Candyland Party: Dream Party Ideas

Anytime I start planning a party, I immediately go to Pinterest and start pinning lots of ideas for my party. I've blogged before that I don't feel pressure to do everything on Pinterest, but I love the ideas it gives me. I eventually have to narrow down because I can't do everything that I pinned and I can't afford all the pins I love. Here are some Candyland party ideas from my board that I loved, but didn't include. Let them inspire you and not shame you!

You can see my full board here and her actual party here. 

There are some amazing cakes out there! Wow, these were really impressive!

I love all the details in this one including the candy ribbon on the top layer.

The melted cone on top of this one is my favorite! 

We almost did this cake! It is a great idea since we already had so many sweet things for people to eat. In the end, I was afraid it would be costly to have this kind of impact and we'd end up throwing away a bunch of candy hot glued to Styrofoam. 

I loved these cones and had all plans to buy the stuff needed when I found chocolate dipped cones at Target. It was less money and a lot less time to buy pre-dipped cones. I would have loved these covered in sprinkles!

I think my party needed cotton candy somewhere! It just didn't happen but these cotton candy cupcakes are a great option! I love the pink and blue together. These would be sweet for a baby shower, too!

The amount of decoration ideas on Pinterest for a candyland party is overwhelming! One could easily spend hundreds of dollars on decor alone! Here are some of my favorites-

Love the giant cones made from quilt batting and butcher paper!

If I had served more of a meal with utensils needed I would have wrapped the napkins with ribbon and a lollipop. Such a cute idea!

This would have made quite an entrance in my front yard! Wow!

How much fun would this path have been throughout my house! I feared people tripping on the paper or tape residue on my wood floors; however, I think this is super cute if you have the right setting!

It sure is fun to dream of a party with unlimited funds from the endless ideas online!

Candyland Party: Food

You can't have a Candyland party without a lot of candy! To help me focus and narrow the food for this party, I looked to the board game! There are 10 sections in the game named after sweet treats and using those sections, I planned the menu for the party.

That sweet 5 year old was in candy heaven! I preset the table 3 days earlier to make sure my banner wouldn't fall down, I had the right serving dishes, enough room for everything,etc. and she just kept asking when the candy would be opened!

I used inexpensive white tablecloths and then covered the tops in 4x4 squares made from bright colored scrapbook paper. This help me to create a backdrop for recreating the board game with food on top. It was easy, fun, and inexpensive.

Each section of the board game was represented with a small framed sign. I own about 15 of these plastic frames from IKEA. They are great for food labels at parties. I used my Candytime font for the section named in the board game and then listed the food in the middle of the frame. I also added fun little details on the top and bottom using a digital scrapbooking kit no longer available.

Above if the right side of the table and below the left side. It took forever for people to break into the food! The table was pretty and colorful and everything I had imagined, but it was to be enjoyed! So, I talked a couple of kids into getting candy and they broke the ice for me!

In no particular order, let's look at each section of the game/table....

Chocolate mountain included little brownie bites and a mountain of chocolate pudding, perfect for little ones!

Since I had sour gummy worms in Gummy Hills, I opened the top of the mountain and added a few worms!

Gummy Hills included 5 pounds of gummy bears, spice drops and sour gummy worms.

Cupcake commons and Candy Castle were my favorite section!

There are so many great Candyland cake ideas online. I loved lots of them, but I knew I could not spend a fortune on cake and with so many other sweets, I wanted a small cake with a dramatic effect. It is just a birthday party after all and not a wedding!

I found a picture of a cake with cones on top and printed it out and took it to my local grocery store bakery. They said they could make it without any problems. What a relief! I love a tasty white cake with a whipped cream frosting and our local grocery store does it well!

They didn't have sprinkles I liked, so I bought those at Hobby Lobby and added them myself.... an entire container of them! ha! I also added the three lollipops and the 5 candle. Everyone wanted to know where the cake was from! It made a great statement and was only $25. Amazing!

A little tip... the chocolate drippings were made with magic shell. They were crunchy and extra yummy!

I made the 4 dozen cupcakes (we had over 25 kids here) for the party. We had chocolate and blue suede (vanilla flavored) cupcakes from the grocery store. I topped them with vanilla icing and then lots of sprinkles. Finally, I added three Dum Dum lollipops to each cupcake to look like balloons. Kids loved them!

Moving along the table, licorice lagoon included red vines and some bubble gum balls.

I couldn't serve ice cream at the party and was looking for something healthy to add, so I filled chocolate dipped cones with thawed mixed fruit. The giant ice cream cone is actually a piggy bank I found on clearance last summer at a party store. Abby loves having it in her playroom now.

Lollypop Woods included sweet swirly pops I bought via Oriental Trading company. I also bought candy bracelets at the same time. Kids always love them!

The Gingerbread Houses were a timely addition post Christmas. I bought this little village and we made them together the day before the party. I don't know about you but mine NEVER look like the pictures. How they make icicles hanging from the roof I will never know. But, Abby and I had fun, so they were great to have on the table.

The last food section was Peppermint Pass where we had soft peppermints and yummy Peppermint Chocolate sandwich cookies. I was originally planning to make an Andes mint chocolate chip cookie, but I found these at Target on Christmas clearance (her party was on January 4th), so I bought them instead. I really kept my cooking to a minimum this year.

In the kitchen, I also had some non-sweet things. I was afraid all those sweets would make everyone sick! So I also served pizza rolls (recipe to come), chips and queso and had a big bowl of goldfish for the kids.

The Ice Palace was perfect for the drink station! The cute little stuffed cupcakes were 90% off after Easter last year. They were perfect and Abby loves having them now. 

We served ice cold water and Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade. This drink was easy to make and very flavorful.

Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade

2 Liter Sprite
2 containers frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate
3 cups water
1/4 cup lime juice
small bag of frozen raspberries

Pour all ingredients into drink container and mix well. Serve chilled with ice.

To see more of Abby's Candyland party, click here for crafts, games, her invitation and more!

Candyland Party: Decor and Games

Abby's 5th birthday party was so much fun to plan! Who doesn't love the game Candyland, a bunch of sweet treats and a house full of excited kids? hehe!

Let's start with decor and games and then we can talk food and my dream Candyland party later this week. To see all the Candyland posts, just click here. 

I always want my front door to match the theme of the party and this year I used a cadny decoration from Hobby Lobby's Christmas section. I simply painted a #5 purple and glued it in the middle. In past years, I've had a big Abby Cadabby door, a ribbon colored wreath, and a burlap doughnut.

You can't have Candyland without oversized lollipops! There are tons of different ways to make these on Pinterest- using pool noodles, cellophane on balls, and many more. I opted for simple and very inexpensive. I made these four lollipops for under $10! It was a windy day, so they ended up inside and on the front porch instead of my sidewalk, but still were super cute!

To make the lollipops, I covered the long cardboard tube found inside wrapping paper (perfect since her party was just after Christmas) with colored masking tape. Much easier than painting it!

Then I stapled two paper plates (bottoms out) to the top of one end of the tube. I then hot glued the top of the plates together. It created a tight little "sandwich" with about 4" of wrapping paper tube inside. To cover my staples, I hot glued a simple tulle and ribbon bow at the base of the plates.

The remainder of the plates were glued together, wrapped in cellophane and tied up with ribbons. I then used tulle and tape to hang the candy from the curtain rods in my dining and livings rooms. I had five total pieces of candy for the five windows in that space.

Another big part of Candyland is the brightly colored squares that make the path through the game. I bought a multi colored pack of 12x12 paper and cut it into 4x4 squares. These were used in great detail on the food tables and the leftovers were taped in random patterns along the entryway walls. I just used painters tape for easy removal later.

I will share the food table in great detail in another post (it was almost to pretty to eat!)! The front of the table included a banner made from cut out letters, glittery ice cream cones, and aqua chevron cardstock candy wrappers. The letters were printed out using Candytime font in hot pink and cut out. The ice cream cones were Hobby Lobby Christmas decorations and the chevron wrappers were purchased on a Jane.com flash sale. I connected them all with a little hole punch and pink yarn.

I always believe that a party should have crafts and games for the kids. I fear them being bored! In the past we have made felt cookies, cereal necklaces and personalized pillowcases, eaten doughnuts without our hands, and created snow globes and ornaments. This year was no different!  

I asked all of the guests to sign the Candyland board for Abby's game. I thought it would be fun for her later and I love anything with little kids handwriting on it!

Using Skittles as dabbers, the kids played Bingo together! We had a game going almost the whole time. It gave my 12 year old niece a fun job at the party and the kids had fun!

Using skittles to cover the numbers that had been called out connected the game with the party theme. We own a Bingo set complete with cage ball for holding the number similar to this one. They are inexpensive on Amazon and fun to have when kids come over. The winners of the games won a small gumball machine I bought at Dollar Tree filled with gum purchased in bulk on Amazon.

I also had a craft for the kids- they made felt lollipops to take home. Using simple glue with colored Popsicle sticks, pre-cut felt circles, and a lot of sequins, they had fun gluing and crafting at the kitchen table. I bought everything at Hobby Lobby. There were enough felt circles for 30 lollipops and I spent $12 on everything. Easy and inexpensive!

I would have loved to have given everyone a board game, but that wasn't in the budget! Instead, we filled treat bags (from Jane.com) with candy and included little tags on them. The Candytime font came in so handy!

As a funny touch, I also handed out toothbrushes to all the guests. They had after all eaten a lot of candy! These were free thanks to my smart husband- he recommended I call my daughter's dentist and ask her to donate 30 toothbrushes. She did without hesitation! 

I am a professional event planner for a living, but I do professional events with little room to be creative. So, you can imagine, Abby's party is lots of fun for me! 

Her and I settle on a theme in the Spring and then I buy little things over the next 6-10 months to space out the cost and not feel overwhelmed. It is supposed to be fun, after all!

To see her past parties... check out:

1st birthday- Abby Cadabby

2nd birthday- Milk and Cookies

3rd birthday- Dolls and Doughnuts pajama/breakfast party

4th birthday- Merry and Bright Christmas party

More Candyland details to come!

Candyland Birthday Party Invite

Amidst all of the Christmas preparation, someone decided to turn FIVE years old on me! I love this age and have had lots of fun planning her Candy Land party. It is one of her favorite games to play and what kid doesn't love candy!

You can see more details on the crafts, decor, games, and food here!