Homemade birthday parties

I love planning my kids' birthday parties.  Which is a good thing since there are four of them.  Miss Madeline's birthday is up soon, she will be 7 in March.  How did my baby girl get so big so fast?

Anyway the (not so) little princess has requested a princess birthday party.  I read a lot about how moms are anti-princess these days.  To me it is a right of passage as a little girl to get caught up in the fairy tales.  Do I want my daughter to grow up thinking she needs a man to rescue her or do everything for her?  No.  But I fail to see how believing in happily ever after as a little girl will harm her later in life.  I loved princesses when I was little and I turned out okay (most would agree with me on that one).

So a princess party is being planned.  We do our parties at home, and we keep them small and simple.  But that doesn't mean plain or boring!  So how to entertain 7 small girls in my small house?  Enter Pinterest and we have the party half-planned already!

The girls are going to make button rings because every princess needs jewelry.

They are going to decorate crowns because princesses need crowns.

We are planning to make a cake to look something like a castle.  Madeline wants to decorate it with some of her princesses so we will add those on top.

The birthday girl has requested a pinata which Jon will make although we aren't sure how to make it fit the princess theme yet.  Suggestions for that are welcome!

For games and fun we will play freeze dance and pin the crown on the princess.

For lunch the girls will make their own mini-pizzas and drink pink punch from fancy glasses.

And for the goodie bags I am planning:
*small stamp or sheet of stickers
*sparkly nail polish
*bead bracelet
*candy that will be collected from the pinata

My goal with every birthday party is to spend $50 or as close to it as possible.  Compared to some birthdays I have seen (at local attractions) this sum is quite small but we have managed it for several years now.  And the kids always have fun which is the most important thing.

I've got one month to plan this party.  You'd think that would be enough time....