Snow Much Fun

 Olivia turned 5 and she had her first friend birthday party.

I wasn't going to do a party because I couldn't wrap my head around inviting her whole preschool class and how to mange that many kids at our house or how to afford going anywhere else. But after she had been talking about her birthday for months and looking forward to it even more than Christmas, I knew we needed to do something. So very last minute I decided to invite the girls from church that are around her age. I literally had the idea and made invitations on Friday, bought the food and made decorations on Saturday and we had the party Monday morning (New Years Day). I have never planned a party that fast, especially one that ran so smoothly.

GAMES/ACTIVITIES

Snowball Toss

I found some soft snowballs at the Hallmark store that were perfect for this game.

Snowball Fight

We ran out of time but were planning to have an indoor snowball fight at the very end with the cloth snowballs.

Build a Snowman

This was my favorite part! We divided the girls into teams and each team got a basket with a hat, scarf, pair of mittens, and a roll of toilet paper. Then they took turns decorating each other like snowmen. It was fun to see them work together with the toilet paper and tape and there was a lot of giggling! 

Alvin was on quality control.

Snowflakes

We cut out and colored snowflakes and the girls got to take theirs home.

We made plenty ahead of time for decorations, too.

GIFTS

The girls were so thoughtful and brought Olivia such fun things. A bead set, Legos, modeling clay, an I-spy game and much more. We are set for having things to keep us busy during the rest of winter.

Frozen Fever

The girls watched Frozen Fever while we finished setting out the refreshments. If you've never seen it, it was completely fitting with the birthday party setting and little snowmen.

I think Alvin was pretty confused by the whole party thing. And all these girls!

REFRESHMENTS

 

These decorations were simple to make but so tedious considering how many you need to give any sort of effect. But now that they're done and up I love them! And they are staying up for the rest of the season. They are so whimsical and add a lot of life inside while outside is so cold and life-less.

To make: Use a needle with medium thickness and thread fishing line through cotton balls. To give it a more realistic look I took some cotton balls apart and strung smaller balls and chunks on the line.

It's funny how much more water kids will drink when you call it something else.
Melted Snow was a hit! 

 CAKE

Normally I like to make the cake myself but being crunched for time I ordered one from the bakery. And I'm so glad I did! It turned out exactly how I pictured even though I gave them very little to go on. I wanted it to look like snow, have Olivia's name in green (her favorite color) and include snowflakes and a little pink and blue for accent colors. They nailed it!

These girls! Seriously could they be any cuter or more photogenic?

We had a bawl (snow-ball that is) celebrating Olivia!