I will freely admit that I give birthday parties grudgingly. They are a lot of work, and I am always hoping that the girls will lose interest, or we can divert their attention to some other sort of special gathering/outing and not go through the hassle of putting together a party.
Last year, I succeeded.....we had just a couple of Ellie's friends over for an all day playdate instead of a party and I told Carina that she was having her party at school. Ha! I knew I wasn't going to get away with that this year.
Anyway, after much debate, Ellie angling for an American Girl party and Carina for a Batman party we settled on a theme they could both agree on...Frozen.
The girls' birthdays are 2 1/2 weeks apart, so we do a big joint party. This means a lot of kids. In the past we've done parties at the park, at a rec center, etc. This year we did it at the house...and by at the house I mean, on the grounds of the house....the goal was to keep just about everything outside. The only things inside were the food table, in the sunroom directly adjacent to the outdoors, and the bathroom.
It's a little tricky to have parties for kids three years apart and keep everyone entertained, so I did a lot of Pinterest surfing to come up with activities I thought would work.....there is really no original thought in this party whatsoever, but for those of you looking to throw Frozen parties of your own, here's a compilation of what occurred. Please remember, I'm no
Elena Roussakis, I'm just a poor soul trying to survive a birthday party!
Food
Melted Snowman (mini Deer Park waters. I ripped off the original labels and added these which
were created with PowerPoint), we also had 'Roarin' Waters' Capri Sun drinks.
Snowman Arms (pretzel sticks)
Snowman Noses/Reindeer Treats (Carrot Sticks)
Snowman Buttons (Blueberries)
Snowballs (Marshmallows.....I am somewhat shocked at how many marshmallows got eaten....)
Reindeer Poop (yeah, I went there, but there was a healthy dose of three years old present and three year olds seem to enjoy discussing poop, so we had poop, which was really chocolate covered raisins, so at least it was marginally healthy as opposed to the marshmallows)
We also had pizza for lunch and lo mien, which sounds weird, but it's a Chinese tradition - you always have noodles for your birthday, it symbolizes long life.
For dessert, ice cream cake (of course) and ICEE freeze pops.
Activities
Sven Ringtoss. I got the idea
here, and found a template
here which my father in law used to make the ring toss. Ellie and I made lame looking rings from pipe cleaners because I was afraid that regular rings would end up destroying the deer head.
Snowman slam. I got the idea
here, and this was a good one for Ellie to help with (she insisted that the top snowman have hair like Olaf). For the snowballs I just used some styrofoam ball that you can get in the floral section of your craft store. We did this outside, but I took a photo inside the night before.
Make your own necklaces. I used
this idea as he starting point, but I froze jewels (beads) and once they managed to get their jewels unfrozen we made necklaces from them. The girls are trying to melt their ice cubes below......the kids soon learned they could just throw the ice cubes down on the ground to get them out faster.
Cornhole - This was the hubby's idea and he made it the day before. The boys enjoyed trying trick shots and only one beanbag was harmed in the course of the game.
Insta-Snow - I saw this idea
here, and ordered a couple containers from Amazon. The stuff is really cool and the kids loved it. I emptied/cleaned out our sand and water table and just put it in there. At some point some kid (mine) decided that the snow would be better on the deck, the stuff is actually quite slick and the kids had a great time chucking it around and 'skating' until it became too much of a hazard and we swept it up. I still have a bunch, so we'll definitely pull it out again.
Clean up the snow - Got the idea
here. Watching kids use chopsticks never gets old.
And the most popular activity by far: Ice Block Racing. I saw the idea
here, and Andrew made the sleds as well as the blocks of ice. We just made the blocks in our extra freezer. Andrew lined a shoebox with a shopping bag and froze them one at a time. It took a good day for each one, so you have to plan ahead for that one.
We also borrowed a small Little Tikes moon bounce from a friend...probably only hold five small children at a time, but it was great to fill in the gaps.
Decorations
Free printable banners that I added some text over, printed, laminated and cut out.
Snowflake window clings, which I don't have pictures of, but I got
these. They are easy, although a little more delicate/tricky to put up than I expected.
Snowflake doilies (ideally you wouldn't see a whole other room in the back, but since we were using the sunroom for the food, I wanted to make sure the kids didn't get into the rest of the room (where all my craft stuff is), so we set the table off to kind of block access and I hung the snowflakes to create kind of a visual separation too. I originally saw the idea
here, and found a how to
here.
Goodie Bags
(made with regular lunch bags, some twine, Lawn Fawn Milo's Alphas, MFT Fishtail STAX dies, and Stampendous jumbo cling snowflake stamps).
Stickers
Finger Light
Snowman/snowflake erasers
Bubbles
A refreezable ice cube
Each kid got a little package of reindeer poop
Phew! It sounds like a lot of activities, but my goal was to have a bunch of stuff going on simultaneously to keep everyone occupied, especially since it was a drop off party. Which sounds a little crazy right? But the compound isn't really that big and 20 parents to go with 20 kids sounded like it was going to just be too many bodies. We had a couple parents stay anyway, which was just fine. If my sister (who took all the pictures) hadn't been in town I probably would have asked one of our babysitters to come and help for an extra set of hands.
All told 2 1/2 hours of a lot of fun, and two very happy girls at the end.
Worth it, yes, but I'm still looking for a way to get out of it next year. ;)
