They both LOVE the Disney movie Frozen and fancy themselves as Elsa and Anna (the main characters who just happen to be princesses) so we decided to have a Frozen party at home - what was I thinking??
It turned out to be one of the best parties ever!!
When the friends arrived they all got a rectangle of orange cardboard and they had to cut out Olaf's nose and write their name on it. [I always like giving the friends a craft as they arrive at the party to give them something to focus on, instead of just milling around and or clinging to their mommies.]
I collected all the noses. The girls then all had some sweet treats in the Winter Wonderland (our double garage). I gave them all pillows and cushions and blankets, delivered the popcorn and we started the movie.
After the movie, we played "Pin the nose on Olaf" which was hysterical and everyone got a gold chocolate coin for playing. Bacon put hers on his head and Lettuce could only reach a foot but everyone loved it. So weird that nobody seems to play these "old fashioned" games anymore. |
| Some people are worth melting for..... |
Then I put all the girls into groups and gave each group a block of ice with "jewels" inside. Each child was handed a straw and they had to heat the ice up with their breath! It ended up with a "smash and grab" as the girls started smashing the ice and making a mad grab for the jewels!! Any jewels that they found they could keep. They had a ball!! (I may need to send my neighbours some flowers - eeek little girls en masse are LOUD!!)
We then gathered around, sang happy birthday to Bacon and Tomato, had a lot of fun with candles that re-ignited and then we all ate cake! The tribe then headed off to jump on the trampoline in the back garden and play in the girls' wendy house until their parents arrived.
When the parents came to collect the girls, they each got a party pack and before I knew it the party was done and dusted!!
I have never had so many parents and children tell me how much they enjoyed a party. I got so many calls and messges, I was a bit taken aback! It really was sooo much fun and so easy. Many parents have asked me to share how I did it, and because I'm a "sharing-is-caring" kinda gal (Barney would be so proud of me), I'll explain in more detail about how I did everything. Herewith the details if you'd like to copy me, change things, add, remove, fee free!!
Firstly I need to give a HUGE shout-out to the new love of my life..... Pinterest! I got so many cool ideas there and so much free downloadable stuff.
How To Have an AWESOME Frozen Party
It all began with an idea.........
But wait! First things first, it had to be "cheap and cheerful" [read as "Frozen Party on a budget"]
So my brilliant [yes brilliant!] idea was formed. What if we invited all the little friendies to our house to watch a movie and have some fun with the icy theme? Obviously we would need to make a Winter Wonderland...... but how? Aha!! I've got it!
I must add in here, that I often have many, grand, inexpensive, but labour-intensive ideas (which I always rope Hubby into and give him his due he seldom rolls his eyes, he just gets down to business and makes my dreams come true hee hee.) Firstly our double garage needed to be transformed from its existing storage facility into a white Winter Wonderland, complete with big flat screen TV so the girls and their friends could watch the movie - Frozen (of course.)
The invitations were sent out, they looked like movie tickets! I downloaded them from here
I then nipped off to our local haberdashery shop and bought a roll of cheap, white dress lining material (50m). Hubby drilled some white hooks into the garage ceiling and did a criss-cross of string across the roof. We then hung the material, as if on a washing line, around the entire garage, which immediately transformed our boring garage into the White Winter Wonderland that I had envisioned. A kind friend delivered bejewelled polystyrene snowflakes which we hung up, we threw out a carpet that we had for the kids to sit on and Hubby moved our TV and all other relevant tech into the room, all set up to play the movie. The girls were D-E-L-I-G-H-T-E-D and played in there all week long!
Then I set about getting the rest of the party ready.......
THE SWEET TREATS AND GOODIES
Snowflake Biscuits
A week before, I started making some of the snowy treats. I found some snowflake cookie cutters and made my granny's famous ginger biscuits (the recipe calls for 4lbs of flour, so picture the load of biscuits we made!) I made royal icing for the first time ever, using this site, which was fantastic - How to make Royal Icing and set Hubby to work doing the icing. Not bad for a beginner!!
The final result:
The biscuits above were just some of what were left, that we managed to actually ice, after a kiddy feeding-frenzy of the rest during the week! They are very yummy!
"Ice Cubes"
I then bought 4 packets of blue jelly (yes they do now sell BLUE jelly!) and used half the amount of water stipulated, to make firm jelly. I poured it into a square cake pan and refrigerated. When it had set I put the tin in hot water for 30 seconds and it plopped out onto a chopping board. I then cut it into blocks and put the blocks on a plate and put them back in the fridge. The girls went MAD for these "ice blocks."
Dipped Marshmallows on a Stick
I bought some white chocolate, some white plastic sticks, marshmallows and blue sugar (who knew they now sell blue sugar??)
I melted the chocolate in the microwave for a minute and made a hole in the marshie with the white stick. I then took the stick out and dipped it in the chocolate and reinserted it into the hole that I had just made (makes it stick nicely, like a cake pop.) I then dipped the marshmallow on a stick into the chocolate and then dusted it with the blue sugar. It stuck really well to the wet white chocolate and they turned out very well. Very tasty but VERY sweet!!
Flings, Smarties and White Snowballs - well almost Snowballs!
I added bowls of chips and Smarties because they are kiddy party staples and some blue suckers and mini white marshmallows as snowballs on the table.
I tried to make white snowballs but *duh* I used the left over pink marshmallows (I am blonde - eek!) so the white snowballs became pink snowballs. Note to self, there are a LOT more pink marshies in a pack than white ones and when melted, the pink become HECTICLY pink. But I had a lot of fun making them and the kids ate them all almost immediately so they never made them to the party table but they were a.w.e.s.o.m.e. I will definitely make these again in the school holidays as a treat. So quick and easy - see recipe for them here
Melting Snowmen
I was pleasantly surprised by a gift of a tray of melting snowmen biscuits which were kindly made by my sister-in-law and delivered on the day - how cute are these?
I borrowed a large punch bowl from a friend and poured 6 Litres of Sprite into the bowl. I then added blue food colouring and edible glitter to make it sparkle. Another HUGE hit with the girls!
I made enough popcorn to fill a 5 Litre container for the girls to eat during the movie (what's a movie without popcorn?) It was all flattened, little girls can eat!! Hee hee.
The Party Packs / Party Favors
I asked my good friend Chef Garry at Aroma Cafe to keep me some 2 litre milk containers and then set Hubby to work, cutting off the bottoms and leaving long pieces which I stapled to make a handle. I then added some blue ribbon and a "thank you" note and viola I had the party pack baskets.
I then made a massive amount of popcorn and put it into plastic sandwich bags and labeled it as "snow."
Then I made up little packs with snowman parts and labelled it Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (the lyrics from Olaf's song in the movie). Again I put Hubby to work with orange fondant (plastic icing) that I bought at my local icing shop, to make snowman noses. Then I got packing.
Each pack included:
- 3 white marshmallows (Olaf is a 3 ball snowman!)
- 2 white mini marshmallows (Olaf has 2 feet)
- 5 mini choc chips for the buttons and eyes
- 2 pretzels for the arms
- 1 orange nose shaped like a carrot
I put the "snow" and the "snowman parts pack" into the decorated milk container baskets and my party packs were complete!
I was amazed by how excited the kids were with these really cost effective packs and the parents were thrilled that the kids weren't put onto a second sugar-high in the car. Nice to know so many parents feel the same way as me :-)
THE GAMES
Stick the Nose on Olaf
I downloaded a picture of Olaf from the web and printed it out on 6 separate pages and Hubby stuck them all together nicely to make a big Olaf. We then used Prestik to stick it to our garage door at the height of Bacon, so everyone could reach him. We then gave each child Prestik to put on their nose that they had made, blindfolded them with Bacon's scarf, turned them around and let them put the nose where they thought! There was a lot of giggling! Again today I was mobbed by little girls at the nursery school telling me how much they loved putting on Olaf's nose!
Jewels in the Ice
I half-filled 6 small buckets with water and froze them. I then added in some "jewels" that I found and filled the rest of the bucket up and froze it again. So I ended up with the jewels being frozen in the middle of the ice. I took them all out of the freezer about an hour before the movie ended (to prevent frost bite and the ice sticking to their skin) and put them on the driveway, put them into groups of a similar age and let them go crazy! Boy did they go crazy!!
Extra Handy Tips
It was a "drop and go" party so I made a list of guests with a space for the parent's names and cell numbers in case of emergency (also very useful for thank you texts and later play dates!)
We live in a security estate so I also gave the guest list to the gate so that they could let the guests in as they arrived.
Lastly I sprinkled snowflakes (that I had used a craft cutter to cut out) onto the carpet to make it more snowy.
Hope you try it and have as much fun as I did :-)
#easy
#cost effective
#fun
#bestpartyever
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