Frozen Themed Birthday Party with free printables and product review
Disclosure: I was sent these items to review
free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive
any other compensation for this review.As in all my
reviews I am providing links for your ease but receive no compensation.
This weekend we had Hazel's Frozen themed birthday party. Ever since Hazel saw the movie (her first movie at the theater), I have been collecting Frozen ideas on Pinterest. I got to use several of the ideas I pinned and products I pinned for this fun party. All of the girls had a great time and loved it. Today I am going to share the details with you including the products Oriental Trading sent me for the party to review. First I have to share Hazel's Elsa dress. Elsa is Hazel's favorite character in the movie and she really wanted an Elsa dress. With all the sheer fabric on them I knew her delicate skin would not be able to handle just any Elsa dress, so I made one for her. I used the Simplicity Pattern 1233, however I lined the bodice and cannot imagine using any of the sequined fabrics without lining.
I had bought the materials before the pattern was out so I was guessing at things. I bought a silver see-through sequin fabric, light blue cotton, light blue sheer and white and sparkly sheer. Looking at the pattern Hazel and I decided the skirt would just be the light blue cotton since it was mostly covered by the cape. She did complain that the sleeves were itchy, but there was nothing I could do about it with the sheer fabrics. I was going to attach another layer of cape to the back to cover the zipper, but after a late night before the party finishing what I got done and Hazel's complaints that it was itchy, I didn't bother. I had found the white braid barrette at Joann Fabrics. It came with two other Frozen barrettes. The Elsa tiara is from Oriental Trading. Hazel loves it!! Although she does complain it hurts her ears a bit. She wore it for most of the party.
Both of these pictures are from before the party. The tiara seemed to slip down her head, but she was really active with her friends. Here is another picture of during the party.
The rest of the girls were given a cardboard Frozen tiara from Oriental Trading. Hazel modeled one for me after the party.
We left a tiara at each place at the dining room table and used the extras around the vase as part of our centerpiece.
Our place settings also included plates, forks, napkins and the Olaf mugs I made for the girls to have hot chocolate. I changed from using my paint markers to a paint that you can back onto ceramics to make them dishwasher safe. We also made bracelets for each girl and I made a cape for each girl. I got the ideas and instructions in Make Believe Ice Princess put out by Crafts by Design Originals (I found it in the magazine section of one of the craft stores).
I was able to purchase the tulle for the capes when I had a sixty percent off coupon at Joann's. For the five and six-year-olds I found their pattern a bit long and used two yards of fabric for each cape, however their pattern of 3-yards was perfect for the nine-year-old who came. When the girls first arrived they were greeted by our banners that we printed out from other sites (bakingdom).
We made them into flags instead of a garland. Hazel actually put them on the sticks and taped them together for me to hang. She was a great helper with this party. Once the girls came upstairs and past our "Welcome to Arendelle" sign, the girls chose a seat. The end seats were reserved for Hazel and the nine-year-old since her longer cape was there. The put on the accessories then came into the kitchen for crafts and activities. Of course I was so involved in the party I forgot to take pictures, so here is the craft table after the party. (Sorry! It was much cuter before the party.)
The craft table was covered with a snowflake tablecloth from Oriental Trading. I loved having a cheap plastic cover that went with our theme that I did not care if the glue stuck to it or anything. We had Frozen tattoos that the kids put on and then had a Melt a Frozen Heart game. We froze snowflake rings in water in a heart shape silicon pan. Then I put one heart in a bowl and each girl chose one. Some used the hair dryer to melt them faster (with some supervision) and others chose to just let them melt on their own. This seemed to be a well-loved activity with lots of guessing as to what the prize was. We also had two crafts provided by Oriental Trading. The first was a snowflake frame magnet. This was a fun craft, but it was time consuming and only a couple of the girls actually finished it. Some of the foam snowflakes were also hard to punch out. Here is a sample I made. I took a group picture later and printed one for each of the girls.
The other craft was making necklaces. We had wanted to get a necklace craft kit, but Oriental Trading was out of them, so instead we got the supplies to make our own kit. We ordered bright tipped laces (for easy stringing), winter pony beads, and silvertone snowflake charms with rhinestones. Each girl got one lace and four snowflake charms and then could use as many or as few pony beads as she wanted. I put the lace and charms in snack size bags for each girl and ensured one of each of the three types of charms in each bag. The girls loved the necklaces however with all their activity we found the charms did not stay on. They were not the best choice for this group and really needed tightening. Here are two necklaces--one a sample with three charms that I made when we first got them and the second is Hazel's after the party and after two charms had fallen off and I still haven't put them back on or tightened them.
The laces were long enough just to tie a know in and have all the girls slip them over their heads. They all wore their necklaces throughout the party. Once the girls had finished their accessories we took the group picture in front of the large Elsa poster. I bought two Frozen posters: a regular size one and the extra large Elsa one. Hazel picked out the Elsa one. I had wanted one with all the characters. Then I took individual pictures of the girls in front of the smaller one. Some holding Hazel's Olaf doll that she got from a family friend at her American Girl Doll party. Then we had snacks since several of the girls were snacking while others finished the crafts. We served Fresh Fruit (because Hazel wanted it), We Finish Each Other's Sandwiches--cream cheese and raspberry jam sandwiches cut into quarters, Olaf's noses--baby carrots, Chocolates to Stuff Your Face--Hershey Kisses in blue and silver wrappers (post Christmas sale), I Love Warm Hugs--Hershey Hugs, Frozen Heart Punch--white grape raspberry juice with raspberry sorbet in it, Melted Snowman--water, and had a hot chocolate bar. At the hot chocolate bar was whipped cream, mini marshmallows, peanut butter chips, sprinkles, candy canes and marshmallow snowmen. We got the idea to make marshmallow snowmen from All You Magazine. They had cute ones on their cover this week, but I did not want to deal with cookie cutters on the marshmallows. We used one marshmallow the long way for the body and the short way (circle showing) for the head connected by a toothpick then used black frosting for eyes, mouth and buttons and orange frosting for noses. (Apparently my new camera did not actually get any of the pictures I thought I took--sorry.) If I was going to make them again, I would make the noses on wax paper the night before and let them dry.
After snacking we got onto game playing. We started with Pin-the-Nose-on-Olaf. I drew our own Olaf on white poster board and Hazel added more details and colored the mouth for me. I printed the noses out on sticker paper and Hazel cut them out. I found the noses here. I wrote each girl's initial on one so we would know whose was who. They did pretty well for being blindfolded.
Next Hazel really wanted to play Freeze Dance. The girls each got a Light Blue Ribbon Wand from Oriental Trading to dance with. I played "Let It Go" and kept hitting the pause button where they would have to stop dancing and start again when the music started again. It is one of Hazel's favorite games in music class at school. The girls loved singing and dancing and really enjoyed having the wands. They each got to take one or two home. Hazel demonstrated dancing with the wand for me after the party.
Even after the game was over the girls were running around with their wands and pretending to be Elsa. The ribbons were like the snow coming from her hands.
Our next game was a nod to Kristoff. Oriental Trading had these ice block erasers and Frozen pail. I knew we could come up with some sort of game for them. I was thinking of bounce the ice cube into the bucket, but the ice cubes were not bouncy, so we played toss the ice cube into the bucket. The girls loved this game. The each took at least three turns and it was hard to get them away for the cake. The girls each took two ice cubes home with them so they could play at home.
For cake we had frozen heart cake. Before I added candles and wrote Happy Birthday, Hazel on it, the cake looked like this.
We made Hazel's favorite strawberry cake using this recipe. We have changed it by doubling the strawberry puree to 1.5 cups and the milk to 1/2 cup (since we use the non-cook method). This was the fourth time I think we made it and it was the best yet. It was the first time I doubled the milk and it made a big difference. We used 20 ounces of frozen strawberries and what was left after the 1.5 cups we used in between the layers. We also bought some white cake sparkle to make it look more like ice. Next I wrote on the cake in blue and added the candles. I added the candles the night before so I would not make the same mistake I made on her actual birthday. We had gotten the Disney's Frozen candles from Oriental Trading. My only complaint about them is that the pictures are only on one side so Hazel was the only one who saw the Frozen characters on the cake.
I put the candles in Hazel's indoor sandbox after I cleaned the frosting off them. She loves the idea. I had been thinking about what a waste birthday candles were since we tend to only light them once, but this is the perfect solution for the ones with characters on them.
After cake and ice cream Hazel opened gifts and then we gave the girls their goody bags. The moms who were here helped me rinse each of the girls' mugs so they could take them home. I had left tissue paper in all the goody bags.
The snowflake bags we got from Oriental Trading. The tags used pictures I found on-line. I used printable postcards and found the front picture at Deviant Art and personalized each tag with the child's name. You can personalize your own or delete the name if you would like. The back I used one of the printables I found on-line and saved ages ago. I personalized it and added the end of Reindeer Are Better Than People--"Good night. Don't let the frost bite bite." Again if you would like to personalize it, it is here. Please do not share or sell my work. In the goody bags were a bunch of small things--barrettes, rings, erasers, bracelet and a snowflake punch ball.
Hazel has really wanted a punch ball, so I requested these from Oriental Trading. In the mean time my mother-in-law got her one somewhere, but it never worked right. These however she loves as you can see from her demonstration above.
We also had decorated with tulle. Hazel picked out a light blue and a sparkly off-white ones for me to hang on the chandeliers. The sparkly one got glitter everywhere!! From the dining room chandelier I hung the tulle and then hung glittery snowflake ornaments (which kept falling, but I got them to stay up for the party). Unfortunately I did not get a picture of them. For the chandelier over the stairs, I hung the tulle through the ring on the bottom and made it look like long icicles. I also had printed out some signs saying Happy Frozen Birthday, Hazel with the characters on them and hung them in each room. That is our Frozen party!! The girls loved it!! Thank you to Oriental Trading for making it extra special as well!! For more Frozen craft ideas check out:
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