A Fairy Princess Birthday

My little lady turned three last week. Since about February, she couldn't stop talking about her Abby Cadabby birthday party. With each passing holiday or birthday, she would ask and then comes my Abby party? We purchased Abby Cadabby invitations (unusual for us, as we normally make our own, but they were on clearance), a table cover, napkins and a birthday hat. That part was easy.

It took me a while to figure out what to do with the cake. Sure there was an Abby Cadabby pan available from Wilton, but I'm not that sure in my cake decorating skills (although I have done some cool cakes - here and here for past cakes) that I was ready to undertake it.

Then, when my Mother-in-Law came out for our son's birthday, she brought a magic wand for our daughter. It was then I had a spark, I knew what I was going to make for her birthday cake - a wand. After all, Abby is a fairy in training and any fairy worth her salt has to have a magic wand. The wand that my daughter got was a star, so I figured I would buy a star pan to make the cake. When I went shopping, I found these great lollipop pans and one was a star. I thought to myself, wand cookies - so of course, I had to buy it.

I am happy to say that my cake turned out lovely (in my humble opinion). I searched high and low for rainbow colored shoe string licorice, hoping that I might make the wand more of a "poof" like Abby's but alas, even though I found the licorice, I couldn't get the effect I was after, so I had to abandon that idea. I did use edible glitter to give it some sparkle and decorated it in a fabulous girly girl pink. I even tied curling ribbons around the handle (white chocolate dipped pretzel rods), to complete the look.


My daughter was thrilled and her friends enjoyed eating the magic wand cookies as well. For me, throwing a party at home and playing up the theme is a great way to do a kid's party on a budget. We tend to only purchased themed accessories and go with standard party ware for the rest. You pay quite a premium for themed plates, napkins, cups and more. We find that if you purchase the character napkins, you can use coordinated solid colored plates and save money over character ones. Some years, we don't even do themed party ware, with the Wiggles party last year, we simply used primary color plates and napkins.

Making my own cake is a huge savings as well. I picked up my pan with a 50% of Michael's coupon (and might turn around and sell it like we've done in the past or since it is just a star, might find a future use for the pan) and the cake mix/frosting cost me just over $2. Surely, ordering a cake could have cost me upwards of $30 for the size party we had. In addition, by cooking at home, you can save money over going somewhere to host a party and having it catered or ordering in pizza, etc.

Last year, after her Wiggle's birthday party (cake posted here), my daughter couldn't stop talking about the party. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to think that I helped create such a wonderful memorable party for her. I know I can remember my mom making our cakes when we were younger, and that is a great memory to have.

For more of what works, check out Works For Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

For other frugal ideas, check out Frugal Fridays.