Monday, January 26, 2015

Sandy's Frozen Birthday

Ever since Frozen came out, Sandy has been all about Elsa, so of course she requested a Frozen birthday party.  Naturally I turned to Pinterest to start pinning party idea as soon as I knew she wasn't changing her mind.  Sandy said that it needed to be all Elsa and only one Anna thing, so the colors were mainly blue with a bit of pink thrown in.

If I lived in a perfect world, I would have a party room with white walls, white chairs, round tables, and beautiful wood floor, but since I do not, I had to turn the garage into my own little happy place....I mean Sandy's little happy place.

I bought most of my decorations during Christmas time at King Dollar and Wal-Mart.  I went to Wal-Mart the day after Christmas to buy everything I needed at half price in the Christmas section.

The garage walls are plywood, which aren't exactly the most beautiful backdrop for a party, so I covered one wall with wrapping paper to look like it was Elsa's blizzard.  I may have been a mean momma and yelled anytime Brazos or Sandy got too close to the wall, because I knew all it took was a tiny bit of force to poke a hole in the paper....and I didn't want to start all over.  (This is why Sandy yelled at some little boys who tore the paper during her party.)

The cake sat on a hutch I won at our church raffle this past fall.  It's the perfect dessert stand.  I had fun decorating it with tool, lights, snow, and snowflakes. I also made snowglobes with little figurines I found at Dollar Tree.



The cake was made by a former students mom, Stacy Chapdelaine.  It was super fluffy and so yummy!  It was beautiful to cut into as well!


My sweet friends at Brenham Cake Pops made these super cute Trolls.  I found three different Frozen cake pops for Sandy to pick from, Olafs, Svens, and Trolls, and Sandy picked the Trolls!  There were chocolate inside and oh so delicious!  We kept a few back for ourselves after the party. ;)


We used our Christmas trees and lights to make the woods where Anna finds Wandering Oaken's Trading Post.  The lemonade stand turned into the trading post.  I think it was my favorite part of the party!



I borrowed a white Christmas tree from my friend Stephanie and decorated it with ornaments from King Dollar.  It set the scene for all of Sandy's presents.  Sandy was really excited about this!


Her dress was bought at the Disney Store and crown at King Dollar.  She was a fabulous Elsa!  We let her open it the day of the party, because she would have gotten it so dirty if we gave it to her any earlier.

For the food table, my mom and I built a big Elsa castle from foam board.  It was about 6 feet tall and awesome!

For the food we had....

Brrr..it's CHILI!
Anna and Hans' Sandwiches
Olaf's Buttons - Black Olives
Sven's Snacks and Snow Dip - Carrots and Ranch Dressing
Anna's Frozen Hearts - White chocolate dipped strawberries
Kristoff's Ice Blocks - Dipped Marshmallows
True Loves Kisses - Hershey Kisses
Snowman Snack Mix - Popcorn, Marshmallows, Pretzels, Chocolate Chips, and Candy Corn
Skinny Snowmen - String Cheese
Coronation Cookies and Cupcakes (Cookies were made Texas Cookie Garden!)
Hot Chocolate - to thaw your frozen heart.
Melted Snow - Water
Elsa's Party Punch - Blue Lemonade






I decorated the tables with the party hats for all to where while we sang Happy Birthday.




The front entrance had snowflakes on the fence, which were a pain to cut out of foam board! But everyone found the party!


For the party games, we played Pin the Nose on Olaf.  Every kid did pretty good, so I'm guessing they could see, but all had fun.


Then we had the parents join in and they had to decorate their little ones as snowmen.  They turned out so cute!  Good job moms, grandmas, and friends!





Then we went outside to push around Kristoff's Ice Blocks.  The blocks were so heavy the kids had to push them with their feet!  I also made snow out of corn starch and shaving cream....which didn't turn out.  And I made slime out of glue and borax...which also didn't turn out.  It was more like glitter rocks instead.  Oh well, it was still fun to feel it all.




We also had a piñata the kids loved hitting and picking up candy.

Sandy didn't smile at all when we sang Happy Birthday, but I think she may have been concentrating on not letting her party hat fall off because it fell off as soon as she leaned over to blow out the candles.

We all enjoyed some cake and then watched her open presents.  She received I believe almost every Frozen toy there could be AND there were no duplicates!  Except for two coloring books, but she can go through a coloring book in a day with scribbles, so two will keep her occupied for two days!

Jill, a sweet girl from our church, painted Sandy an Elsa picture.  It was so sweet!  She said now Sandy will have someone to talk to in her room before she goes to bed.



 
 For party favors the kids got Frozen pencils, glow sticks, Frozen washcloths, a Frozen valentine card, candy from the piñata, and Snowflake wands.  I also had ornaments on the tables for the adults to take with them for their Christmas trees next year.



Sandy said it was the best Frozen birthday ever!  And it wouldn't have been complete without all the friends and family who joined us for her special day!  Thank you all for coming and blessing this little lady with gifts that will keep her occupied throughout the year.  She really loves each of you and was so excited to know you all were coming to her house to play!  Happy 3rd birthday, Sandy!


Monday, January 5, 2015

Brazos's 4th Birthday!

So a year has almost come and gone and my computer is filled with pictures that need to be shared and printed!  It's time to share Brazos's 4th birthday party before the 5th one rolls around!

Last year we tried to have a party somewhere other than the house.  It was fun, but boy was is COLD!  We had his party at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park.  It is a great place for little people to explore and play.



The theme for his party was "Mud Puddles, Frogs, and Worms....that's what little boys are made of!"  A sweet friend, Brion, designed his invitations and I loved them!  She did an awesome job!  Being that the party was away from home, decorations had to be simple.  I made a fringe banner of blue, brown, and green (which now hangs in his room).  I had an old shutter that I attached pictures of my muddy little man on.  The tables had buckets with dirt, worms, and frogs (which my nephew Cullen picked out all the gummy worms and ate them).  And that's about it for décor.

The food was easy too!  All we needed was cake and chocolate milk, because no one wanted to stay and eat in the cold anyways.  Brazos enjoyed helping make his dirt cake by placing all the gummy worms in the pudding.  And of course, we had Brenham Cake Pops make adorable little frog cake pops.










The party favors were frog Webkins that I found at Dollar Tree!


The kids were bundled up for an few hours of fun!  They played on the playground, fed the chickens, washed some clothes, and played some old fashioned games.  Brazos enjoyed opening his presents and eating dirt cake.  Once everyone's fingers and noses were frozen, we packed up and went home to play with new toys!

Our party away from home was a success!  (But we are having it back at the house this year.)














 


P.S.  We went back to Barrington Farms a few months ago to film for the chambers newest ad, and while at the farm, the lady was about to tell us about all the activities the kids could do.  We politely stopped her and told her we knew all about it and that we actually had Brazos's birthday party here there in March.  And SHE REMEMBERED!  She said, "Oh yes.  Yall were the ones who had a party on that cold, windy day."  I guess they don't see many visitors during the cold season.  Or many birthday parties out there either.