A very FROZEN 3rd birthday party

With Disney's FROZEN being all the rage and my Lilly being OBSESSED naturally she picked it (and maybe I helped) as her 3rd birthday theme.  I was pretty excited she did-until I discovered that any FROZEN party supplies/dolls/clothing etc. would not be in stock-anywhere.  Awesome.  So I had to get creative and creative I got-I am pretty proud of myself.  I kept it simple for many reasons this year mainly to cut back on cost and realizing that while I notice all the teeny details they can often go un-noticed and who really cares what type of plates and napkins you had.  Certainly Lilly won't remember those things.

So I learned to "Let it go"  (see what I did there-hahaha)  and focus on giving my Lilly a fun filled day with a few snowflakes thrown in.  She had a blast!  Here is what we did:

Guest List-we kept it small this year inviting only immediate family and a few of Lilly's friends from school.  Lilly was really excited about inviting some of her friends over and she just kept asking if they could come over again!

Menu-I found a lot of FROZEN themed menu items on Pinterest but frankly who is really going to eat marshmallows and baby carrots for dinner?  SO I decided to stick with some easy favorites making ham, mac and cheese, meatballs, veggie and fruit platters and of course a FROZEN cake and other desserts including Rice Krispie treats (in honor of Marshmallow, Elsa's snowman body guard) and beautiful Elsa blue anginettes made by my mom.  I also served some chocolate truffles as in "I want to stuff some chocolate in my face!!!" 

I made the cake myself and it was so yummy.  Hot milk cake with vanilla almond butter cream icing.  It was the first time I had made a double layer cake and tried my hand at decorating.  It didn't come out quite like I pictured but Lilly LOVED it so I must have done something right!  I used the Olaf that came with her Elsa doll as a cake topper and I bought small white pearl sprinkles which were a pain.  I had to put them on by hand because they just kept rolling everywhere!  

Decor-I really should have stocked up on post Christmas sale items but the good news is that her school was getting rid of these awesome (and large) paper snowflakes they had as their winter decorations.  My mother in law grabbed a few for us to have and they worked great as decor along with some of the Frozen dolls and items we had.  I was disappointed when Party City had NO Frozen balloons but hit the jackpot when I found one at Walmart partially deflated.  Luckily Party City was nice enough to fill it for us since we already had an order there for purple, blue, and white balloons.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it.  We used this printable Olaf and I created a conversation bubble in word to put on the door that said:  "Lilly is SO happy you are here.  Come on in!".
 

 

You can't see the snowflakes too well in this shot but we had a few of these hanging around.  While I didn't make these myself there are a few tutorials on line on how to.  I found a good one on You Tube. 

I didn't plan a craft or activity because I know how difficult it can be to get 3 year olds to sit still or even want to be told what to do so I printed some Frozen coloring pages to have in case anyone wanted to color.  We were lucky that it was 60 some degrees and sunny so the kids played outside most of the time and they had a blast!

Attire-The whole family got in on the Frozen spirit!  Lilly of course wore her favorite Elsa shirt and I had a tutu made for her but she changed her mind and just wanted to wear her pants.  I didn't argue although I was disappointed because it was soooo cute!  She also had a tiara which she wore for one picture. 

Tommy and I hand made tee shirts for the rest of use using cheap tee shirts from Michael's and Avery printable transfers (I recommend using the ones for DARK tees).  They turned out better than I thought!

I didn't get a good picture of Little Tommy in his tee but he had Olaf and it said:  "I like warm hugs"

Favors-This is where I struggled.  I like giving non-candy favors especially since the kids pigged out on cake and dessert.  I saw some cute ideas on Pinterest that just didn't excited me and Party City carried and were sold out of any Frozen items.  I couldn't find a Frozen sticker or book or anything anywhere that would work as a favor.  SO-I got creative.  With spring and summer on it's way Party City had TONS of summer themed favors.  That is when it his me: IN SUMMER!  BAM!  I made up some cute Olaf favor tags and got some sand buckets, beach balls, sunglasses, and twirly straws to make our In Summer favors-LOVE THEM!  They were a hit too!

So that was our Frozen inspired 3rd birthday party.  It was so fun!  I cannot believe tomorrow my baby girl is going to be 3 years old!  Excuse me while I go cower in a corner and cry.  My baby is so grown up!