Emma's Frozen 4th Birthday!

Does anyone else feel like Frozen fever is never going to end? It's still a pretty big deal at our house. So when I asked Emma what kind of birthday party she would like to have, I could've guessed the answer.

 

 

 

However, I was about 8+ months pregnant at the time of her birthday, so her party was a pretty casual, low-key event. 

 

We did a photo booth with a big blue sheet and a couple signs made out of cardboard. I printed off some fun quotes-on-a-stick from the movie. As always, everyone loves a photo booth! 

 

I made a few large 3D paper snowflakes to hang from the picnic shelter (you can find the instructions here) and I also found a couple of Disney's Arendelle promotional posters online, and printed them off for decorations.

 

We did a simple ice cream bar, with a few of Emma's favorite toppings, as well as melted snowman (water with a carrot and some big chunks of ice) and blue frozen punch.

 

 

For activities, we had a snowflake toss. (You can find the instructions for making a snowflake or water bomb here.) 

 

 

We also had a little craft area where you could decorate a crown, or make a beaded bubble wand out of pipe cleaners. 

 

 

 All of the supplies were from the dollar store, so it was very inexpensive, and easy to put together.

 

 

The birthday girl had a great day!

 

 

Bryson's 2nd Dinosaur Birthday!

At the moment, Bryson is all about animals and dinosaurs. So we decided to host his second birthday at our local zoo, and the dinosaur theme was a given. 

  

I made about a half-dozen dinosaur signs to decorate the picnic area by searching 'dinosaur silhouettes' on Google, and created the signs in Microsoft Word.

Our menu included such delicacies as stegosaurus sandwiches, herbivore veggies and dino dip, ferocious fruit, Jurassic gelatin, and - of course - fossil cookies. 

 

 

The kids had a lot of fun helping me with the cookies. We just did a basic sugar cookie recipe, but made dinosaur footprints in the dough with a little plastic dinosaur, and then sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top to help the footprints stand out.

To drink, we have bottled Hot Springs water, and green swamp juice. For dessert, dinosaur cupcakes. 

 

 

 

We had a pretty small crew, so I packed individual picnic lunches in white paper bags, and I printed the menu on each bag. 

 

 

After opening presents, each of the kids got to crack open their own dinosaur egg. We got a package of little plastic dinosaurs at the dollar store, and the eggs were made using the recipe below:

• 1-cup all purpose flour
• 1-cup coffee grounds 
• 1-cup sand
• 3/4-cup salt
• 1/2-cup water
• four to five small plastic animals or dinosaurs
• a large bowl and a tray or plate to set the eggs out to dry

Mix the flour, coffee grounds, sand and salt together thoroughly.  Add water. The less water used, the faster the dino eggs will dry. Form your sand mix into an egg shape around your dinosaur. Let dry. Ours took about 3 days on the counter to dry completely on the outside. 

Afterwards, we all had a blast exploring the zoo!

Emma's 3rd Rapunzel Birthday

We celebrated Emma's 3rd birthday this month with a Tangled-inspired Rapunzel celebration.

Decorations included floating paper lanterns, 'Wanted' posters, a magic golden flower.

 

 The got to 'pin a flower in Rapunzel's hair' or 'break Flynn's smolder' with a frying pan!

 We had coloring pages and chalk for decorating the sidewalk!

 The kids searched for apples hidden around the park, and all got prizes!

 The food was all Tangled themed. We had princess punch, Pascal's fruit and veggies, Mother Gothel's hazelnut soup (nutella) fruit dip, ruffians and thugs' meat and cheese, and Rapunzel's tower cupcakes! Everything was served in frying pans, of course!

 We had a great time with the photo booth where guests could take their own Wanted poster photos!