Last month, we made all of Parker’s wildest dreams come true with a super fun Unicorn Party.
In the months leading up to the party, I was thrilled to get off the hook with a low-key party at the local park. Minimal mess. Minimal stress. Clean house. Happy mom. Yes, we all know it sounds too good to be true and it was. Two days before the party I started getting calls and texts from family and friends asking about our back-up plan since the weather looked horrendous.
You guys – the craziest thunderstorm we’ve had all spring hit at the exact time of the party. Sigh … Fast forward to 24 hours of organizing an indoor party at the house, cleaning up mid-renovation messes throughout the house, and making my house generally tidy for 20 kids plus parents to parade through. LOL.
We survived … heck, we more than survived. Parker had a fantastic party! I loved planning this party and thought I should share some of my tips and finds with you. I want to warn you, though, that my photos are not as great as I wish they were. The lighting was terrible and I was frantically running around the house setting things up right up until the party started. So, the beautiful colors just didn’t show up as I wish they did.
Unicorn Party Decor
I originally planned to just throw up a few banners at the park. Then I got a Cricut and came upon some tutorials online. It was all down hill from there. LOL. My decorations were pretty minimal but I did want to show you a few things. First, in the photo below you’ll see the tablecloth tassel garlands. I made three of these and I loved how cute they turned out. Plus, they were super cheap! Here’s the video tutorial I followed to make mine. The three I made cost me about $5 total and took probably about an hour and a half to make (while Netflixing after bedtime). You can find similar plastic tablecloths here.
I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to make the unicorn cutouts you see on the gift bags you see below and several other things I show you in this post. The gift bags were bought at Hobby Lobby and were mostly used to fill with candy from the piñata. Also, I bought balloons on Amazon and a small helium tank. If you’re like me and think balloons are the easiest way to add pops of color around the house, I recommend you buy your own helium tank for parties. You can order helium tanks at Target and pick up in store or have them deliver (and I think they have the best prices). Depending on how many balloons you use, you’ll likely be able to get one or two parties covered with one tank. I also bought a package of these unicorn birthday party cut-outs. As you can see, I just tossed them around the table.
I also really loved the birthday banner I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I usually make the banners but this one was so cute and I love how it turned out. Plus, it saved some time!
Oh yeah, I also made Parker’s shirt. This was my first iron-on project with my Cricut. It wasn’t perfect but she sure loved it.
Unicorn Party Activities
The one activity I had planned for the should-have-been-outside-at-the-park party was a unicorn painting. When browsing Pinterest for ideas I came across something similar and thought it was perfect for this age of kiddos. This is where my Cricut Explore Air 2 really came in handy. I used the Cricut to cut out unicorn and dragon images on removable stick-on vinyl. I placed those images on small canvases and the kids were instructed to cover the canvas and the vinyl with whatever colors they wanted. (And, yes, we did dragons too because I correctly guessed that some kids wouldn’t be thrilled to have unicorn art and favors.). You can search Etsy and find similar vinyl cut-outs or reach out to me and I can tell you my price to make what you need.
I bought some pouches of washable paint from Michaels that were $1 each. These were key because I was able to squeeze out little amounts on the paint palettes. I also bought these sponge paintbrushes. I bought packages of canvases at a great price (which you can actually find on Amazon, Hobby Lobby and Micheals). The kids had a blast making their art and it was actually not nearly as messy as I worried it would be.
The project was great for little ones and older kiddos. It’s difficult to find a project that works for a variety of ages, but I think I found the elusive goldmine with this project. Each child could paint whatever colors in whatever way they liked.
When it dried, we removed the vinyl and I later applied their names (also made on my Cricut) with glitter stick-on vinyl. I absolutely LOVED how everything turned out. Plus, the kids were able to make them their own!
We also had a scavenger hunt which was a huge hit with the kids. If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know that I did this for Foster’s birthday too a couple years ago. I planned to do one at the park but had to last-minute change it up. Here are the clues I came up with in the ten minutes I had at my computer on the day of the party!
I went ahead and made a more generic PDF in case you’d like to do something similar for your unicorn party. Click here for the Unicorn Scavenger Hunt Printable.
We ended the scavenger hunt with a dance party and that might have been my favorite part of the entire party. Parker’s favorite song right now is Beat It by Michael Jackson, and I just played it on the TV and the kids went crazy!
The last activity we had was the piñata.
My kids don’t think it’s a party anymore unless there’s a piñata full of goodies. Again, I wish we had better photos, but here’s a link to a great unicorn piñata for only $15! Throw in a bag of candy and cheap toys and everyone’s happy!
Unicorn-Themed Food and Desserts
Despite working hours on preparing cute unicorn-themed food, I have zero photos of them. I’m so bummed! However, I can show you what inspired me!
I made this unicorn dip and I had several friends ask me for the recipe. It looked super cute and paired nicely with graham crackers as a little snack for the kiddos (and adults).
I also made this colorful popcorn recipe. We were certainly sugared up after this party!
I also made these cupcakes for the kids.
I was so happy with how they turned out. I never knew how to ice cupcakes like this, but this tutorial made it super easy.
And I also made a homemade unicorn cake for the party.
The black eye lashes didn’t cool the way I hoped they would and they ended up melting … sadly … which shows my sadness of seeing my otherwise super cute unicorn cake shed tears. If that was my biggest failure of the party, I’ll take it. Here’s the link for the unicorn cake tutorial.
Unicorn Party Favors
As I mentioned earlier, I used my Cricut to cut out little unicorns to tape onto cheap party bags like these. We passed these out right after the piñata went down, and the kids went around and filled the bags up with their piñata candies and toys.
The biggest hits, though, were the unicorn headbands and dragon masks.
The kids were able to choose whichever one they wanted, but the birthday girl of course got one of each. She was thrilled to get the pink dragon mask.
I was actually really impressed by the quality and price of both the masks and headbands and highly recommend them.
And, this wasn’t really a party favor but it was definitely the favorite unicorn gift Parker received.
A Unicorn onesie! Isn’t it great!?! When the rain dried up, she even went cruising around town in it. 🙂
Throwing Your Own Unicorn Party?
And for those of you interested in throwing your child a unicorn-themed party, I’ve gone ahead and included links below to the various items you can find online for a unicorn party. Many I used for this party, some are similar to what I used (but I couldn’t find online), and others just seem like amazing ideas!
Unicorn Pinata
Unicorn Headbands (These were the most affordable ones I could find online and I was initially concerned the quality would show it. They were great. We still have a few in Parker’s dress-up clothes and they are still going strong.)
Dragon Masks (There were a few boys at the party that loved the unicorn headbands, but there were a few who preferred these dragon masks. Who am I kidding? Parker loved the masks too, especially since there was a pink one. Be sure to grab these for those kids that aren’t that into unicorns at the party.)
Some of my other favorite unicorn party decor and favors I found online but didn’t use …
Unicorn Temporary Tattoos (great for piñata filler)
Unicorn Party Supplies, including plates and napkins
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