Tangled Up In Birthday Fun!

I took Aria to see the Tangled movie back in January or February.  It was her very first movie theatre experience, and we only had to get up ONE time to go to the bathroom!  Not bad, if I do say so myself.  We both L.O.V.E.D. the movie.  It felt like a classic Disney princess movie, and the bad guys were likable and not too scary, and it proved to be a fabulous inspiration for a 5th Birthday party theme!  Here are some of the fun ways that we celebrated our little Aria turning five, and not really being so little anymore!

We had seven little girls over for the party, which I have to say, is the perfect number!  We had invited a couple boys as well, but they weren't able to make it, which I think was a blessing in disguise for me!  For the invitations we took some inspiration from some other invites I had found online, and then adapted them to use an image of the tower found here.  I printed them on cardstock I bought at the dollar store, added in a braid from the huge ball of yellow yarn that I bought from WalMart for $9, and voila!  An invitation that I was quite pleased with!

 So, speaking of that giant ball of yarn...  It came in pretty handy for several party-oriented uses...
One afternoon Aria helped me braid...

 

and braid...

 

and braid!

Yes, it took forever.

No, it did not get overly tangled.

I looked at a couple other blogs some moms had done about their daughters' Tangled parties, and learned from their tangled braid messes!  I used 24 pieces of yarn, cut to the length I wanted, then divided the yarn into three sections, and THEN (here's the secret to my success, and lack of frustration) I wound up the yarn into a loose ball, allowing me to braid with shorter section.  Everyone thought the braids were great.  I tied little ribbons on them for a bit of visual interest. 

I also used the yarn to decorate the party space with bunting flags, like from the movie.  These were super easy to do, and very effective!  I'm tempted to leave them up, as they really liven up our boring basement.  I used purple construction paper (I cut three triangles out of each sheet), and then created a stencil with contact paper by tracing an image of the Kingdom's sun logo I found using a google search. Aria helped me string up the flags on to the yarn.  Its great doing a party for a 5 year old; she was very helpful in getting things ready this year!

 My husband made the paper lanterns for the ceiling.  I know they're not exactly like the ones in the movie, but they're easy to do.  In fact, we ended up making some with the girls as one of the crafts that we did at the party.  A good way to practice their scissor skills!

 Last month, we showed Tangled at VAC Kids during spring break, and my friend Sue and I had traced a bunch of wanted posters for Flynn Rider to play a game.  So, waste not, want not, and I brought home the posters to use for the party.  My husband and I colored them in a bit, and the girls thought pinning the frying pan on Flynn Rider's nose was a great game.  I can't begin to tell you how many times I heard them say, "They just can't get my nose right!".  Some jokes never grow old... for five year olds!

 Every year I draw a poster for the front door to welcome our guests to the party.  Usually the poster ends up hanging on Aria's door for most of the rest of the year.  Last year it was Fancy Nancy, and the year before that was Dora.

This year, I really used the Disney Family website for helping me put together the party.  They have tonnes of great printables, and ideas.  I used their cake design as an inspiration for the cake I made for Aria, and I have to say, it was probably the easiest birthday cake I've done for her in the past several years!  We bought some happy silk flowers together one day at Michael's, and the cupcake wrappers and purple sprinkles too.  Aria wanted Rainbow Bit cupcakes, and I iced them using my favorite Pudding Icing (super easy).  The top of the tower is an ice cream cone that I iced and covered in sprinkles.  And I used some store-bought icing that I colored to decorate the tower with vines and Rapunzel's braid.

 She loved the cake!


Here's how we spent our time during the party:
Crafts - the lanterns pictured above, and a Pascal the chameleon party blower.

Games - Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider, and Hide and Go Seek with Pascal (I hid him, they found him).  Oh, and we used our milk carton blocks and built a tower together and decorated it with flowers!

Gift opening, a lunch of pinwheel sandwiches and Build a Tower kabobs, cake and a little bit of free play took up the rest of the time.  And of course some reenacting of the movie.

I guess the last thing to mention was the goody bags.  I really wanted to find some cheap but nice watercolor paints for the kids, but all I could find was the four-color one below.  We also put in a little canvas from the dollar store, some coloring sheets, a princess ring and some stick-on earrings (just like I had when I was their age!), and a heart crayon that Aria, Roscoe, Jeremy and I made out of some old crayons the other night (I'll include a post about that later).

All in all, it was a great party, great memories, and I still think I have a little bit of cleaning up to do downstairs.  

Happy 5th Birthday Aria.  I can't believe how much has changed since you joined our family, and how much you've grown.  I am in awe of your joy and sweet spirit, and of your love Jesus, and your trust in him.  Thank you for everything that you bring to our lives and our family.  You are a beautiful little girl, inside and out.  I love you!

PS - Some of the blogs where I found great ideas and inspiring photos were:
Oh Amanda and Super Mom Moments