Elf Shenanigans 2013- Part 3!

So our cute little elves decided to try to pack Kayleigh's lunch on Sunday the 22nd, not realizing that she would be on vacation! Selsie chose marshmallows, Christmas tree cakes, and chocolate chip muffins. Kayleigh kindly thanked him and proceeded to ask me if she could eat it anyway.  Oh, dear.

That night, the girls had a sleep over under the Christmas tree. Tis the season for making memories, right? Who wouldn't want to do that?! The elves were pretty tired after their flight back from the North Pole, so they ransacked my sock drawer and found my fluffy, comfy, cozy red and white striped socks. They used these as sleeping bags and joined the girls that night in the living room. So cute!

Today, the elves brought Kayleigh a great gift from them. A baking set complete with a cute elf chef hat and apron that said, "I love my family" and Kayleigh's said, "I love my elf". She adored it and quickly made plans to make them their favorite cookies.

Tonight the elves fly back to Santa and it seems that the holiday season flew by even faster this year for some reason. Maybe because Thanksgiving came later. In any case, it went too fast. Just like Kayleigh is growing up too fast. I can't believe six years have gone by so quickly. That is why I write to her and journal and blog and create beautiful photo books. These memories are what is important- not the gifts or the money or the house or the clothes- but these wonderful times together that will live on and on and possibly become traditions she will use one day. Life is often short on magic but with a little luck and Magic Elf Dust, that can be changed.  Have a very Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Sugar Plum Fairy and Gingerbread Party             

December 21st, 2013

This year I had a blast planning a Sugar Plum Fairy/ Gingerbread Party for Kayleigh and a few of her closest friends. We chose a light pink, lavender, and white color scheme with gingerbread brown to compliment the gingerbread theme.  I planned the party the first Saturday of the Winter Vacation for about 2-3 hours. I invited 5 little girls and planned on a small gathering.  Parents of course, were always more than welcome to drop off or stay. 

The Planning:

I had gone back and forth about whether to have real gingerbread houses to decorate but also wanted them to be a keepsake, so I settled on purchasing wooden birdhouses for about $1 each at AC Moore and painted them brown. I used real candy such as peppermints, nonpareils, licorice, gum drops, spice drops, Necco wafers, and royal icing to stick it all on. I purchased little Wilton squeeze bottles in packs of 2 for about $1.99 at Christmas Tree Shops to dispense the royal icing. I figured that I could spray them with clear lacquer and they would not spoil. 

For the table scape, I found a beautiful idea here.

From JoAnn’s I bought shimmery white and lavender floral picks, some vases, and Epsom salts and created an adorable centerpiece. I also bought shimmery lavender satin fabric to pair with a sheer shimmery white snowflake fabric to use as an overlay tablecloth, and a white snowflake pattern fabric for another tablecloth.

I wanted to have cute place settings for each girl so I found shimmery lavender and pink 12 x 12 scrapbook paper squares that I decorated with snowflake stickers and laminated so they could be reused. From Oriental Trading Company I purchased pink aprons and a gingerbread garland. I cut the gingerbread boys and girls from the garland and hot glued them to the aprons. Now I had cute aprons for the girls to wear while they decorated their houses! I also purchased little marshmallow pop ups and mini white popcorn boxes from there to decorate and hold the candies at each decorating station.

I found a beautiful pink peppermint nutcracker on Amazon and also purchased pink and white and mint green and white striped straws to use as actual straws or for part of my dessert table. I found pink and white marshmallows and peppermints, and various table items of cupcake liners, plates, flatware, pink and purple swirl lollipop ornaments, and other decorations to make this a winter wonderland.  Add a roll of Buffalo snow and it was complete.

I looked around local supermarkets and came across those pink snowball desserts and thought, “Perfect! What a great dessert idea!” I also decided the party fare would include snowflake sugar cookies, white chocolate snowflakes, cupcakes decorated with little gingerbread men, hot cocoa, milk, and “ice water”. 

I found these adorable invitations on Zazzle.com here.  They came out perfect and complimented the theme so well.  I put little white shimmer snowflakes in the envelopes to add to the magical effect.

I also bought a wooden letter “K” and a small square plaque that I painted shimmery pink and shimmery white. I hot glued the K to the stand and figured I could use that as part of a centerpiece for this party and for future parties.

I found the cutest pink and white printables here for the party labels.

One of my friends, whose daughter is friends with Kayleigh, found these cute fairy wings that she thought would be perfect for the party too. I set out little pink and purple tutus that the girls could wear as part of their “Sugar Plum Fairy” attire too. These I plan to reuse for Kayleigh’s “Under the Sea Mermaid Party” for her 7^th birthday this year.  Knowing a party theme ahead of time sure helps with bargain shopping because I love to raid the clearance sections of local stores to see what I find. Saves money, keeps it fun for planning purposes, and who wants to spend full price for anything anyway?

                                 

The Party:

The girls arrived and donned their “Fairy Attire” at the Sugar Plum Fairy Boutique.  I put on some Sugar Plum Fairy music and the girls had fun dancing around the living room. I set the kitchen table with the pretty table cloth, place settings, mini popcorn buckets full of candies,  icing bags of royal icing to use as “glue” and the painted bird houses at each place setting.  The girls donned their aprons and set to work constructing their masterpieces. What fun we all had! 

We decorated them first to give them time to try before the girls took them home.

Party fare included pink coconut "snowballs", gingerbread cookies, hot cocoa on a stick or in the carafe, peppermint whip with Pirouline wafer cookies, cupcakes with little gingerbread icing decorations, and other confectionary delights. "Fairy Water" was also available and some wine for the "Sugar Plum Fairy Mothers".

                                  

                                 

                                 

                                 

                                  

The girls were so cute dancing around for a game of Sugar Plum Fairy Freeze Dance! They loved wearing the fairy wings, tutus, and gloves that we got!

Please be sure to check out my Sugar Plum Fairy Gingerbread Party Inspiration Board on Pinterest here.

Enjoy!!

Ariane 

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