A Narnia birthday party!

We are VERY much into our imaginations in the Torbett house.  I haven't ever really grown out of my imagination (thank goodness!) and my girls can love to pretend.  A year or so ago we introduced them to the world of Narnia.  I admittedly, thought they were too young for the movies but Brett let them watch a few minutes of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and they were hooked.  Between watching the movies and listening to the audio books, we have been thoroughly immersed in all things Narnia for quite some time.  

When June rolled around Anna Ruth said she wanted a Narnia birthday party.  For one reason and another a party never happened this summer, so instead we had one last week! You know how we live by "better late than never" around here! 

 I tried to keep the decorations simple and inexpensive, like sewing these white banners myself.  These are the cotton facial pads sold on the makeup aisle.  

I also made loads of paper chains with an old box of computer paper.  

 I wanted to have a few easy crafts for the kids to do, including these snow globes,  Each child picked out a jar and a mini tree.  Next I glued the tree onto the inside of the lid while they filled up their jar with fake snow.  

The trees were around $7 and came in a big pack of close to 15 on the Christmas aisle at Wal-Mart. They were really the biggest expense. 

 I hung snowflakes found at Dollar Tree from the dining room light.

 A plastic lion from our toy bin stood in for Aslan.  I was going to put the cake on the cake stand but it crumbled so I just decorated the stand instead. 

 Cotton balls made easy "snow" for decorating the table. 

 The jars held gold, spray-painted branches.  The girls and I are obsessed with the gold spray-paint! It is awesome!  We have plans to use it on some more things found in nature.

 The other crafts I had for the kiddos were swords and shields to decorate.  I cut the shields out from poster board and attached a small, fabric handle on the back so they could really hold them up.  I recommend getting your poster board at Dollar Tree.  It was half the price of Wal-Mart!

I made the swords from long paint sticks, which I purchased for $.37 each.  I used cardboard for the horizontal sword piece because I couldn't get any stores to sell me (or give me) any small paint sticks. 

For snacks we had applesauce cups, black olives, Veggie chips, and a healthy, homemade chocolate cake!  The kids ate, crafted, played with the balloons, and watched Narnia! 

This party was so much fun! 

Next, it's on to planning a baby shower for a friend, a fall party, and Betsy's birthday party! 

This is my kind of fun. :) 

Do you enjoy throwing parties? Do you have any events coming up you're excited about?