There has never been another child so fascinated with The Wizard of Oz as our son, Ryker. Our daughter, Payton, received the 50th anniversary collection of all of the characters, which included little buttons on the back prompting the Barbies to play each character's theme song. Before he was even two years old, Ryker loved these dolls so much that he slept with them each night, often waking in the night to the Lion belting out, "If I were king of the FOREST..." Everywhere he went, Dorothy went too. He was not concerned in the least to be the only four year old boy at school who always had a doll in hand.
His love and adoration of the dolls and their music grew into a passion for the whole movie, the story and the entire soundtrack. He would spend hours each day listening to the songs, acting out the scenes and practicing the dances. It was no surprise what he wanted for his fourth birthday party.
The challenge with this request was that the Wizard of Oz was created 60 years ago, making the gifts and decor he wanted extremely hard to find. His birthday fell in between anniversary years and although there were some Dorothy themed party ideas and decor available, he desperately wanted a Wizard of Oz "Tinman" party. I had to get very creative and ebay and I spent long hours together searching for collectables.
I had to design the invitations myself and I love the way they turned out. I found an image of Tinman and printed the photo and text out on regular card stock. I distressed the paper with silver ink and embellished with sparkly, silver ribbon and added a red, sparkly heart to his chest. I glued this paper onto red card stock to frame it and mailed them in matching red envelopes.
The most time consuming element of the party was the 25 foot aisle runner I painted by hand to represent the yellow brick road. I purchased a personalized black wedding aisle runner and used A LOT of yellow paint and a regular kitchen sponge in a design to resemble the yellow brick road.
We even had Toto come and join the party!
And Dorothy!
My inspiration for the dining room table came from Tinman's first scene of the movie, when Scarecrow and Dorothy were chasing the apples thrown by the apple tree and discovered him rusted in place.
- a silver cupcake stand decorated with fondant toppers with either Tinman's face or his heart
- an antique oil can (which became a serious poking hazard later on)
- a decorative tree
- Tinman and Scarecrow barbies
- marshmallow and cinnamon hearts with tags saying, "If I Only Had a Heart"
- candy apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
- a Wizard of Oz balloon
- a hanging, wooden photo of Scarecrow that I made for the event
For the craft table, I used made a centrepiece of lollipops, candy necklaces, gummy bears, Wizard of Oz Potato Heads and the munchkin Barbies. I displayed quotes from the movie,
"We welcome you to munchkin land"
"We represent the lollipop guild"
"Lions and tigers and gummy bears, oh my!"
We did three crafts, which we photographed the making of, but unfortunately, not the actual craft because of how hectic it became during the party.
Each child made a glitter rainbow on a canvas, decorated a gift bag for the find the apples game we played later (and to take home their crafts and gifts) and painted a wooden heart necklace.
We played a find the apples game once the crafts were completed. Forty apples were hidden in the family room and the children raced to pick them up, just as Dorothy and Scarecrow had in the movie.
The coffee and juice station was placed against a rustic, brick wall- it was very convenient that the kitchen was just in the beginning of a major renovation. I placed a vase filled with poppies, to represent the poppy field in the movie, and a birch branch.
The beloved Dorothy Barbie was displayed here as well, with the ruby red cookies my Mom and Nana made for the party.
My friend Angela gave me the idea to wrap juice boxes with wrapping paper, and we had oil can juice boxes too.
I added some candy push pops here as well.
We provided some more filling snacks as well...
Everyone received a package of personalized m&ms when they left, with photos of Ryker printed on them.
We placed Ryker's plush Wizard of Oz toys beside the favours, which I found on ebay somewhere in China
I made another hanging, wooden photo and displayed it at the entrance.
I even added some fun to the bathroom, which horrified Ryker to be honest. He was afraid of the bath tub for days after the party...
The entire event was so special not only to Ryker, but to everyone who joined us in celebrating his fourth birthday. It's a day he will always remember.
