how to create the ultimate My Little Pony Party + giveaway

brought to you by My Little Pony

Pinterest has a lot to answer for. All of those amazing parties and there is just so much inspiration. And it can be easy to look at the parties and think that you’d need to be an expert cake decorator, party planner, stylist, chef and have no children in the background to pull them off. All of those craft ideas, the games, the candy buffet, the cake, the cookies. I could go on.

In our house we love a home party. I recently set myself the challenge of creating the ultimate My Little Pony party at home. I would do the cake, the games, the food (ok the sausage rolls I did not make) and decorate the room. And I must have done a good job because the kids almost had a heart attack when they came down the stairs the next morning to see what I’d done. Apparently and this is what they said….better than pinterest. Yep. that’s what they think.

I’m going to talk you through everything I’ve created so that you can create an amazing My Little Pony party at your house…………..and just so you know I did this in the school holidays, 6 little people under 9, no babysitter…just me. Kids were put to work but we got there and I’m pretty proud.

So let’s start …………

pick your colour theme

Before you even put pen to paper or hit the party store or supermarket you need to pick your colour theme. We love Rainbow Dash and decided that a rainbow colour theme was what we wanted. You could also choose your favourite My Little Pony character and use that colour scheme. We also loved polka dots so incorporated that in to our theme. You could go pink, purple or pick two colours that you love.

plan the menu

Kids love sausage rolls, fairy bread, jelly, fruit and lemonade. You can go as fancy as you want with the food but I’m just telling you what always gets eaten at our parties.

The rainbow jelly cups were lots of fun. You’ll need 4 or 5 different coloured jelly sachets and work out the order you want in the cup. Grab some plastic cups (don’t go too big), do a layer  of jelly at a time leaving them in the fridge to almost set before the next coloured jelly goes on. It’s best to do this the day before when you’ve got a bit of time. It’s really important that the jelly layer underneath is almost set before you put the next one on top. Lots of fun and very popular. All gone now. The My Little Pony cutlery was less than $5 at the party store and keeps it all in theme.

For fairy bread with a difference take a slice of bread, spread some spreadable cream cheese out to the sides, cut the crusts off, sprinkle on 100’s and 1000’s then roll up the bread and cut into 4 pieces like sushi. Fun and easy for little fingers to eat.

Rainbow fruit salad cups are so easy. We took some cupcake wrappers and filled them with banana, kiwi, grapes and strawberries. The little toothpicks come from the party store and line them up on your table in neat rows or put them on a serving platter. So quick and easy and something healthy too.

rocky road is also fun, I used my freckle sundae rocky road recipe which you’ll find here. This is a great one to serve to the adults at your party as well.

the cake

Making the cake can sometimes stress me out. I can bake a cake at any other time of year but somehow the pressure of the birthday cake can make me nervous.

Because I wanted to show off the tiny Neon Bright My Little Pony toys (and because I’m not that fantastic with very fancy large cakes) I made cupcakes using this recipe and a simple cream cheese frosting. Hundreds and thousands and rainbow sprinkles were sprinkled on top and a cute My Little Pony on top. You can also find my simple party cakes recipe here which has less ingredients and is super quick and easy to make too.

The cupcake stand came from the supermarket a few years ago and comes out everytime we have a party. They are inexpensive and a great little investment for your parties and entertaining at home. Cupcakes really do take the pressure off and take less 20 minutes in the oven to bake. And note to self, don’t put the cakes out on the table too early or the littlest members of the family will take to rearranging the ponies themselves.

decorate your table

You’ve probably seen that having a party table with the food all laid out, jars full of lollies (aka the candy buffet) are all the rage in parties at the moment. And they are so much fun and don’t need to be over the top or an expensive exercise. I raided my glassware which has been picked up from my mother in law and garage sales and a few nice jars that were to be used for jams. Fill them with some lollies and voila you’ve added something very special to your table and instantly made it look like you’re a party planner in your spare time. No really. We decorated with some Rainbow Dash My Little Pony toys. I also found a straw dispenser in my craft room which was a fun way to display the polka dot straws.

Isn’t this the cutest idea that I found on pinterest. Take a jar and fill with sprinkles and pop a tiny My Little Pony toy on top. So cute and fun.

The labels were a couple of dollars for a pack and I’ve packed them away for another party. They came with sticks and little stands so you can use them in a variety of ways. Buy some of the lollies in bulk at your nearest party store to save money or if you have a big case to fill. This was my Mother in law’s vase and I just love it for parties and decorating a table.

I know that people like to have a blank wall behind the table but I just love the window and line up your my little pony collection along the windowsill. This was so much fun and you can make your own with ribbon and some crepe paper. There are so many inexpensive ways to decorate walls and windows.

I love our dining table and it’s also just that bit too big for tablecloths so for $5 I picked up a My Little Pony pack of confetti to decorate the table. So much fun and you’ll be picking it up off the floor and finding it in odd places for months to come. You could also grab a hole punch and cut out bits of brightly coloured paper to decorate your table.

We also had this gorgeous My Little Pony carriage to decorate our table. This was so much fun to play with as well.

craft, games and activities

Now you’ll need a few tricks up your sleeve to keep everyone entertained. One of the things I love to do is have a craft activity for when our little guests arrive. You don’t want to start doing anything before eveyrone arrives so some rainbow crayons and big A3 sheets of copy paper will have everyone drawing. This is my little miss when I asked her to draw a pony (well technically I had to say horse because that’s what she calls ponies).

Ask your guests to bring their My Little Pony toys with them and have some fun letting the ponies get to know each other.

And why not have a My Little Pony salon where the ponies can get their hair brushed, pop a clip in and you could paint the little ones fingernails with some fun rainbow coloured nail polishes or glitter too. Inexpensive and lots of fun.

We also picked up a sheet of 16 My Little Pony tattoos for less than $5 and cut them up. They are lots of fun of hands and can finish off the whole Pony Salon experience. Pop a helper or grab a mum to help out at the Pony salon. My sister is always great at being put to work at our parties.

Another fun activity is to make up a batch of cupcakes, set aside the icing and some sprinkles and other toppings and let the party guests ice and decorate their own cupcakes. My girls love doing putting the frosting on and it’s a fun activity for everyone.

And you can’t beat pass the parcel at a party. We just love it. Why not put a special My Little Pony toy in there as the main prize. This one comes with stickers and can be decorated. I’ve kept it in the box but all my girls are dying for me to open it up.

And to get the kids outside and for a bit of fun you can’t beat a pinata! You can use a donkey one, a number for the birthday or we were lucky to take the last rainbow pinata at the store. Fill with wrapped sweets and some My Little Pony toys would be cute too. My kids love a pinata.

the goody bags

Have I told you about when my kids went to their grandma’s 90th birthday party. All of them asked where the lolly bags were. Yep, you can’t go to a party and leave without your lolly bag. We found this fun bags for a couple of dollars. Pop in a fun straw, plastic necklace, some rainbow jelly beans or wrapped lollies, a little tattoo, a Neon Bright My Little Pony, some of the confetti and we also had rainbow bubble packs (not in the photo) to complete our bags. Some people like to keep lollies out of the lolly bag but you’ve got lots of fun ideas to make a goody bag for your guests.

 My last words of advice for hosting a fabulous kids party at home

make lists

use the time before the party to set the table and have all of your plates out

do a time plan for the day and include when you’ll do food, games, cake etc

get the kids helping with the party preparations

don’t serve too much food and try to limit the hot food so you aren’t in the kitchen the whole time

don’t go to the party store or supermarket without a list

look online

raid your house, toy tubs, linen cupboards and craft supplies to see what you have

create a pinterest board for parties and save all of your favourite ideas in the one place

I hope you enjoy these ideas and are all inspired to host your own ultimate My Little Pony party. I’ve created a pinterest board here with lots more ideas for My Little Pony parties. I’m actually now going to host Elodie’s 5th birthday party later in the year as a My Little Pony one that I’ve got everything here and we haven’t taken the table down because the kids love it so much and are still playing with the toys.

And to share the love I’ve got a fun giveaway and wait to see you the prize list!!!! To win some  wonderful packs of My Little Pony for your little ones just answer this simple question

 Which My Little Pony Character would you use to theme your pony party, and why?

PRIZE DETAILS:
1 Major Prize

1 X Ultimate Rarity RRP $29.99
1 X MLP Carriage RRP $24.99
15 X MLP Blind Bag RRP $4.99
10 X Cutie mark pony friends RRP $6.99
4 X Deluxe Winged Pony RRP $12.99
 
3 Runners Up, each will get:
1 X Ultimate Rarity RRP $29.99
1 X Deluxe Winged Pony RRP $12.99
6 X MLP Blind Bag RRP $4.99

Giveaway is open to Australian residents, entries close 28 April 2015, one entry per person, full terms of my giveaways can be found here.