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

Frozen Winter Wonderland Birthday Party!

Kayleigh's birthday is upon us again and I cannot believe it! She loved the movie "Frozen" when it came out and I thought what a fun idea it would be to have a "winter in June" theme. I wanted to use a lot of snowflakes, white snow, and winter birch branches. I reused the birch branches from Christmas and her First Communion. I placed one pot by the dessert table, and the other out by the door. On the porch, I covered it with buffalo snow that I got for 90% off after Christmas. 

We used hues of silver, winter white, icy blue, and lavender to complete the theme. I used many items from my Winter Wonderland party and other winter parties. The white tablecloths and the white tulle table skirt that I made combined with discounted clearance buffalo snow on top made for a beautiful setting. 

I found rolls of ribbon on clearance for $0.49 each and these I used to decorate the wands. Discounted iridescent snowflake ornaments were hot glued to the top of dowels to complete the look. Additional white sparkly snowflake ornaments were used to create more wands. These can be purchased through my Etsy shop here! 

From Oriental Trading Company, I purchased the favor boxes, acrylic clear, pink, and blue ice, and snowflake stickers. From Michael's I purchased white, lavender, and light blue gift bags to put the favors in. I included a baggie of heart and snowflake marshmallows, green and blue sugar crystals (which were the melted hearts, snowflakes, Elsa crystals, and troll glow stones), a crown, a plastic sparkle ice castle ornament (gotten on clearance after Christmas), silver or sparkle blue headbands, and white gumballs. 

I also bought a canvas and using wax paper, ironed a stencil of Elsa's silouette on the canvas and then used shimmer paint to paint over it. Once dry, I pulled it off and behold the masterpiece. This was the centerpiece of the dessert table. I also used a jar and decorated it with snowflake stickers and filled it with shimmery gumballs.

Additional items included, white sparkle clear flatware (Christmas Tree Shops- $2.99 each), stickers on clearance from AC Moore and Michael's, 3 icy look rings that I placed around the glass votive containers, and tons of paper snowflakes that Kayleigh and I made together. 

Food was simple fair placed in clear canisters. I created a gorgeous shimmery white 6x9 inch cake using white buttercream, white cake, and white sanding sugar. It came out amazing! The top layer was white, middle blue, and bottom was lavender. Fondant snowflakes completed it and I didn't want to cut into it! Other treats included:

Olaf's Noses: Carrots

Elsa's Snowflakes: snowflake shaped cookies

Shimmer White Gumballs

Fruit Salad: Grapes and blueberries

Olaf's Arms: Pretzel sticks

Olaf in Summer: Fondant Olaf in blue jello

Frozen Hearts: Strawberries in white chocolate

Games included Pin the Carrot on Olaf, snogie and Sven construction craft, and outdoor play!

The kids had a great time and it was so fun! Can't wait to plan for next year!

Happy 8th Birthday K!!!
xoxo,
Mumma

A Mother and Daughter's Letters to Santa Brunch!

This year I decided to throw my little snow bunny a Mother and Daughter "Letters to Santa" brunch. I also thought it would be sweet to invite the other little girls she is close friends with and their mothers as a nice late morning/early afternoon gathering.

I found a cute little white metal mailbox from Oriental Trading Company and created the cutest little invitations that looked like postcards! The printable can be found here. The color theme was white, red, and blue with pine and brown paper accents. I found these gorgeous letters to Santa place mats from Pottery Barn and thought they would go perfectly with the theme for the party! This is why I love to plan ahead! Ha!

So, we decorated the table with brown paper and used stamps to stamp cute decorations all over it in red and black ink. Kayleigh had a blast making the table cover. We had brown paper packages with ribbon and string for decorations and used the sparkling white snow globe that I had from the North Pole Party last year as part of the décor too. I used my little white tabletop tree and printed out the cutest "Dear Santa" letterhead! The kids took turns at the letter station writing their letters to Santa and had fun with the "Reindeer Games" that were set up to play with.

As favors, I made little elves for the kids to take home. I made little name tags featuring names of elves for the kids to chose from when they arrived at our "Elf Adoption Center" such as Icicle, Candy Cane, Sprinkles, Snowflake, Peppermint, Elfie, Lucky, Kringle, Elfie, Sparkle, Creampuff, Blizzard, Rice Krispie, Jolly, Jack, Chip, and Jingle. You can find this printable here.

I made the elves using a pattern that I found on craftsy.com and they came out amazing! Kayleigh chose hers right away and each child received an Adoption Certificate with their little elf. These were the favors at our little party. Little packages of "Elf Pillows" were there to take with the little elves.

This is a picture of the Elf Adoption Certificate! It came out really cute. 

You can find a printable located here. As with all available printables, please remember to cite where it came from (Me!) Thanks. In addition to the elves, each child was given an "Elf Care Package" complete with packets of Elf Pillows and Magic Candy Cane Seeds. The printables can be found by clicking the link!

We also had plenty of goodies and a cookie decorating station too! What yummy creations!

Here are some of the pictures from the party! Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this party blog! We had a great time and feel free to comment below!

Ariane :)