Happy Frozen Birthday Princess Ella!

My sweet, round faced four year old went and turned five on me this month. 

Boo.

And yay!  

If you're a mom you know how I feel. A birthday as significant as five should be celebrated big time , but it's so hard to believe it's happened so quickly and comes with a certain amount of disbelief. 

All that said, we had a party for her two and a half weeks ago now...(also hard to believe!) and while I meant to post this much sooner than now...well, here it is... and that's about how things go in my world these days (:

Our house is about all things Frozen these days and thus our theme for the party emerged quite quickly and without hesitation! 

If you have little girls between the ages of 3-10 in your life, chances are you have been as indoctrinated into all things "Frozen" as we have. While I can't say for sure (I don't know the stats) it seems, that for some reason, this movie has taken off with the little princess crowd to a degree much greater than many of the other recent Disney movies.

I mean we liked Tangled, but we LOVE...we ADORE...we SING until we're blue in the face,  all things Frozen.  We have hand motions to "Let it Go"  and skits inspired by "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

And, I must confess, sometimes reindeer ARE better than people...but I digress (that's an inside joke for those of you haven't seen the movie).

We've seen the movie in the theatre twice, have watched every preview and clip that You Tube has to offer on multiple occasions and play the soundtrack daily (and from the Facebook posts I've been reading it seems that we might not be alone!).

If you are the parent of a princess who has been bit by the Frozen bug and whose birthday happens to fall in the current winter months chances are you too may have spent time tracking down sold out plates and napkins and party favors at party city and scouring online sites for all things necessary for a Frozen themed Birthday party.

You may have even paid $6, plus shipping for 75 "smile maker" Frozen stickers (you know the ones they give away at the doctors office to bring back a smile after a stressful visit!) for goody bags, even though you  knew it was a very irrational and impractical thing to do because all such stickers and favors were deemed "sold out" at every store and website you visited.

Or maybe that was just me (:

My husband likes to tease me, when I'm griping about how little time I have, that if I put as much time into my writing or organizing our infamous basement as I do into planning my girl's birthday parties that I'd probably have things more figured out.

Haha.

 I'm not even sure what to say to that. Except that the girls only turn 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 once. And quite frankly, I know that here will come a time when they will cringe at the thought of Disney themed birthday plates and homemade glitter crowns...the days are long, but the years are very, very short and so I'm making the most of these birthdays (as insane as I swear they are going to make me sometimes!) and we try to celebrate in style.

Or at least as much style as this anxious momma can handle...

Ah yes, big-ish birthday parties, with almost a dozen wee ones who would rather play in our playroom then participate in the complicated craft that the overzealous mom planned, are one of those things I would have said I would NEVER do before becoming a mom...

Ahhh....I was so naive about who I would be as a mom.

That list is becoming quite long and most recently includes picking my daughter up from preschool, on a regular basis, at noon, in the same clothes that I wore to bed the night before with no makeup and a hat to covered my tattered mess of hair...because...I kid you not, between nursing the baby and cleaning up breakfast there is no time left over for getting dressed.

But I digress...again.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. The very funny story of entertianing nine sweet little girls for 2 1/2 hours and living to tell about it (:

Our cupcake and favor table...can you see the purple snowflakes that Scott and I were hanging from the ceiling at, I kid you not, 12:30 a.m. the night before?  

the cupcake and goody bag toppers were created from a file I purchased from an artist on Etsy. You'd be surprised at how many party suppliers you can find on there and what they can create. We also purchased the file for Ella's invitations (which were really cute) and her thank you notes. We had everything printed out on card stock at Office Depot and then I purchased a large, round scalloped paper punch to punch out the cupcake toppers. The best part about it was that they were personalized with her name...so cute!

Here is a link to the Esty Shoppe I used...Digi Party Shoppe

Goodie Bag Loot

Good bags

The peppermint white chocolate covered snowflake pretzels I found at Wal-Mart turned out to be a party favorite...Who would have guessed?!

A couple of the girls with the crowns and wands we made...note to self...I should have just made them myself before the girls showed up and let them run around the house hitting balloons at each other with their pre made gear all ready to go!

Scott's very fair question to me..."Um, Honey, was this craft for 4 year olds or 10 year olds?"

There is, after all, a big difference.

I knew there was a reason I majored in elementary education for just one semester in college before switching to secondary education. 

The girls watching You Tube videos of Olaf and Elsa streamed through Apple TV.  

Haha. The lovely fruits and veggies I cut up. Another note to self...Four year old girls really like fruit and don't really like vegetables. At least not at birthday parties! 

The paper goods!

Our lunch crew. 

Pin the carrot nose on Olaf (I can't find my after picture!)...a game that was MUCH more competitive than I would have guessed! 

Happy Birthday Ella Bear! Or "Elsa Bear" as Nanner so creatively coined and you now prefer to be called (:

One quick picture of the day after the Frozen party, which was Ella's actual birthday. It has become a right of passage in our house (that Scott cringes at) to get an American Girl doll for your fifth birthday. I won't go on and on about how stinkin' expensive the dolls are... I will say, despite their steep price tag they are very well made and Ella LOVES her new doll. And the girls have played dolls almost every day since...which is very sweet.

So, there you have it...a successful princess birthday party for my sweet five year old. 

I told Ava and Ella they are both having their next birthday party OUT of the house. I love them to pieces, but I do, after all, need a little more time to clean my basement and write blog posts...

It's all a precarious balance that I'm afraid I will never figure out, but in the meantime Disney songs and glitter crowns are kind of fun, if I do say so myself! 

P.S. Two more suggestions for Frozen party ideas...

1. My friend Chaunie recently wrote an article for the Disney baby website about hosting a Frozen party and offers links to a few more fun ideas. You can read her article here...

http://www.disneybaby.com/blog/host-a-frozen-party/

(she happened to borrow a photo of Ella's cupcakes, which was kind of fun! You may recognize the photo!)

2. I found a ton of stuff on Pinterest (go figure!) including the template for the crowns we made and  printable pictures which ended up being a favorite and a great activity for the girls at the end of the party while we were winding down and waiting for parents (: