Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Game}

This custom Princess Bingo set was designed for my daughters fourth birthday. The concept is simple. Playing with a bingo game based on an object and colors helps younger children enjoy the game. I ordered spinners for the circles from Board Game Design and printed the cards and wheels out on card stock. Pink M&Ms were the Bingo chips. We played at the party and each guest had a small take home set of their own as a party favor.

Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Party}

 These beautiful cakes were made by Granny (my wonderful, talented Mom) and were fit for a princess! The imperfections are because the four year old princess was involved in the decorations and had preferences as to where the wafers, marshmallows and red hots were placed. It's fitting that ice cream cones were used to create the towers as ice cream cones (minus the ice cream) are Marin's favorite snack when she is at Granny's house. My mom had seen the princess cake idea below and thought Marin would love it. After visiting with Marin about what she wanted for her birthday she insisted on a castle cake. So in true "Granny Fashion" Marin had TWO birthday cakes.

 Loved the tiny paper flag at the top. Perfect addition.

 The sugar cookies were made with cutters we found at Hobby Lobby. Princess crowns and magic slippers.

 Hand made hat and wand (smile).

 Party favors were these stripped water bottles and a princess hat for each little girl. The boys that attended were given the same bottle but in blue and a foam sword.

 I created a custom Princess Bingo game for the party. Above are the prizes the kiddos chose from when they won a round of bingo. Marin's favorite candy (dum dums), glow in the dark stars, princess stickers, tiny princess crowns and dress up rings.

 I had a poster size print of the bingo circle printed at a local print shop and glued it to a piece of foam board. The spinner was a piece of the foam board covered in black paper attached to the board using a game size spinner that I ordered from Board Game Design. Worked fairly well. Each of the kids were also given a set of two bingo cards and their own spinner to take home for more princess bingo fun.

 I splurged and purchased bottles of Lorina Sparkling Pink Lemonade from World Market. I have a serious addiction to that stuff!

Activities for the kids included this cardboard coloring castle from Hobby Lobby and the Princess Crown Pinata, also from Hobby Lobby.

It was a magical evening filled with family and close friends. What a blessing to watch my beautiful Marin grown into a lovely princess.

Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Invitation}

 See this little cutie? Well on Tuesday she celebrated her fourth birthday. The photo below is of her the day we delivered her birthday party invitations (above). I wanted the invitation to feel like a royal decree from Princess Marin. So we slid a red and white paper straw through the top and rolled them up securing the message with a red ribbon. Marin LOVED hand delivering the invitations. She didn't know or care that mommy had waited until the LAST minute (sheepish grin).

Pineapple Salsa

Photo courtesy of Dole.

Made Pineapple Salsa for the first time last week. It was a big hit and I wanted to archive it here on the blog.

Pineapple Salsa

2 cups chunk pineapple (drained)

¼ cup pineapple juice

½ cup finely chopped Red Bell Pepper

¼ cup finely chopped Green Bell Pepper

1 Tablespoon finely chopped green onion

2 Tablespoons cilantro or parsley

2 Tablespoons chopped jalapeno chilies