empty bottles from Ikea) to keep with the green Oz theme.
Goodie Bags ~
This was probably my most favorite part. I used a large damask stamp and green stamping ink from my craft stash to decorate plain white craft bags. Inside the bags I included Dorothy's Apple (wrapped in a cellophane treat bag and tied with a gingham ribbon), a Lollipop courtesy of the Lollipop Guild of Munchkinland (ordered from orientaltrading.com), G'linda's Bubbles Good for Travel in Oz (wedding bubbles purchased from a local dollar store and relabeled thanks to my printer & pink cardstock from my stash), Boq's (the Tin Man's) Heart Necklace (made from red craft cord and heart charms purchased in the jewelry findings section of JoAnn Fabrics), and Melted Witches (made from melted green candy melts & semi-sweet chocolate chips, deconstructed generic Oreos & unwrapped Hershey Kisses then packaged in cellophane bags & green cardstocks from -- you guessed it -- my craft stash). I also used more green cardstock to make a little explanation card for each bag so the girls and their parents would know what everything was.
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