Brave Party: Details, details, details!

I have to admit I have been struggling with getting the rest of my party details up here. This isn't yet classified on the DSM, but I think I am suffering from my annual case of post-party depression. Each year I spend months and months planning and prepping for bug's birthday party and then I invariably end up disappointed when it's over. The day of the party things get too crazy and I don't get to properly display, enjoy, or photograph all of the projects I obsessed over.

When I settle down to share the party details on here, I realize how much is missing from the photos. Then I get sad. So silly, but so true. I think I am finally recovering because I had a new event to plan (more on that soon). Anyway, here are the photos I have of all the extra details I haven't yet posted about.

I made the frilly tablecloth decoration I pinned from here and decorated the TV stand with Brave plush toys from the Disney Store

Birthday banner made using the Cricut Pretty Pennants cartridge.
I also created a very cute bunting using the Cricut and some bias tape that decorated the stairs leading into the party, but we have no pictures. Maybe I'll post a separate tutorial for that because it was so cute and so easy!

Birthdays aren't complete without balloons! We clustered bunches of 3-4 balloons and tied them up around the party space

I've been planning this party long enough that I picked up the garland and the fancy glittery stars hanging on the light from Target after christmas for literally pennies.

I dennoted all the "party rooms" by making decorative banners over each doorway. The doors were also labeled with fun Brave themed references such as, "Queen Elinor's Closet" for dress-up, "The Crafty Carver" for arts and crafts, and "Mor'du's lair - Do Not Enter" for my messy supply room. 

View of the decorations from the downstairs looking up.

My husband's uncle works for a bottling plant, so he gets me empty plastic bottles and any color cap I want to make these with any drink I want in them. Fun!

I included this photo to show the fun "Conversation with the Birthday Girl" I printed out (you can see it right next to the cellphone held by my cousin with the gorgeous curly red hair). I stole the questions from this blog.
 

Brave Party: Activities

During my planning for this party I read a handful of blog posts about Brave themed parties in which the hosts planned a "Highland Games" event for the party-goers with archery and caber toss contests. Our kid guests were all under the age of 5 (with the exception of my sister's step-kids who are significantly older) so I wanted the activities to be at their level.

For games, I made my own cut-out archery game with homemade felt arrows to match the party colors and wrote a very simple three step treasure hunt. I originally intended the prize from the treasure hunt to be the party favors (bear stuffed animals), but ran out of time to plan out how to execute it. I just stuck with Brave fruit snacks as the prize at the end. I'm not going to post the clues I wrote for the treasure hunt, but if someone reads this and wants them, please contact me!

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For crafts I set up my old bedroom with two crafts. One table was set-up with string, wooden beads, multi-colored plastic beads, and plastic bear claws to make bear claw necklaces. I didn't realize until it was too late that the string I bought frayed easily making the necklaces difficult for the little ones to string:-( The other table was set up with cardboard crowns, markers, crayons, glue, glitter, gems, and Brave stickers to make crowns. The kids really seemed to enjoy decorating themselves (and their parents) with stickers and playing with all the gems!

Brave Party: Eats and Treats

This post is dedicated to all of the yummy food we served at bug's Brave party. I originally was planning to cook traditional Scottish foods, but decided that was too involved to undertake with an infant at home and tried to go with simple, rustic foods with a bit of Brave inspired flare. I also tried to serve all the food on silver platters and wooden cutting boards to stick with the rustic/royal theme. As I mentioned before, I don't have pictures of many things because of the circumstances at the party and I'll just fill in the details.

Appetizer Table

• Bread Dip (the green bowl sadly ended up on the table when I wasn't looking and crashed my careful plan for silver and wooden platters for all the food)
• "Bulls eye" fruit platter made from Alpine melon, blackberries, and strawberries
• Fresh grapes and cheese cubes (Sharp Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, and Tomato Basil Cheddar)
• Assorted crackers and fresh breads
• Wedge cheeses (Gouda, Swiss, Garlic and Herb goat cheese, Plain goat cheese) and kielbasa with assorted spreads (pepper jelly, spicy mustard, and corn relish)

I'm not sure how it happened, but I have no pictures at all of the main course. My menu included:

• Baked ham
• Chicken legs (marinade was based loosely on this recipe)
• Mashed sweet potatoes
• Buttered corn
• Baby carrots
• Fresh rolls
• Fresh salad with strawberries and apples
• Fruit skewers fashioned to look like arrows (melon cubes and strawberry arrowhead)

Again, we never got a photo of my dessert table which I obsessed over:-( In addition to the photos below, we also served raspberry thumbprint "spell cakes" and the "scottish sweet buns" (based on this recipe).

Brother bear cookies

Months ago I pinned a cute idea to make bear cookies, but then I stumbled upon the Wilton stackable teddy bear cookie cutters at Joann's and picked them up. I haven't done royal icing cookies in a long time, so I used the tutorial here to brush up on my skills. FYI - these cookies took FOREVER to make, it was a three night process!

Cotton Candy Wisps

I wanted to rent or buy a cotton candy machine to make wisps, but decided that would cost too much money so I just went to Hoffman's (a local extremely overpriced mini amusement park) and purchased two bags of the stuff.

Birthday Cake!

I was inspired by this cake I pinned at the beginning of my planning process. I purchased the figurines from the Disney Store online. I really wanted the sleek look of fondant, but hate how it doesn't taste good. Awhile ago I had pinned this recipe for a homemade marshmallow fondant and decided to try it out - it worked perfectly!

Brave Party: Getting In Character

This begins my series on planning and throwing my daughter's Brave themed birthday party. I will preface each post by reminding readers that the day of the party was SO hectic (we arrived to the party location late due to a mix-up with the balloons and had a cranky teething 5 month old that only wanted mommy or daddy) that many photos were missed. I will describe any additional details that I don't specifically have photos of.

To set the stage, the party was hosted at my parent's house. They are currently in Florida so I was able to use their house completely at my whim - taking down pictures, putting up decorations days in advance, etc. I set up their living room as a general play area with kid-sized tables for eating, the dining room and kitchen as food stations, my sister's old bedroom as a dress-up room, my old bedroom as a craft room, and my parent's bedroom as my storage room.

Starting at top left and going counterclockwise: Baby bear in her crocheted bear hat, Me in my Brave tapestry shirt, Birthday Girl in her Merida dress, Merida ribbon headbands, and Bear ear headbands.

One of the things I really wanted to set the mood for the party were costumes and accessories to help the guests really feel like they were part of the movie.

• This started with finding a Merida costume for the birthday girl. I had my sister check the official stores in Downtown Disney for the highest quality dress possible, but they were not yet selling a Merida dress. I settled for one from the Disney Store online. It is not nearly as nice as the Cinderella one we purchased in the Magic Kingdom, but is far better than the cheap ones they sell at the toy stores.
• Bug's favorite part of Brave is when the little brothers turn into bears. I knew I had to find a way to turn her little sister into a bear too. A quick search on pinterest brought up a very cute Brave inspired knit hat. I forwarded the photo to a friend whose cousin crochets and within days she produced the adorable hat you see above. 
• During one of my many virtual shopping experiences online at the Disney Store I stumbled across a woman's shirt depicting the family tapestry (on sale of course!) and had to buy it for myself so I could be in character as well.

To allow the guests to get into the spirit of the movie I set up my sister's old bedroom as "Queen Elinor's Closet" and filled it with accessories... 

• Keeping with the bear theme, I created a bunch of headbands with bear ears for guests to wear at the party. I purchased the purple headbands (how lucky that the only color available fit my color scheme perfectly!) for less than fifty cents apiece at Party City and made the ears out of black and gray felt. I loosely based them on this tutorial I used last year to make Mickey ears.
• The Merida headbands were a project I couldn't help making after I found this tutorial on pinterest. I used her ideas, but decided to make Merida's fancy dress instead of the casual dress featured in her directions. If I ever get around to it, I will post my own tutorial.
• Not pictured: I set up my sister's old desk with piles of Brave temporary tattoos and water/washcloths to apply them. I used my sister's old dresser to lay out all of the headbands I made. I also put out various beaded necklaces and plastic rings with a few handheld mirrors for the kids to dress up and check themselves out.

Brave Party Preview

As I anticipated, things around here are B-U-S-Y! What I didn't expect was that in addition to party prep we were going to be preparing to sell our house this week as well (open house the day after the big birthday party!). We've been talking about moving for months, but all of a sudden we realized it was time to get going if we want to be in a position to reserve a lot in a new development that opens this spring. For the past week it's been a constant struggle back and forth between packing and baking, crafting and cleaning. So far I think I am holding up pretty well.

To hold my (few) loyal readers over until I can get back to my regular blogging, here are a few sneak peek photos of my Brave party projects...

Cookies to look like the Scottish Sweet Buns the triplets are always after

Bear party ears

Merida ribbon headbands

Felt and dowel arrows

Archery cutout game

Birthday banner in progress

Giant box of bears from the Disney Store for party favors