Our daughter became obsessed with all things Elsa, Anna, and Olaf last year. I can’t even tell you how many times “Let It Go” has been performed in our house (and car) – and always at the highest volume. She had the entire movie soundtrack memorized in a matter of days. Needless to say, it was no surprise when our little nugget declared that her fourth birthday celebration would be Frozen-themed. And while I was glad that she stuck with her chosen theme, I was also slightly intimidated – how on earth was I going to host a Frozen party in the middle of the summer?
You only turn 4 once! And I love making our daughter feel super special on her big day. So, despite it being one of the hottest months of the year, I was determined to turn our home into a winter wonderland. I dove head first into Pinterest, scouring around for Frozen/winter crafts, decorations, food, and fun activities. There was a wealth of great ideas! I chose my favorites, devised a few of my own ideas, and began the party preparations!
With a little help from my husband…the birthday girl…and a whole lot of help from my mom…the party went off without a hitch! The kids had a great time, and our little nugget was smiling from ear to ear the entire day! I’d call that a success!
Frozen Party Decorations
As I mention below…party food is typically where I go a bit overboard. But for this Frozen party, I made a conscious effort to reign in the food options that we offered. That being said, I think all of that extra party planning energy ended up going into the decorations…as I may have gone a bit overboard in that area this time around. I know this, because I actually forgot to put out a couple of the decorations that I had made in advance and stored in our basement. They were obviously the decorations that took the most time and effort to create – ugh! Lesson learned. π Which decorations you ask? Oh, how about a set of nine coffee filter trees?
I spent the good portion of an afternoon crafting these wintry trees. I started by forming square card stock into cone shapes (or something resembling a cone shape). Next, I cut the center out of a giant stack of coffee filters, and then proceeded to hot glue the ruffled edges to the white cones (one layer at a time – working my way up from the bottom). We hot-glued snowflakes to the top of each tree for some extra Frozen flair. While these trees took more effort than I had anticipated or hoped…I still love how they turned out. If only I had remembered to display them on the day of the party. Oh well…they are now providing the perfect touch to our winter decor!
Our little nugget likes to help out with the party decorations, so I always make sure to setup a few different craft projects that we can hang on display. Sticking with our Frozen theme, she painted salt snowflakes with liquid watercolors, glittered a couple of craft stick snowflakes, and turned a handful of other craft sticks into an Olaf face (using white paint, a black marker, brown pipe cleaners, and a small orange pom). We made a few pipe cleaner snowflakes (so that we had some examples on-hand for our snowflake station at the party) and we cut out giant paper snowflakes to tape to the walls of our dining room. Since we enjoyed making Puffy Paint Window Clings earlier in the summer, we also decided to create some snowflake window clings to adorn our living room windows.
The inside of our front door and garage door were both transformed. The front door turned into a giant Olaf (using construction paper, tape, and a black marker). And our chalkboard garage door was adorned with Olaf and Sven (as well as a few more snowflakes). Even our sliding glass door got in on the action!
The birthday girl loved painting on our sliding glass door for our Giant Painting & Coloring (2-in-1 Activity), so we decided to tape up the cardboard cutout of Olaf, that we had leftover from our Pin the Nose on Olaf game (see below), and paint another snowman right where our guests would be going in and out from the backyard. You can never have too many Olaf’s at a Frozen party, right?!?
The real decorating challenge was bringing winter to our backyard. I wanted to create an illusion of falling snow around our back deck. To accomplish this, we hot glued cotton balls and snowflake confetti to strands of fishing line, that we then hung between our pergola frame and deck railing. In between each strand of falling snow, we hung large 3D snowflakes, that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.
Frozen Party Food
I always tend to go overboard when it comes to food for our parties, and as a result, we end up with an entire refrigerator full of leftovers. So this time around, I really tried to pare things down a bit in the food department. We stuck with the basics for the kiddos – snowflake-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (gotta love those cookie cutters), baby carrots (Olaf noses) with ranch dressing, and Olaf string cheese sticks.
In the sweets department, we provided popcorn snowballs (made with blue and white M&Ms and snowflake sprinkles). I also made a batch of mini ice cream cone cake pops (topped with white chocolate snowflakes). While the white chocolate snowflakes were a lot harder to make than I anticipated, the ice cream cone cake pops were super easy (and delicious)! I just followed Jenny’s (from Jenny Cookies) tutorial, over on YouTube. Easy peasy! I will definitely be making these again.
But let’s not forget about the most important part – the cake! The birthday girl requested a Frozen ice cream cake…very appropriate and on-point. π I decided to go with this incredible Cake Batter Fudge Brownie Ice Cream Cake that I found over on Life, Love and Sugar. But instead of drizzling chocolate all over the top and sides, I frosted the entire cake and decorated it with the same snowflake sprinkles that were used in the popcorn snowballs, and a handful of white pearl sprinkles – with a smattering of crumbled blue rock candy around the bottom. The “FOUR” candles and an adorable Olaf cake topper (it’s actually an ornament…shhh) provided the finishing touches!
Frozen Party Favors
Putting together party favors is one of my all-time favorite party preparation tasks. I love creating fun little gifts for all of our daughter’s friends to enjoy. Our Frozen favors kicked off with cute Olaf gift bags.
I printed out several different Frozen coloring sheets depicting everyone’s favorite characters (Elsa, Anna, Sven, Kristoff, Olaf, Oaken, and Marshmallow) and paired them with a 4-pack of Frozen-themed crayons that I picked up at Party City. I grabbed some Frozen-themed bubbles, and some glittery bouncy balls, while I was there. I always like to add a special sweet treat to each gift bag, so we tossed in blue-hued rock candy. Last but not least, we wanted to add a personal touch, by gifting each guest a homemade mini Frozen sensory bottle!
Our Blue Glitter Glue Sensory Bottle has always reminded me of Elsa’s frozen palace – the colors…the sparkle. So naturally, sensory bottles were the very first thing that popped into my head when I started dreaming up Frozen party favors. That being said, since I needed to make several little sensory bottles at once, I decided to forgo the glitter glue recipe (as it tends to be a bit trickier to work with) and went with our favorite clear glue, glitter/confetti, and water method. I found the little plastic bottles/jars at Michael’s. I filled each jar approximately 20% full with Elmer’s clear glue. Then I sprinkled in two different shades of blue glitter, and a pinch of snowflake confetti. I filled the remainder of each bottle with the hottest water from our tap, screwed on the lids and gave them all a good shake, to incorporate all of the ingredients. Once everything was mixed, I removed the lids again, to return the bottles to room temperature. When the bottles had cooled, I hot-glued each lid back on, to prevent any leaks. Ta Da! A frozen flurry in a jar!
Frozen Party Fun & Activities
We always like to provide an assortment of activities for the kids – to keep them busy and engaged. And our Frozen-themed activities did not disappoint – even though it was the middle of summer. π We set up six different activities, and the very first one that the kids gravitated toward was the “Snowball” water balloons – obviously. We filled hundreds of blue and white water balloons that were all gone (amidst lots of laughter and giggles) in a matter of minutes. Thank goodness for Bunch O’ Balloons!
At the snowflake station, the kids could create their very own snowflakes, using pipe cleaners and craft beads. When they were not making snowflakes, you could find most of the kiddos building their very own snowman out of marshmallows, pretzel sticks, candy corn, frosting, and chocolate chips. This snowman station was another huge success!
Since our little nugget loved our Watercolor Ice Painting activity so much, she specifically requested that we repeat the activity at her party. So we mixed up a batch of watercolor ice cubes, and rolled out a large sheet of white craft paper, so that the kiddos could create a collaborative masterpiece. A quick note on this activity: make sure the kiddos know that the ice cubes at the end of the Popsicle sticks are made with watercolor paint – they are not Popsicles and they are not for eating.
I think the highlight of the entire party was the snow! Yep – we had snow in our backyard during the height of summer! SnoWonder Instant Artificial SnowΒ that is. π When we asked the kids to gather around the kiddie pool to help us make snow, they gave us looks of confusion and disbelief. The other party guests (parents included) were just as stumped. In mere seconds, we created a winter wonderland right before their eyes.Β We ended up making somewhere between 15-20 gallons of snow!
The instant snow was a fan favorite – I think it helped that it’s cold to the touch. This simple sensory experience had everyone smiling. The kiddos were squishing it, stepping in it, sitting in it, sliding in it, filling their socks with it, and tossing it up into the air. It truly brought out the best of their creativity and imagination, and it was so much fun to sit back and watch them play and create together. I’m not sure where the idea originated, but it didn’t take long before the watercolor ice paints made their way into the snow. I thought we would surely end up with a giant pile of icky brown snow, but it turned a beautiful shade of purple (which is our daughter’s favorite color)!
Our final activity of the day – and another party highlight – was our Pin the Nose on Olaf game! I drew our Olaf onto a large sheet of white craft paper, and then glued him to a large piece of cardboard. We carefully cut him out using a sharp X-ACTO knife. I cut the carrot noses out of orange construction paper, and laminated them, prior to writing each of the kid’s names on top. We stuck a piece of tape to the back of each carrot nose, blindfolded the kiddos (one at a time), spun them around, and had them attempt to attach Olaf’s nose in the appropriate spot. Most of them were remarkably close – and the closest contestants scored large Frozen-themed bubble wands (also from Party City).
I can say, without a doubt, that more effort and energy went into this Frozen party than our little girl’s three previous celebrations. At the end of the day, I sat down on the couch next to my husband and declared that we were all going to Disneyland for our daughter’s fifth birthday – that way I would get a much-needed year off from hosting an elaborate birthday party.
Our little nugget was elated to hear this news – though two weeks later she began telling me about her dinosaur-themed fifth birthday party. π So, I guess she figures she can go to Disneyland AND have a big party. We shall see what the future holds.
Our little firecracker of a four-year-old already has her next five birthday celebrations completely planned out (along with the next five years worth of Halloween costumes). She must like to plan ahead, like her mommy. I can’t fault her for that. And at least I know what the next five years entail.
If you would like to check out the parties of birthdays past, feel free to click on the following links: It’s An Art Party – Third Birthday, A Beach-Themed Second Birthday, and First Birthday Fun!
