Cinderella Party

Jules here-

Before the onslaught of the holiday season, I decided (well, Grace and I decided) to throw a Cinderella viewing party. Ems and Jojo had seen the movie in the theater last year, and they raved about the new live-action movie.  I didn't want to break my 7 year streak of not entering a movie theater, so we waited until it came out on DVD.

When I allow Grace on pinterest, things get crazy. Parties escalate. We started with having 2-3 girls over, and it ended up being 13 children and 6 adults.....

Everyone came in costume!

After we sent out scrolled invitations, we developed our menu to fit our theme.  We wanted to make the children happy, but have a few grown-up taste dishes as well.  Veggies and dip (ranch & hummus) are a staple at our parties as it's a way to get kids not to die of scurvy from all the other sugary stuff I feed them... So we called this area "Cinderella's Garden". We also had clementine "pumpkins" in this area. Of course, I forgot to take a picture but they looked like this:

We also served the classic cheese and crackers- but when we added a little whimsical mouse figurine and a label saying "Gus's Cheese and Crackers" voila- fits the theme!

The children devoured the fruits, veggies, cheese and crackers- but I still wanted to give them some more filling food before the movie started.  I think "pigs in a blanket" always is a favorite- who doesn't like hot dogs and crescent rolls?  So how could that fit the theme? I decided to go with the original Grimm's Cinderella and called these treats- "Stepsister's Toes" as they looked kind of like chopped off toes... gross, I know.

For the sweeter side I made fruit wands, a Cinderella gown cake, and I made chocolate dipped pretzel wands as well.  We gobbled all of this up rather quickly during intermission from the movie:

We also decorated our home with lanterns, a painted, bejeweled pumpkin and loads of streamers (all leftovers from previous parties). 

We had a great time planning, implement, and eating at our party. But the highlight WAS the movie-- highly recommended for the good values, acting, and entertaining take on the classic tale.

Easy Rule #432342- Why plan a simple movie night when you can go all out? 

Easy Rule #34234- Definitely make extra food at a party- twice as much as you think. I had enough- but I feel as if I could have done more!