Tangled Up In Fun

With the arrival of Chloe's 5th birthday this year, I was reminded of how much I looked forward to my own in the early years. I would seriously start counting down to my birthday from about the first of the year. These days they aren't nearly as exciting for me, but I love watching my kids as the anticipation builds towards their special days. Chloe's countdown began about a month ago, and started again the day after her birthday.

Chloe woke up to doughnuts that Joe picked up for her first thing that morning. We let the kids pick their birthday meals and a sprinkle doughnut for breakfast and macaroni and cheese for lunch were on the menu, but the first order of the day was opening presents.

Can you tell which gift was Adam's favorite? (Okay, so he really didn't care, but I thought it was funny) After breakfast and lunch, the focus fell on her 1st birthday party ever. I don't know that I am a very creative person and, feeling that way, I experienced some anxiety when it came to planning a fun party. Chloe had decided on a Rapunzel theme and luckily a Google search gave me some great ideas that I all too happily copied. Click here if you want to check out the origins for all my great Tangled ideas.

Here is Chloe's invitation asking the kids to come get Tangled in fun at our house

We planned a night party, for reasons to be detailed below. Chloe kept bragging that she was having a "night" party. I think the one boy she invited was a little confused when he showed up.

Food is always fun and I think we did some fun things, again no idea being my own.

Rapunzel's Tower Cake:

I did come up with the idea to stick Rapunzel stickers in the cupcakes, so I guess I'm not a total copy cat

Chloe loved the idea of doing sailboats in blue jello. The kids loved them too

The entire spread, complete with food from the movie: homemade bread, grapes, and lots of other yummy treats. Rapunzel was kind enough to let us borrow some of her hair and the kids had fun playing tug of war and other jumping games. Chloe also really wanted to do a balloon stomp, but I wasn't able to get any great pictures of that.

No matter how fun a party is , any birthday kid's favorite part is the singing and more presents. She got some great things from her cute little friends and loved being in the spotlight for the night.

Tracie and Ellie are two of Chloe's favorite young women and they were so great to come help paint nails and help out with Adam. I love these cute girls! One of the things I was most excited about for this party was to light off lanterns into the night sky. It's yet again another stolen idea, but was very cheap and way fun. There are better pictures one the link above, and here is the link if you want to buy some yourself.

We ended the night with this pretty send off as parents came to pick their kids up and we sent them home with water color paints, and hopefully a happy memory. I'm so glad that I don't big birthday parties yearly, but might be convinced if it meant watching my kid's happy faces again like Chloe's was at the end of this fun day