Winter ONE-derland birthday party

Whew! What a week. And, another one is just beginning. This one isn't giving me a break either!

I was planning on doing a whole bunch of posts showing off my creations and where I got my ideas and how I did things. Last week. But, unfortunately things never work out the way you plan. Especially when you plan them for 10 days before Christmas and you only have 7 days to go until party time. We found out the weekend before my son's first birthday that my husband's beloved grandmother passed away unexpectedly. So, on top of all of my shopping, buying, organizing and cross things off my many lists for the party I had to also get ready for the quickest trip to Wisconsin we would ever make to date. Plus, prepare all of us for it to be one of the toughest. But, we did it. We were in town less than 24 hours and thanks to God, my children were AMAZING in the car and all driving went smooth and quick :)

The party went off without a hitch about 36 hours after returning home and I only had to trim a few things off my "I want to do this" list for the party.

This was huge in my opinion since I have been planning this since before he was born. Seriously. I decided to do our 'Winter ONE-derland' theme while still pregnant and 10 days after he was born I went out the day after Christmas and bought most of my supplies when they were half-off or more. I love saving money. Then began my quest for inspiration and ideas for everything else-and had a list of things I wanted to do about a mile long. I was so pleased with the whole party and everyone loved it so that means it was a success.

I made most of the decorations myself. With minimal supplies bought at a really low price to be sure. While my basement was decorated for Christmas I wanted to be sure that the birthday party had plenty of snowmen and snowflakes.

I love these Snowman hats and I was happy to make them for the party because I could still use them as decor around my house for the holidays! They were the centerpieces on my two tables.

 

The first one is actually a papier mache hat I bought at Michaels and just dressed up to look like a snowman hat. The second one is more along the lines of what I found here-a coffee can and a piece of cardboard. I bought that Snow-tex stuff at Michael's as well with a coupon so it was cheaper. I had to really look for it but I found it near all the model making stuff.

I was going to just use the birthday banner I made years ago but decided to do something else. After finding this snowman paper plate banner and this snowflake banner, I decided to combine them. I looked all over for paper snowflakes but finally settled on foam ones. I did all the lettering myself too since I didn't feel like pulling out the Cricut and adding all those extra steps when I was on a time crunch. I used some twine to bring it all together-simple and finished!

 

Please forgive the piece of twine hanging out on the right there. My husband was helping me with picture taking and one of the snowmen fell off the wall and he simply put it back up without winding the twine back under it-don't worry, I fixed it ;)

 

I thought about making a buch of paper snowflakes too. You know, cutting them each out one by one. Like when I was in grade school. Yeah, didn't look forward to that. So, I was happy to find a tutorial and my snowflakes were BEAUTIFUL! My daughter actually asked if she could have one after the party :) I made one large one, one medium one and two small ones.

 

 

I had seen-and made-these snowflakes a few years ago. Before Pinterest even...they were one of my bookmarks before I had "Pinboards"!  They were just waitig for a coat of paint. This party got the fire under my butt and I finished them and they looked great hung over my food buffet and in front of my less than pretty blinds.

After the decor, the next important thing was my yummy treats and food. I found this cake idea over at Taste of Home. Since I don't like coconut and am also allergic to it I nixed that idea and left the icing plain. The "1" is the candle and the tree and the snowman are suckers I found at Dollar Tree. Six suckers for a dollar. And, I simply cut down the stick and it stayed upright and in place in my cake! I used a box cake mix too. Don't hate me :)

 The rest of the kiddies got to eat these snowman cupcakes. Chocolate chips and orange sprinkles for the faces and they were a HUGE hit!

 

 The biggest hit of the day though was the hot chocolate bar. Everyone loved it and I barely had any left at the end of the day. I used this recipe for crockpot hot chocolate and everyone said it was like drinking a candy bar. It was simply amazing! The recipe gives tips for thicker hot chocolate and I did mine that way....outstanding!

 My 'toppings' included: mini Jet-Puff marshmallows, red sugar crystals, green jimmies with snowflakes, white chocolate chips, mini milk chocolate chips, chocolate covered candy canes (I dipped them myself) and pirouline cookie stick. Oh, and Reddi-whip. Can't forget the whipped cream!

 In addition to the cupcakes we had other confections to enjoy after dinner. Like snoman cakes balls (mini chocolate chips and orange sprinkle things for the faces) and chocolate covered Oreos (with pearl bead sprinkles to look like snow).

 I also had these left over from the treat bags. Each bag had a plastic cup covered in snowflakes and inside was a snowman cake ball and one of these guys. I found the paper straws for $2.99 (144 count) at Meijer. I think they looked incredibly cute! I piped the snowflakes on with white chocolate and wish I had done all the cookies this way :)

I thought this guy looked pretty cute :) I found inspiration pictures all over pinterest but I made my own recipe up. I used 2 blocks of cream cheese and added minced garlic, a little garlic salt, some dill and parsley until it tasted right. I rolled it in mozzarella and added the peppercorns and carrot for the features. I mean, could he be any cuter??

 Finally, for the main course my husband and I did some brainstorming. We wanted to use our three crockpot system (best thing EVER!) and came up with a pasta bar. We had two kinds of pasta shapes (the shapes help hold the sauce and toppings better than a plain noodle), a red sauce, alfredo sauce and a cheese sauce. Again, don't be shocked but I used canned sauces. We offered mini meatballs, some grilled chicken chunks and pepperoni if you wanted to add some meat to your dish. Don't forget the shredded parmesan too! We ordered a anitpasto salad from a local pizza place and I made some garlic bread too for good measure!

 

Overall it was a great day! I can't believe how fast this first birthday came around but it was just as emotional as my daughters! And, of course with my party theme, I had to match my kids clothes to it too. I am just going to be one of 'those' moms. :)