I love planning my kid's birthday party each year! Much like teaching, it allows me to be creative. So, I know this is a teaching blog for sharing ideas and resources, well, I'm still going to do just that with this post, only the content is about party planning! I like to come up with a theme nice and early so that I have lots of time to find anything and everything related to that theme, but this year, my kids threw me for a loop! After my daughter became enamored with ALL THINGS FROZEN, we changed our theme, which sent me quickly searching for all Disney Frozen items, in a frantic rush! The problem was that everything was sold out! In my many visits to the party and Dollar store, you'll see what I eventually found! My kids are born 2 weeks apart so we have one big family/friends party. We like to do it outside, since it's summer. Well, we had to get our backyard ready too. The preparations began with putting up our play-structure. This was no easy feat, but my kids (and even hubby...I'm pretty sure) would agree it was worth the 3 day job! Extended family members even came out to help (and it still took 3 days!)
My little guy got in on the action with his screw-driver.
Here is the finished product, from Costco. This swing set is much cheaper in-store, than ordering it on-line.
I got the Frozen and Monster's University table-cloths and Party plates/napkins/decor from Party City. They were 50% off! Yeah! The solid color table-cloths are a dollar more at Party City, but more durable (thicker plastic) than the Dollar store.
Because we were outside, I tried to secure everything down from the wind. ***I had to bring the munchies inside because the popcorn was blowing away** I put masking tape around the exterior border of the tables, then attached the plastic table-cloths. I also tied the table-cloths at the four corners with long pieces of curling ribbon, so they didn't fly up in the face's of our guests as they were eating.
I set up a Craft Station, which was a bit hit! I had one Flower Container full of beads and stretchy cord to make bracelets and necklaces. The other Flower Container was full of foamies and stickers from the dollar store, which were used to decorate the Crowns. The foamies and stickers were from Dollar Tree and beads were from Michaels. The paper snowflakes were from my classroom winter displays, originally from a book Paper Snowflakes Made Easy which is ancient and I couldn't find on-line to show.
Click the picture below to get the FREE template for the center of the Princess/Prince Crown. Simply write the name of the child on the line, attach to Crown foamie and glue to a long strip of bristol board. Decorate.
Here are some bubbles just for fun!
The cake table. I used material I had from previous years' bulletin board displays, to create a small overlay and back-drop.
The cakes were from a very talented cake artist in the area, Fuenzalida cakes. I have used him for over 10 years for occasions such as my Bridal Shower, Wedding, Baby shower and now all my parties!
Here is some parachute fun! I purchased this from Scholastic a couple of years ago for a ladybug theme, but it still comes in handy.
Some craziness going on in the jumping castle!
The balloons were from Bargain Balloons.
I found these Frozen cookies at our local Walmart. They were gone the next day.
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I had a couple of attempts at making these sweet treats, but at first the chocolate covered apples did not look appealing at all. In the beginning, I tried to use regular milk chocolate and just melt it. I deleted the picture because it was scary! I finally bought chocolate melts from the Bulk Barn and all turned out as it should have. The chocolate melted smoothly and it was so easy to coat the apples.
I made some fun labels for our drinks. If you'd like your FREE copy of all the labels I used at the party, click the WATER picture below. I've even included a blank page for you to personalize as you wish: a banner, label, invite, etc.
There is even a 'SNOW' label if you'd like to make fake snow for tactile play. Click here to go to a previous post explaining how to make snow!
I used water-bottle labels. The Mike Wazowski label was so easy - I just cut out circles of various sizes on the Cricut.
I even found these juice boxes at our local Walmart. Just perfect!
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The party was complete with a special visit from a special princess... Elsa herself. She had story-time, singing, tattoos, make-up, games, a Coronation Ceremony and even sang Happy Birthday! Ever After Entertainment did a great job!
The girls left with some hair-clips I made, and a lip-gloss set, and the boys with a Mike Wazowski t-shirt I found at The Children's Place. The FROZEN box was a gift that held costumes and jewelry, and was from Toys R Us.
Well, I hope everyone is having a great summer with good friends, family, food and fun! Hopefully, you're not stressing about Back-to-School too much, because whether you prepare well in advance or not, things will work out and come together in the end...they always do!
