Sophia chose her own theme again this year and suggested a snowflake party. Such a unique idea ... And even better, I was able to find many decorations on clearance after Christmas (noting to myself that it would not be as easy to pull this theme off in July!).
As usual, I involved Sophia as much as possible in the planning and decorating. I already had the wrapping paper with snowflakes on it in my Christmas bin, so that I pulled that out and used it to cover the picture that customarily hangs in the dining room. The blue and white snowflakes that we put on the wall were the original inspiration for the color scheme when I score them for a total of $0.20 at Target after Christmas.
Sophia was allowed to invite four friends to her party (I kept it small this time around because I knew that I would only be about two weeks post-partum with James). All of them were able to attend except for one (Boo ... one of the girls had pneumonia!), but Samantha happily filled in for the extra guest.
The favor bags were filled with all kinds of snowflake items (a bracelet, pencils, notepads, Frozen fruit snacks ...) and were large enough to carry their crafts home in, as well.
When the guests arrived, I had their table all set up for them to each make a scarf to take home with them. The scarves were pretty much already assembled ...
The girls just tied various ribbons onto the ends to complete them.
Sophia, with her friends and their beautiful scarves:
And a picture with Sam too:
After the scarf craft, the girls had pizza, breadsticks, veggies, lemonade and applesauce. An easy meal that everyone enjoyed.
After washing their hands, the girls reconvened at the table to make a "snow globe." I found some spice jars on clearance (only $0.69 each) and the girls chose a snowman to stick on a piece of Styrofoam and made trees out of silver pipe cleaners (from my craft box). Then, we filled the jars with "snow" -- fine, white glitter dust left over from Samantha's fairy party two years ago. They absolutely loved this craft!
Then the girls headed into the living room to open gifts. I couldn't believe how easy it was to manage this small group of girls -- it was nothing compared to Sam's birthday party with close to 20 guests!
A gift from Claire:
I always choose to make cupcakes for the friend party and cake for the family party. It is just much more simple to serve little guests small cupcakes, rather than cut pieces of cake. Also, I learned that the kids LOVE individual ice cream cups and I suspect that I will be serving those for all friend parties in the future. Again, that is much easier than scooping ice cream!
Finally, we ended the event with one last craft. The girls used Epsom salt and water to "paint snowflakes" on black cardstock.
When the salt water dried, it crystallized ... just like snowflakes.
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On Sunday, our family party commenced with a few other added decorations. Powdered donuts were a big hit with the kids. And some simple babies breath in a vase looked like snow-covered flowers.
I made after the friend party -- a three-layer checkered cake (blue and white to keep with the theme) and made royal icing snowflakes to decorate the outside. I also made some simple blue raspberry jello and filled some clear cups that Sophia had helped me paint to look like snow.
Any extra ribbons left over from the scarf craft were scattered under the cake to add a touch of color:
The checkerboard cake design inside:
Opening some of her gifts ... she is one lucky and well-loved little girl.
A new bathing suit from Aunt Minnie:
Happy birthday to my five year old curly-haired little girl. I hope that all of her wishes come true!
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