Frozen Party: Making it happen

I wanted to dedicate a separate post to giving lots of tips on how I put together the details for my bug's 5th birthday party. I know Frozen parties are BIG right now and I hope my tips can help save other busy moms some time trying to figure out all the picky details on their own.

Finding Frozen merchandise is not for the weak of heart

Frozen merchandise is nearly impossible to find. I managed to get my bug the pictured Elsa doll/dress set during a random trip to Target. My best advice is to walk through the toy section of Target (I hate Walmart, but did try them too and never found anything) as often as you can. Doing this I managed to snag this gift set, a snow globe wand that plays "Let it Go", and a small Elsa figurine.

Turn portraits and paintings into party decor!

A simple way to decorate at home is to turn pictures that are already hanging into party decor. I covered a large painting that was over the fireplace with an inexpensive plastic tablecloth and paper snowflakes. The tablecloth can be saved and reused for a future party to reduce waste:-)

Hanging decor creates an impressive "centerpiece" when you don't have much room on your table

If you know your theme ahead of time, you can collect items on sale to save money. These lanterns, pom-poms, and hanging twirls were all purchased from Hobby Lobby on sale. The twirls were "Christmas clearance" at 90% off and the other decor were from the wedding section during a 50% off sale. These were hung using the easy to remove tabs from Command.

This falling snow creates a dramatic effect for a small cost

Using invisible thread I strung white pom poms (but you could easily use cotton balls!) and placed them at different heights to give the illusion of falling snow. The larger snowflakes were purchased from the wedding section at Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale ($5 for 25 snowflakes). To save money, make paper snowflakes or find clearance items after the holidays.

Turn an easy cheese ball recipe into an impressive Olaf replica

The make ahead cheese ball recipe I created was incredibly simple:

1. Soften two 8oz bars of regular cream cheese and one 8oz bar of reduced fat cream cheese on the counter for a few hours.
2. Mix all of the softened cream cheese in a large bowl with one packet of ranch dip mix and 4oz of shredded sharp white cheddar. I shred my own cheese because I don't like the consistency of pre-shredded cheese because of the anti-caking agents they add.
3. Chill the mixture overnight or for several hours until firm.
4. Create two small balls for feet (I used a Pamper Chef 1 inch cookie scoop), a large and smaller ball for the body, and an oval for his head. I wrapped each piece separately in plastic wrap and then placed them all on a plate and covered again with plastic wrap. Freeze until the morning of your party. 
5. Right before the party, assemble Olaf. I am going to make a second one for bug's kid party and will post a separate tutorial on Olaf's assembly in a few weeks. 

These cute milk bottles play double duty as a dessert table decoration

I love the way fancy milk bottles look for parties, but hate the cost. I also hate how much milk gets wasted when the kids take them because they look cool, but only drink a few ounces of milk. For these reasons, I decided I wasn't going to make them. Then, I stumbled upon these bud vases on sale at Michael's. They only cost me 40 cents apiece and hold 3-4 oz of milk. Perfect! I cropped a photo of Olaf to just include his face, printed on a regular color printer, and then glued these onto paper straws (from the dollar bins at Target). I glued the black pom poms on with hot glue.

Fun way to display treats

I used this same cupcake stand last year (which my mom purchased from a craft store using a coupon) to display "wisps" for our Brave themed party. The treat this year was hot cocoa muddy buddy mix. Recipe can be found here.

Snowball and snowflake cookies complete a perfectly frosty dessert display

The vanilla meringues were purchased from Trader Joe's ($3.99 for a decent size container) and the cookies were homemade. I purchased snowflake cookie cutters on clearance after the holidays and used my mom's sugar cookie recipe. After reading many blogs for advice to prevent the cookies from spreading, I omitted all baking powder/baking soda from the recipe and made sure to chill the cut dough in the freezer for at least twenty minutes before baking.

I made the cookies ahead of time and stored them (un-frosted) in the freezer until the week of the party. Two days before the party I took the cookies out and used this small batch recipe for royal icing to outline and flood the cookies. The next day I made a second batch to pipe on the details. I kept them stored in an air-tight container until the party.

This impressive, but easy to assemble Frozen cake is a show stopper!

The first step in creating this cake is making all of the snowflakes to embellish the cake. I used a coupon to purchase a small package of Wilton white fondant at 40% off. I used the snowflake cookie cutters for the larger flakes and a set of flower fondant punches from Hobby Lobby for the smaller flakes. I left them out on a cooling rack for 24 hours to harden. I embellished the flakes with larger teal pearls, mini white pearls, and the same royal icing I used to decorate the sugar cookies.

Two days day before the party I used two box mixes (I know, I hate them too. I replaced the oil with melted butter for a more homemade flavor) to bake three layers of cake (6, 8, and 10 inch Wilton pans). They need to cool completely before you frost!

The day before the party I made 2 batches of this buttercream that I piped on using a Wilton 2D tip. Once all the frosting was piped I sprinkled the cake with white sanding sugar for sparkle and added my hardened fondant decorations and extra teal pearls.

I will have more details on Frozen party activities coming up in a few weeks after the bug's friend party, so check back then if you are hungry for more!

Frozen Party

My bug is five (FIVE!) years old now. I'll spare you a bunch of cheesy comments about "time flying" and feeling like it was "just yesterday that she was born". The truth is that some days being her mom have been amazing and others have been really, really hard. Even on our worst days, I love her with all of my heart. This year I had a blast planning a Frozen themed birthday party to celebrate what a special little girl she is to me.

Thanks to the internet and Pinterest I've been researching ideas for her party for months. I thought it would be fun this year to share "inspiration" versus "actual" photos of our party details. I'll fill in a few more details and post larger photos in a separate post later this week.

I really wanted to share these photos early, check back later this week for tutorials, recipes, etc! As always, I hope my work inspires someone else out there!

Frozen Day 4 - Tutu photo tutorial!

So when I started my "5 days of Frozen" I intended it to be five consecutive days. Seriously, I have no idea how I thought that was going to happen. Life is just too crazy for a working mama with two kids under the age of five to really expect enough free time FIVE DAYS IN A ROW to accomplish anything more than keeping everyone alive. In my defense, I did create the two pretty sweet Anna and Elsa tutus you're about to read all about. They are actually really easy to make and I finished each one with just a few hours of mindless work after the girls went to bed.

Without further ado, here is my photo tutorial...

Step 1: Measure the waist of your birthday girl/princess/monster child. I was ready to start my little one's tutu when she was napping, so I based her waist measurement on a pair of pants I knew fit her well. Whatever your measurement is, subtract 1-2 inches (1 for a smaller tutu, 2 for a bigger one) before cutting your elastic. You do this because the elastic gets stretched as you tie the tulle. Trust me. If you don't subtract some length, the tutu won't fit!

Step 2: Overlap the ends of your elastic by ~1 inch and sew. You can use a machine or do it by hand like I did. I like to fully secure the elastic ends by sewing a square.

Step 3: Measure and cut your tulle. I used 25 yard rolls of tulle in different colors from Hobby Lobby. The amount you will need depends on how full you want to make your tutu. For my older daughter I used two full rolls and about 1/2 of a roll of glitter tulle added as an accent. I measured by using a rigid mailing envelope to wrap a large amount of tulle around and then cut one end to create many strips with one cut. For the bigger tutu I wrapped the long way around the envelope and the opposite for the smaller one (I was making the smaller one in this tutorial).

Step 4: Start tying the tulle. Fold the tulle in half and create a loop. Place the loop behind the elastic. Pull the loose ends up and through the loop. Pull just until the loop is wrapped around the elastic with the loose ends pointing down. How tight you make the knot (and how close together you squeeze the pieces of tulle) will determine how full your tutu is at the end.

Step 5: Keep tying! Repeat step 4 until the entire elastic band is covered.

Step 6: Once the entire band is covered, you can add more tulle on top of the first row if you want to make it fuller. This was really hard to capture a photo of, but basically you just add another loop between pre-existing loops and don't pull it as tight allowing it to lay on top of your base layer of tulle. I also did this on my Elsa tutu with the glitter tulle that I added at the end.

Step 7: Add on any embellishments you want! I didn't add anything to the little bear's tutu because I didn't want her to be enticed to pull it apart, but I did sew on some snowflake ribbon I purchased after Christmas for my bug's tutu. Other add-on ideas include a big bow, ribbons, or sequins.

FYI: The shirts were made by a local small business RyleighRoo

Frozen Birthday Party Sneak Peek!

As per my usual routine I start hoarding birthday party supplies as soon as we decide on a theme. Although Maddie's birthday falls in the spring, I've had all winter to look for snowflakes and glittery icicle items. I was even able to get some great deals after Christmas and will be able to take advantage of my father-in-law's extensive Christmas lawn decoration collection to set the scene.

Here are the supplies I will be working with over the next month to put together a Frozen celebration worthy of a princess...

Can you guess what I'm doing with all these supplies? Or what items will never actually make it to the party?


Here's a sneak peek at my custom made invitation...

For the first time in forrrrrever (good luck getting it out of your head now...) we're planning a separate adult family party and a kid/school friends party. Double planning, double the fun? We will see!