A Very Tangled Birthday Party

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair! Our Tangled-themed birthday party was a great success - 10 little princesses had a wonderful time with all-things-Rapunzel. I pulled the party together in a week, so all of the ideas here are easy to do in a short amount of time and on a budget.

An Ice Cream Birthday

I cannot believe our littlest is three years old! We had a wonderful time celebrating with a very small, but successful ice cream themed party. I made four flavors of playdough for our few guests to enjoy: mint, strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. The chocolate recipe came from Pre-Kinders, but for the rest I used my favorite playdough recipe. (Hint: if you use boiling water, the process is much faster).

Pony beads and heart-shaped beads were set out as sprinkles, cardboard cones stacked ready, and I filled an old Hershey's container with yarn "chocolate syrup."

Bowls and spoons also stood by ready and waiting.

Instead of party favor bags, each child was given an ice cream scoop with their name on it...

As well as their own apron, courtesy of my talented mom. She made the girls' aprons out of sheet material and the boys out of bandanas!

Menus stood by for the adults to put in their orders.

We kept our party deliberately small, but the few guests there turned our pretend ice cream parlor into a hub of activity!

Yum! Looks good enough to eat! (And yes, most of the kids did try. :)

When they'd filled up on pretend ice cream, we let them have the real thing: an ice cream pie. For this one, I simply spread softened strawberry ice cream (A's favorite) in a prepared graham cracker pie crust and topped with sprinkles. After an hour in the freezer, it's ready to serve.

For more ice cream themed party inspiration visit:
- Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
- Spell Outloud (where I found my printables)
- "Ice Cream Cone" Cupcakes
- One Charming Party (for the best cake idea!)

How to bake a train wreck...

Step One: make a complete mess of your kitchen while baking the cake.

Step Two: Carefully remove the cake from the fully greased and floured pan you so diligently prepped.

Step Three: Make sure your children are out of earshot before you let your cake pan know exactly how you feel about the nine ruined train cars you've pried from its clutches.

Step Four: Be grateful that at least the train engine is intact...

if you don't look too hard.

In case you were wondering, here's what the cake is supposed to look like. My talented SIL made a train cake for each of her boys' birthdays (using the exact same pan!).

Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton

I'll admit it - I haven't read this one yet. Our library is not great about getting in the latest children's books. But it looks hilarious, and after my own woman vs. train incident today, it sounded like a perfect pick.

For a summary and review, check out Brimful Curiosities. I don't know how that lady gets her hands on all the new releases, but she always has excellent reviews and suggestions.

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

Okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but it's certainly the best birthday gift I've ever made. I am a novice seamstress, at best, so I am prodigiously proud of myself for crafting this adorable little travel doll house.

Let's take a tour, shall we? You'll notice the exterior of the house is decorated with extra touches like an arched door and appliqued hearts.

Coordinating buttons and elastic loops keep everything secure until we're ready to head inside...

 ... and meet the current tenants! For years I've been wanting an excuse to buy the girls a Calico Critters set. Now that I have the perfect home for them, they happily took up residence.

So how did I make it? With blood, sweat, tears, and the occasional curse word! I found the tutorial from Dawn @ UK Lass in US via Jeanine @ Serving Pink Lemonade. Both of these extraordinarily talented ladies used the words "easy" and "simple" in their posts. I'm sure it was easy and simple for both of them, but it was two days of sewing warfare for me. While you don't need more than basic sewing skills to make the house, the project is difficult for a newbie like myself.

The structure of the house is formed from plastic canvas wrapped in batting. You quilt together the covering for the canvas pieces and lay it out in a open box pattern. Then it's simply a matter of hand-stitching the one side in place and adding the details. Dawn gives a very detailed tutorial that most of you will probably read and think "wow! That is easy! Christianne must be one spatially-challenged wannabe seamstress!" You'd be right.

So you'll forgive me if I toot my own horn a bit. Not only did the birthday girl love her gift, but we gave it a place of honor in the playroom: it's own spot on the bookshelf!

What else is on that bookshelf? Well, A's other birthday gift...

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

I've seen this book around, but lumped it with the sentimental "you're special" books that parents cry through and kids yawn during. We have several such books which I love and my kids can't sit still through. I am so glad I gave this one a second chance!

The illustrations are gorgeous and downright magical at times. The story explains how all of nature rejoiced on the night "you" were born. What sets this book apart - besides the phenomenal artwork - are the interactive moments throughout. Your child is encouraged to whisper their name (just as the wind is doing) and wiggle their toes (those "silly, wiggly wonderful toes"). These asides to the reader early in the story grab the child's attention, while the short sentences on each page and brilliant illustrations hold it.

My girls sat enraptured by the story while I read it at bedtime... and yes, I cried at the end. Because truly, my dear A,  

"Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn

on the wonderful, marvelous night you were born."

I'm linking up to:

A Picnic Birthday

My baby turned 2 this week! To celebrate we invited family over for a picnic-themed birthday party. Due to the extreme heatwave buffeting the east coast, we were forced to make it an indoor picnic, but those pesky ants found us anyway!

This cake was fairly simple to make. M&Ms provided the body of the ants, while melted chocolate "piped" with a toothpick formed the legs and antennae. The picnic blanket was a fruit roll-up that I fringed along the edges with scissors. I also cut marshmallows to make the plates. The watermelon are sourpatch watermelon candies from Target which I sliced. The awesome coca-cola bottles and pizza slices were part of a gummy candy set my husband found at Walgreens. Perfect, huh? (They actually tasted like Coke!)

The cake worked as a perfect centerpiece until it was time to light the candles!

While us adults sat in the dining room, the kids enjoyed their dinner in true picnic fashion... on the floor.

I had to change my menu last minute so my husband wouldn't pass out from heat stroke while trying to grill in 103 degree temperatures. So instead of grilling, I tried this Cafe Rio Pork Salad recipe a friend recommended. It was delish, as was my hub's homemade salad and guacamole.

To go along with the picnic theme, I used red plastic tablecloths from Target on the table and floor, and lined my serving table with leftover fabric from my pennant banner:

Pennant banners are so easy to make and super-popular in catalogs like Pottery Barn Kids. To sew your own, simply cut out triangles from coordinating fabrics. (I used this template for my triangle.) I made nine pennants, so that's 18 triangles. Pin the triangles together, right sides facing in, and sew down one side and up the other. Flip right side out and iron flat. Now tuck the non-sewn edge in (so it looks like a seam) and iron flat. Pin the pennants onto a grosgrain ribbon (this one is nine feet) at regular intervals (I did 2 inches apart), making sure to leave plenty of extra ribbon on each end. Sew the pennants to the ribbon. Voila! A beautiful pennant banner, perfect for your next party!

I didn't read any books at the party, but there are numerous good picnic books out there. The Teddy Bears' Picnic is probably my favorite, but we also love McDuff Saves the Day.

What about you? Do you have any good picnic-themed books to share?

I'm linking up to:
     

A Fancy Feast!

After a make-over, accessorizing, and a fashion show, our guests at E's Fancy Nancy birthday party were more than ready for lunch!

Although the set-up was fancy, I kept the menu simple. 5-year-olds are not known for their adventurous palate, so I stuck with classic favorites. Heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches supplied the main course with sides of strawberries, carrots, and pretzels. Pink lemonade was served in "crystal" glasses with heart-shaped cranberry juice ice cubes. 

The ice cubes and lemonade were the talk of the table. If you'd like to make your own, Target had heart ice cube trays in their dollar section during Valentine's Day, and Ikea usually carries them year-round.

For dessert I made fancy cupcakes the only way I know how... use a ziplock bag to pipe frosting in a swirl pattern. I used a cake mix, but as always I made the buttercream frosting from scratch. It's a basic vanilla icing, but I added food coloring to make it pink. Sprinkles left over from Valentine's Day cupcakes worked perfectly to add a little pizazz.

E's "Grandma Ji-Ji" (my husband's great Aunt Jean) gave her a Fancy Nancy sticker book for her birthday. I made good use of a few of the 600 stickers to create these cupcake toppers.

I'm afraid there was nothing particularly fancy about how quickly these cupcakes were gobbled up!

Check back tomorrow when I'll have a few more tips and tricks about throwing the perfect Fancy Nancy birthday party!