Winter Party 2015

Polar Express Party!

This winter I decided to throw Kayleigh and her friends a “Polar Express” party to celebrate winter and the Christmas holiday.  I figured that the kids could watch the movie and drink hot chocolate. Of course Pinterest was not short on ideas for sure!

I decided to use red plates and red plaid napkins that I had left over from our North Pole party a few years back. I used red velvet scrapbook paper as placemats for the tables and created a postcard type invitation like this.

I purchased gold vellum from Michael’s and printed the gold tickets to put inside the invitations. The printable I found for free here. I also found little tags to put on the bells here.

I decided on a white, red, and light blue color scheme and invited the kids to bring sleeping bags and wear their pajamas. We turned the downstairs into the “North Pole Movie Theater” and they watched the movie while the adults had the upstairs to chat and mingle. Here is a printable for you!

I used white Christmas lights behind the bar and set up the goodies for the kids there including pizza. For the most part, the popcorn stayed in the boxes! They were the cutest red and white striped boxes that I got from Christmas Tree Shops for only $1.69! I grabbed four and used them to serve the popcorn.

We had powdered donuts, salted caramel and pumpkin spice cookies, popcorn, hot chocolate, cheese and crackers, a veggie platter that I arranged to look like a Christmas tree, sugar cookies that I decorated, home made Chex mix, egg nog dip, and pizza!  I also made delicious Peppermint Whip. It is the easiest thing ever. Pulverize candy canes into a powder and stir into your favorite whipped topping. Serve with cookies, pretzels or Pirouline wafter cookies and Voila! It is awesome in hot cocoa as well! The grown-ups also enjoyed white chocolate hot cocoa. You can find the recipe here. It is so delicious and easy to make in the crock pot!

One of the cutest cupcakes of all time came from Bakerella. Her post here is what I used to create these cuties! Check them out!

Seriously, how cute is this guy's little tongue?!

I bought red paper containers to put the favors in. Of course the night would not be complete without bells from Santa! I made little packets of Magic Reindeer Food and placed them inside as well. You can find printables of them here.

The kids had a blast!!! Enjoy some more pictures of our party!

Merry Christmas!!

Ariane

Elf Breakfast 2015! The Year of the Reindeer!

Kayleigh & Kaylin

Welcome to your Elf Breakfast

  2015

This year was the “Year of the Reindeer”! I love that there are always new and exciting things coming from the North Pole! K loves her elves Selsie and Cherry Cinnamon and this year, they brought a special reindeer to visit! She named him Hazelnut and was so happy that she could hold him!

The elves brought special goodies for K and her best friend and they munched on French toast and chocolate chips. The elves had a picnic as well with tiny m&m’s, gingerbread marshmallows and chocolate chips. They even had tiny red solo cups for their orange juice! Such fun!!

I hope you have a wonderful and magical holiday season!

Ariane 

Elf Breakfast 2014

Here are some cute pics from our Elf Breakfast of 2015! Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!!! 

Keep Calm and Elf On!

North Pole Party 2013

December 7th, 2013

One Word.... Magical

This year I came across a wonderful blog about a "Night at the North Pole" party by Kellie Hampton and that inspired me to create my own version. What a beautiful set up she had (her house is gorgeous too) and truly a memorable night for the kids. I loved this party because I feel that the magic is gone too soon for our kids today. The world is too serious and they have to grow up too fast. I am a big believer in the fact that they have the rest of their lives to be an adult and grow up, so why not preserve the precious  memories and delights of childhood as long as possible?  Am I right?  But I digress.....

I created my own Reindeer Food Bar signs, Reindeer Bar food labels, Elf Staff Meeting signs, party invitations, and sent a note to the North Pole requesting an Elf for the special gathering. I used brown paper envelopes with snowflake sparkles inside and a red glitter gel pen to address them in a sparkly font. I used some "North Pole Candy Co." labels featured on The Mother Huddle to add to the candy in the glass jars.

I went to my local Christmas Tree Shops and came across these cute little  Santa cups with the black buckle, candy cane striped plates and napkins that I mixed with white napkins and red plates, and used my cute cookie plates for Santa that I had on hand from last year's Christmas. I also found these gorgeous birch candles at Walmart for $4 each and they went perfect with my winter wonderland theme at the fireplace. Christmas Tree also had a beautiful white deer snow-globe on a pedestal that I placed at the table.

I used a cheap roll of candy stripe wrapping paper to line the walkway. I found candy cane walkway lights to stake the entryway and everything came together so nicely!  I decided to check out my local Homegoods store too and found these great vintage Santa and Egg Nog signs. The Santa sign I put out on the porch because it was perfect to "Welcome" the party-goers to the North Pole.  The Egg Nog sign I placed inside by the food table and the cute Hot Cocoa sign I placed by the Hot Cocoa Bar.

Party fare included mini pancakes (as the party started about 5pm) for dinner with whipped cream. I made little macaroni and cheese bites as well that were so good! We also had snicker doodles, sugar cookies, peppermint whip with pirouline wafer cookies, powdered donut "snowballs", milk, hot cocoa, coffee for the adults, and other savory goodies and adult beverages. 

The kids arrived in their pajamas and once the gang was all there, were given a cute glittery red mini take out box to take to the Reindeer Food Bar to create their own concoction of Magic Reindeer Food. I tied a hand-made name tag to the box with red and white striped baker's twine I found in the dollar section of Target. They could choose from potato chips, oats, red glitter, green glitter, raisins, flying powder (flour), cocoa, and bread crumbs. 

Once they had made their reindeer food, we heard a knock on the door and apparently, Santa's elf had left a note from the big guy himself. It said that Santa had dropped some items and needed their help in finding them! The kids were very excited and so donning their coats and hats, we set out to find Santa's missing things. Along the way, we actually saw that elf running around the neighborhood! The kids were so fast that they almost caught him! We did find all of Santa's missing items and were able to leave them on the porch for the elf to take back to Santa. The kids kept coming back to the door and peeking out to see when the elf would come and take the missing things. He eventually did!

Santa had lost his sleigh key, his hat, his favorite hot cocoa mug, Rudolph's collar, Mrs. Claus' cookie sprinkles, a large candy cane, his driver's license, special greens that the reindeer eat, an ornament, and his pocket watch.

The whole scavenger hunt was priceless and I could not stop laughing. All of the other moms loved how excited the kids were and how they kept commenting on what the elves look like and how they run. It made the evening.

Here is a video of the event!!!

I loved watching all of the kids in their pajamas and the excitement shining in their eyes all night. After they came back in from the scavenger hunt, they had some of the goodies and settled down to watch some holiday movies.  As the guests left, they were handed a "Magic Pillowcase" that I had made with these cute printable gift tags from sissyprint as a favor. Check out her blog, so many cute ideas. I learned how to make the pillowcases from beadandcord.com. They were "sew" easy! I'm not much of a seamstress (my mother and sister are the sewers there!) but I was able to make really cute ones! I was surprised at how they came out and pleasantly surprised at that!

I have included links to my invite and Reindeer Food Labels. Feel free to download and print, just make sure to cite where it came from (aka Me!)

The kids had a blast as did the grownups. I loved planning this party and being a part of something so special. It really brought the magic of Christmas right to our front door.  A special thanks to Kellie Hampton for her idea! I loved it.

I hope you enjoy looking at these photos as much as I loved and enjoyed planning this party! You can find a link to my Pinterest North Pole Party Ideas board here.

Enjoy!
Ariane