Let me confess that, as a mom, I’ve never been a huge fan of characters. Lunchboxes? Yes. Movies and board books? Fine. Bathing suits and birthday parties? Notsomuch. For whatever reason, when Frozen came out I sort of changed my tune. I need to tell you that it is my favorite Disney movie ever and I just couldn’t tell Sophie no when she requested a Frozen party this year.
We knew way back in the fall that this was the look she was going for, so I’ve been stockpiling supplies and decor for several months. When my mom and I packed up holiday decorations after Christmas, we kept everything sparkly and snow-covered to use for the table. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, my parents built a barn last year and we’ve been itching to throw a party there. It was a beautiful day and with the barn doors open, it was flooded with light and the perfect place to spend a Sunday afternoon.
We used a HUGE work table of my dad’s for the food table, which was perfect since we had quite the spread. I covered it with a few chenille bedspreads and some sparkly fabric to set the stage for our winter wonderland. A white tree full of vintage glass ornaments and sparkly snowflakes alongside every glittery tree we could get our hands on made the food table my very favorite part.
On the other end of the barn, we set up a table skirted with gold and blue brocade and surrounded by more Christmas trees. Sophie got these dolls for her birthday last year and absolutely LOVES them, so they were the perfect accent for the gift table. She insisted on an Elsa balloon and a silver number five, which I tied on a ghost chair that I picked up at Hobby Lobby {not purchased for the party, but it was certainly a happy accident!}.
I really wanted to make a giant number five to hang over the food table and, lucky for me, I still had the pinata I made for Ella’s fifth birthday. I used a few spools of turquoise tulle, some glittery snowflake ornaments and metallic pipe cleaners to dress it up. For party favors, I ordered blue rock candy, put them into clear cello pretzel bags and topped them off with a mini tag. The quote of the day was from Braylen, who took one lick of her candy and said, “Mrs. Kristin, this candy is not very yummy.” Ooops.
The drink station was my quite possibly my favorite spot of the entire party. We used some Frozen barbie dolls that Sophie got for Christmas and a few metal star trees from my Christmas stash. We grabbed some cocktail napkins and paper straws at the party store and had plenty of ice water for our guests. Some black stones and a carrot nose made our melted Olaf water barrels just perfect. All of our friends are worth melting for!
I toyed around with idea of making cupcakes for the party, including something super involved and layered, but in the end I called my good friend Publix. For less than $20, I got three dozen chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing, ready to be decorated. Ella and I peeled off the cupcake liners and dropped them into these nut cups, added sparkly sprinkles and topped them off with an edible paper snowflake. Let me tell you that I was thrilled with these “Snow-covered Mountains”. They were delicious, inexpensive and just as cute as anything overpriced I might have ordered.
You already know that Gran made us some delicious iced tea cakes, but she also dipped some strawberries into melted white chocolate for some “Frozen Hearts”. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate covered strawberries, but there were exactly zero left!
To round out our menu, we had “Snowman Snack Mix” {pretzels, marshmallows, chocolate chips and orange candies} and some sprinkle-covered “We finish each other’s ice cream sandwiches”.
I always love a good “party day family photo”, but this one might be my favorite one ever. We always joke that Sophie is our least photogenic child. Not because she isn’t gorgeous, but because she is a huge fan of funny faces and is otherwise in the middle of sentence every time the shutter snaps. This photo captures her real smile and her personality so perfectly. This is also quintessential Ella. She has such an adorably quirky sense of style and she’s been waiting MONTHS to wear this romper somewhere. She wears a ponytail almost daily and this is such a natural smile for her. And Josh? He’s pretty much my favorite and he’s wearing my favorite shirt and my favorite hair-cut ever.
When we don’t do a big birthday cake, I always like to decorate a cupcake just for the birthday girl. I found a perfectly purple candle and snagged these Frozen figurines from Sophie’s busy book. They were just the right size to top her tiny cake.
The paper products were super simple this time around, but I’m pretty smitten with them. Kamin took the photograph for her invitation several weeks ago and it’s *also* one of my favorites!
Sophie only invited her girlfriends to this party, but we knew our brother-cousin would be there and I had a sneaking suspicion that some other brothers might be in tow. We stashed this basket of swords and armor just in case, but the girls played with them and pretty much ignored all of the girly stuff. It was so cute to see them running around in princess dresses while attempting a sword-fight. Since the girls were obsessed with our boy toys, it shouldn’t surprise you that Hudson wore Elsa’s braid for most of the party!
I always feel like opening presents is such a touchy subject at birthday parties. Friends always want to help and then the birthday girl gets frustrated and nobody can ever see or hear what’s going on. This time around, I let the little girls fix their plates {and fixed Soph one for later} and had them on a blanket next to Sophie while she opened gifts. It was perfect! Everyone could see and they were all entertained with frosting and snack mix.
A sweet classmate, Ella, made her this homemade card. It was ADORABLE and Sophie was thrilled!
Even though Sophie knew that her daddy was planning to dress up as Olaf for the party, she was definitely surprised when he tapped her on the shoulder. I love that K managed to capture the look on her face so perfectly.
All of the princesses were pretty smitten with him, so we had to make sure we got a picture of them all together. And how awesome is that Elsa?! My mom managed to snag her from the book fair a few weeks ago, so we’ve been stashing her in the closet to use for the party. There were a few rough spots on the sides of her skirt, so I bought four yards each of two different colors of tulle and added to her skirt to cover up the edges. You would never have known she wasn’t perfect if I didn’t tell you.
I had a few glitter crowns ready to go on the table for the girls, but we had plenty of pipe cleaners laying around for them to give it a try. They all needed an extra hand and Gran and I had so much fun helping them dream up a few new creations. Sophie is still wearing hers around the house.
A party is never complete without a few photos with my favorite girls. Emry was not impressed, but Ryan and I have been posing for pictures together for the last thirty-five years.
And, of course, we have to give the BIGGEST thank you to our sweet sister K for taking these amazing photographs. She is super busy these days running her new business, but she always takes time out of her schedule to photograph our parties. It is such a relief not to have to worry about that and just enjoy hanging out with the birthday girls instead. I’m not even kidding you when I say every single guest was gone before I remembered to take my camera out of my bag!
My last photo request of the day was this one with my adorable dad. I need you to know that he worked himself silly helping me get this party set up and ready for the princess. He had a party of his own to throw in the barn the day before and he volunteered to completely tear it all down, rearrange the furniture and help me put this all together. My mom and Josh helped so very much, but he definitely gets the prize for hardest working party helper. He may or may not have stood on a ladder twenty feet above a concrete floor hanging snowflakes from a wooden dowel stick. And when they were all hanging and Gran decided the dowels needed to be spray-painted, he quite possibly did that, too. I am so fortunate for their help at every single birthday party and they always do it with a smile on their face. I told you parties were our love language!
Warning: Affiliate links appear in the following section. Although shopping the embedded links won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might contribute to an amazing party for one of my little ones. Your support of my obsession is always appreciated!
1. Tinsel Trees | 2. Elsa Costume | 3. Frozen Figurines | 4. Nesting Cone Trees
5. Snowflake Mobiles | 6. Frozen Beverage Napkins | 7. Rock Candy | 8. Treat Cups
Click Below to Pin Our Winter Wonderland Party!
Want to read more? You can download our free printable favor tags and check out our other Frozen Party Posts here: Pipe Cleaner Princess Crown Tutorial | Gran’s Famous Tea Cakes
Want even more party posts? All of our DIY parties are archived here. Which is your favorite?!
