Thursday, April 10, 2014

Peyton turns FIVE.

Two Saturdays ago, my little baby girl turned FIVE years old.
Can you believe it? I certainly can't.
How those five years went so quickly, I'll never know.

I'm sure that if you're reading this, you know of Frozen (the incredibly adorable Disney movie that every little {& big!} girl is obsessed with right now?). Well, of course Ms. Peyton is head over heels in love with anything Frozen or Elsa-related. So, naturally, when I asked her what theme she wanted for her birthday party this year, Frozen it was!

We tried to take care of some party prep well in advance, but being the procrastinator that I am, we didn't really get it done until the day before and the morning of her actual party. We did manage to get her invites written up {that my lovely sister designed!} and handed out to her classmates a few weeks before the big day.





My Momma found the Frozen stickers and we cut up un-used Frozen valentine's to "address" the invites, which worked perfectly!
Before I knew it, those weeks had gone by and it was her big day!
We celebrated by meeting Grammy, Nenna, and GiGi at Cracker Barrel for some yummy breakfast.

After we feasted, everyone dispersed and Peyton & I took a trip to the salon to get her nails painted for the first time! She loved it - (what girl doesn't?)




She got this really pretty blue-sparkly color to go along with the whole Frozen theme, of course.
We went home and snuggled while GiGi and Nenna worked on the finishing touches for her surprise new big girl bedroom reveal. {Because planning a birthday party, Nick finishing up a term for school, working on multiple other house projects, and dealing with our daily busy schedules wasn't enough to handle.} We didn't quite get everything accomplished and soon she was off to her birthday party at her dad's house, which left us with the evening to head to Hobby Lobby & Target for a few last minute room items and party supplies.

The next day, she came home and we were able to finally show her what we had been working on the past week:

{There are a few more things left to do, like paint the desk blue, change out the knobs and hang up a few more coat hooks.}
 Which was quickly followed up with a mad rush to get all of the party prep and decor finished. People started arriving and there were still plenty of things left unfinished. In fact, some ideas {i.e: the mini powdered doughnut snowmen and the hot chocolate bar} were completely thrown out the window. Which ended up being just fine, because we had more than enough to do. It was so, so wonderful having Peyton's classmates there for the party. They really were adorable and were always keeping me on my toes. I felt like I hardly got to interact with anyone but them for the whole party, haha. I was so busy that I hardly took any pictures/video, but thankfully my sister knows how much I love documentation and she went ahead and took some for me!

Here are a few pictures of the decorations, food, etc.:
 
We strung cotton balls on fishing line to create "snowfall" in the living room.
Also, these pictures serve as an unintentional sneak peak of what our new colors are in the house! :)

My momma works part time at Walmart and was lucky enough to nab the Frozen cutouts that they used as displays before they took them to the dumpster. They worked out perfectly to help give the party more decor and a more "Frozen"-feeling AND they saved us money because the cutouts that they sell online are like $35 a pop and ain't no body got time money for that

 Kristoff's Ice Cubes were kind of an epic fail. I would have much rather just had scoop-able blue jello than to have to have cut them up into squares like we did. It was a hot mess.

More party decorations:

Once all of the kiddos showed up (and I corralled them all into the kitchen), we started making their individual pizzas by using my grandmother's pizza dome. We had used it before for "pizza parties" at my Grammy's so we thought it would be great for the kids to give it a try and then we would have regular Papa John's pizza for the adults...



Well, these are the creations they came up with:
Celery dipped in ranch alongside apple slices, cheese cubes, and green beans? Needless to say, none of them wanted to eat their creations once they were baked.

After our attempt at eating something else for lunch, we decided to start up with the first game on the agenda! My totally amazing sister created this with 2 pieces of white poster board and some sharpies {& some twine & baby clothespins leftover from Peyton's room redo}:


 The kids loved it!


They all took turns as I held the "blindfold" and they all did pretty darn well, if you ask me!They might have helped each other out, just a little ;)


Next up: Olaf lost his nose in a snowstorm!
aka: the kids get really messy as they try to find a baby carrot in a pie plate full of whipped cream without using their hands. My Momma gets the credit for coming up with this one.
^^ This little girl, Irma, stuck her face in the plate and came back out with the carrot stuck right to her nose - how perfect is that!? ^^


The only little  boy from her class who came to the party was Hunter. And ironically enough, he was the only one who participated that didn't want to dive face first into that. So, he asked for a fork. :P I thought it was also cute that, out of all of the little kids there, he was the only one who actually sat down and watched Frozen when we played it towards the end of the party.

After we cleaned up the whipped cream is when we played "Freeze Dance". Which consisted of me playing the Frozen soundtrack as the little ones danced around the living room; until I hit pause and they were supposed to freeze! until I started it up again. Man oh man, did they love that game!

We decided after that, that it was time to open presents because some of the family members were getting a little restless. Peyton got so many cute things including a really awesome Frozen fleece blanket that I may or may not enjoy cuddling with as well.
 ^^ This is the only picture I could get of them all together and there's still one little girl missing. They were all having a serious sugar rush and would just not sit still, but what else do you expect from 6 four and five year olds? ^^

My Great Uncle Charlie (who just loves Peyton to pieces) also gifted her this really adorable jewelery armoire. I can't wait until she's old enough to fill it up with some pretty accessories!

As if the sugar high from the sweet treats and the whipped cream wasn't enough,
we had cake & ice cream next!
My momma had this vision and created this wonderful cake all by herself:
 We used blue raspberry cake mix, but it would have been better if we had just used blue dye and vanilla cake. The Olaf and Elsa came from one of Peyton's toys. The snow/ice covered trees were simply waffle cones covered in icing and sprinkles. Lastly, the stairs were made of those strawberry wafer cookies covered in icing and pushed into the cake. It was a really awesome replica of Elsa's ice castle and turned out much better than any store bought cake would have. 


We ended the party with popping in the movie for the kids to watch, especially since I was just plain exhausted from it all. It was nice to just sit and listen to them all interact. Soon enough, guests started to disperse and we were all happy to just be able to relax and reflect on a crazy hectic, but well enjoyed fifth birthday party for our little lady.

The kids (& adults!) had all signed our chalkboard in the kitchen to wish Peyton a Happy Birthday, kind of like one big giant birthday card & I just love the way it looked when it was all said and done:

The weather for the whole day could have been a heck of a lot better. I mean, it was seriously like a torrential downpour for the first couple hours, but then - THEN the coolest thing happened!
It snowed. A Frozen themed party wouldn't have been complete without it!

Thanks, Elsa! {I mean, Peyton} ;)


Overall, it was a great success and we only had a few minor issues: like Peyton crying because another little girl wanted to play with one of her birthday presents. If that's the biggest issue, I'm alright with that! I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to my momma, Jenna, and Nicholas - because without you guys, this party wouldn't have happened or have been even half as wonderful as it was.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.


xo,
Sara