I don’t know what it is with kids birthday parties, but I’m just not that into them. My kids birthday parties that is. I love going to other people’s kids parties. I really enjoy seeing all the fun and creative things other parents have done or the cool place they are having it at. But, for whatever reason, I don’t get that excited about planning a party for my own kids. This is especially odd considering I was an event planner until my oldest was 10 months. At my core, I feel that my kids don’t need a big fete annually. Instead, I think they should have them every other year or just for the big birthdays. I make their big day very special within our home and within our extended family. It’s not like their special days would pass with a whisper if there was not a friends party. Having said all that, I still end up doing some kind of a party every year.
Danica (you may remember her from here) and I decided to combine Brady and Brooke’s third birthday parties. She suggested a Frozen theme because it would work really well for boy and a girl. I’m sure you know that coming across Frozen stuff in a store is still like finding a $100 bill in a parking lot, so we had to get a little creative. Here’s what we did.
The park location was perfect. We held it at Nisenan Community Park in Folsom. I wanted to have a grand entrance so I added these balloons. I ordered a dozen of them from my local Raley’s and tied the string to a golf tee and shoved it in the grass. They stayed in place despite the strong winds we were having.
They did not survive this.
The park has a covered picnic area, spray ground, playground, basketball court, baseball diamond, and some fun hills. The weather was super nice, we really lucked out. The kids, all but mine (go figure), took advantage of the spray ground.
You know I’m no graphic designer and I love me some free printables! I took full advantage of the wonderful work people have already done and kindly placed on the internet for everyone’s personal use. Thank goodness for those talented people! I’ve linked to the original source for each printable used for this party.
My shabby chic chalkboard stand (that loyal readers have seen a million times by now, purchased several years ago from here) was adorned with this free and beautiful Arendelle printable banner. I printed the banner on heavy card stock and taped to the front of tray. I brought my son’s talking Olaf doll (bought in Disneyland) and added a B I’ve had for years. I painted another plain B I already had and painted it to match the occasion. I have tons of that blue spray paint! I painted it (using this method), added loose glitter after the last coat of blue, and sealed it with a clear coat of spray paint I already had. I gifted that one to the birthday girl. Of course it’s only fitting to add a cute message like, “It’s coronation day! B & B are 3”. After it was all dolled up, I put it at the entrance of the walkway to greet guests.
I found this free printable here, it was so cute I knew I had to add this to the party somewhere. It found a home for it on the gift table in the same frame I use for all my seasonal free printables in my home. (Seen here.)
I really don’t like favors at all, but they are a necessary evil. I made these by adding three large marshmallows, two small marshmallows, two stick pretzels, three mini chocolate chips, and one orange tic tac to a snack size ziplock bag. To make them look adorable and explain what the contents are for, I took advantage of these ridiculously cute free printables and stapled them on. Who am I kidding? My daughter stuffed the bags for me during quiet time and my sister-in-law, Katie, folded them and stapled them to the baggies for me. All I had to do was print and cut. Thanks ladies!
My little man really wanted something of Sven and Kristoff at the party. But I tried several stores and could not find anything. I found this poster (they had tons of others) for $5 and the frame at Walmart. I knew this was as good as it was going to get. The frame was originally black, and that just wouldn’t do! So I painted it the same blue as the letter above. Because the frame was black and plastic, I used Zinsser BIN Primer before the blue. This is my absolute fave primer! I always have a few cans on hand. I didn’t really have a great place to put it at the park, but it worked well at the end of the table.
I found the blank food labels here and the snowflake ones here. To make the snowball label holders, I picked up styrofoam balls from Joann’s, cut them in half, added a slit, and popped the labels in.
- Elsa’s Icicles = hummus
- Olaf’s Nose = carrots
- Fresh Snow Dip = ranch
- Snowman Arms = pretzels
- We Finish Each Other’s Sandwiches = sandwiches
For the drink bin, I added a little flare with Elsa’s frozen hands. I filled latex gloves with water and froze them. This picture was taken after they had melted a bit. They were a kinda creepy, but still fun!
My co-host made these cupcakes. Can you believe it? They were so delicious. Danica said she needed more frosting than she thought to get the height she wanted. So remember to buy or make more than you think you may need to achieve this look. After they were frosted she added the blue sugar to make them look very frozen. I wish I was that talented in the baking department!
The birthday kiddos loved the cupcakes!
Because of the Frozen party supply drought, I made this “Let it go” banner for the food table.
I bought this banner at Target and glued on silver cardboard letters I already had from the “dolla dolla bins y’all!” at Target. For the snowflake I used good ol’ Elmers Glue for the design and sprinkled glitter on top.
My co-host found these adorable Frozen party supplies at Party City in Folsom.
The tables at the park are oversize, so we put blue underneath the Frozen ones. The blue is from a roll of tablecloths I already had and added some blue and white snowflakes I had left over from Christmas. My daughter add a little glitter to liven them up.
The adorable birthday girl, Brooke, playing with her fresh snow.
For activities activities, we decided to do some of the fun summer ones from this Beat the Heat post and segment I did for Good Day Sacramento back in May. Danica and I each made the snow and added some silver glitter for fun. My co-host brought her water table to put the snow in. The kids had a good time molding it and using some utensils.
Eventually the kids decided to put the snow on the ground then into plastic bottles to “keep forever”. Thankfully, Danica’s husband ran home for a broom to help with clean-up.
Click here for snow recipe…it only takes two ingredients.
We also froze some fun stuff for the kids to break open. I cannot tell you how much the kids loved this! Danica and I could only find a few Frozen items to freeze, so we just did what we could. She bought some stuff from the goody bag section of Party City and froze that. We both froze some stuff we hand on hand like small animal figurines and dinosaurs. I wish I had frozen more, the kids could have done this all day!
Don’t forget to bring all kinds of tools to “Split the ice apart. Beware the frozen heart…”.
We also had a ton of sidewalk chalk on hand for the kids to get creative with. This was a hit! I also brought my bubble machine.
The birthday boy clowned around with the chalk version of his favorite character. Thankfully his dad is a great artist!
Speaking of Nick, he also chalked it up on the basketball court. We thought it would be fun to do the same concept of the water balloon bullseye toss from this post. We winterized it for the Frozen theme by making a snow flake instead of a bulleseye. Danica and my hubby filled some water balloons and hid them from the kids until it was time for the game.
Nick lined the kids up and explained what they were going to do.
The birthday kiddos got to toss first.
Then everyone else let ‘er rip! Miraculously I was only pelted by one balloon.
The birthday boy and girl had a great time. This little man was ready for some sleep once all the fun was done.
XOXO
A
Mama Momtourage 