When Livi told me she wanted a "Frozen" party, I immediately reached for my Martha Stewart snowflake paper-punches to unleash the flurry within ~ you know, like Elsa. Just as she swirled and twirled her hands in "Let It Go" I envisioned myself creating our own icy winter wonderland. Ha! Well in the end, I did manage to put up blue and white party balloons and a last-minute doily garland. There simply aren't enough hours in a day for all that we can dream up, but I'm happy to remind you and me: kids have fun at birthday parties no matter what we do, or don't. For them, just being with their friends is oodles of fun, and all the little extra touches we make are simply 'icing on the cake'. Well I like icing as much as the next girl... so these, here, are some of the prettier details from Liv's 6th birthday party.
1| The DIY invites were totally simple. Setting the text at the top and bottom left room for gluing snowflakes to the middle. I just happened to have two Martha Stewart snowflake paper punches on hand already, some shimmery cardstock and gems. Later, I bought the jumbo snowflake punch (by Recollections) at Michael's, for the rest of the decorations.
2| A DIY Snowflake Necklace kit went home with every girl. I thought we'd make the necklaces during the party, but the bouncy house pretty much dominated those kids from start to finish. I found the snowflake charms at an etsy shop called Bohemian Findings. (They've got all kinds of charms.) The seed beads and silver elastic cord were bought at Michael's.
3| Along with the birthday cake, we did an Ice Cream Bar. I'm a little obsessed with these Wooden Ice Cream spoons from Shop Sweet Lulu. They're cute and their small size is perfect for preventing kids from heaping on way too many toppings at once. I mean, seriously, sprinkles are great ~ but a whole mouthful of 'em?
4| Snowball fight, anyone? This year I remembered to pre-scoop my ice cream in pretty cupcake liners (from Shop Sweet Lulu). I had two trays of chocolate and vanilla "snowballs" ready to go and it made serving them up a breeze. Note: remember to remove the ice cream from the freezer about 10 minutes ahead of time so it isn't too hard for the kiddos.
The Cake.
My kids took one look at the birthday cake and exclaimed, ''it's amazing!!!" Sweet kids. I couldn't have been more disappointed, but let me explain 'my vision': a tiered chocolate cake covered with white frosting, a few decorative light blue pearls, and these beautiful clear snowflakes I ordered from Craftsutopia on Etsy (shipping from Hong Kong.) Here was the reality: I had no time to make the cake so I ended at the store an hour before the party began, searching in vain for a chocolate cake with white frosting, couldn't find one so I purchased a chocolate cake covered in chocolate curls and a very large chocolate cupcake. I thought I had white frosting at home, only to discover I had one jar of blue frosting, and five minutes left before the party. I don't know why I had to do it, but I did. I unwrapped the giant cupcake, smeared blue frosting all over its sides and placed it on top. And did I mention that those beautiful clear snowflakes didn't even arrive in my mailbox until I got home from the store five minutes before the party? Anyway, that cake should have been ice-white. Instead we had a freckled cake with a crazy blue tier on top and (of course) all the kids were yelling, "I want a blue piece! Can I have a blue piece?! Please?" And, yes. It was delicious.
5| Get this beverage dispenser by Threshold at Target. It's got nothing to do with the movie Frozen, but it's cute, inexpensive, and yes, drinks do taste better when they're poured from one! Finding a truly vintage drink dispenser from the flea market would be pretty awesome, too. We poured sparkling berry lemonade in ours, with slices of lemon and fresh raspberries. If you filled yours with ice water, you could call it "Melted Olaf" and float a carrot on top. Hee hee. (The scallop border milk bottles are from Shop Sweet Lulu.)
Another activity I had planned that didn't happen (I blame that bouncy house) was this shaving cream "snow" paint. It's super easy to make: mix equal parts shaving cream and white glue, like Elmer's, stir well. Olivia and I also mixed in glitter glue for the sparkle effect. This is a great tactile experience, so finger painting is the way to go, but you could also use a paintbrush, or cotton swab. The coolest part is that this paint dries puffy and feels velvety to the touch. Just give it a full 24 hours to dry.
All kids love a goody bag. For this party, the "brown paper bag + doily" combination seemed to fit perfectly because a doily looks a lot like a snowball, or snowflake, right? Having the supplies already on hand was pretty convenient, too. I only didn't have enough doilies, so I bought these from Pink Candi Crafts on Etsy.
So, was it one cool party? Yep. A teensy bit crazy? Mmhmm. And so much fun was it, that Olivia and her friends forgot all about putting on their 'performance' of their favorite songs from Frozen ~ which is too bad, because it would have been a cute show.
All in all, we had 13 kids, 2 babies, 1 resilient bouncy house, 3 pizzas that barely got touched, 1 crazy blue cake (all gone)... and a very happy, very sweet birthday girl. Happy Birthday, Livi. xoxo mom
xo amy
