I am so excited to finally share Alie’s birthday party with y’all.  It really ended up being a birthday month for her.  So, let’s start the Alice Marie Rapunzel Inspired almost a whole month birthday party!!

Her birthday started off with her choice of b-day breakfast. She chose Chick-fil-A, of course!!

The manager was so sweet, he gave Alie is cute lil cow to her for her birthday.  It was actually her first present of the day.

Then a little bit later Alie had a lil party at school for her birthday.

This is Alice sitting with her very best friend Mark. Her daddy and I hear a lot about Mark!

Alice and a few of her classmates dancing together at her school party.

Later that evening we had homemade (Ami-made) strawberry cupcakes!!

Then it was time for our precious Alice Marie to open her presents.

Now, like I was saying before, it’s kinda been a birthday month for Alice.  The picture above happened just a couple weeks before her birthday.  She had a fever of 103.6 and we were told by her Dr to take her to the ER.  She had to get an IV (in case she needed meds and fluids, which she didn’t) she cried for just a moment and the nurse was pretty impressed with how tough she is (did y’all know she didn’t cry AT ALL last November when she got her ears pierced!!!)  The hospital near by isn’t a pediatric hospital and the nurses and Dr’s let us know that right away as she would need to be transferred if she needed to be admitted.  The nurse that gave her the IV brought in that cute purple teddy bear (purple is her favorite color too!!). I thought it was very sweet and the teddy even came with a little message about how he was for her to cuddle and hold tight when she was scared or didn’t feel to well.  Really sweet huh?  All her tests came back fine and everything indicated she had a nasty virus.  Instead of taking a traumatic ambulance ride to TX childrens, we got to take our baby girl home.

This is her instagram pic from the next day letting everyone know she was feeling much better!

And then a week after she was sick again.  We waited to see if she would be feeling better in time for the party but….

I took this picture the day before her scheduled party.  Still sick and being guarded by our 18 yr old cat.

So we postponed the party for a couple weeks.  I took this picture the next week.  She’s still sick but on some antibiotics and feeling a bit better.  It turns out baby girl has allergies and she would just get so congested that the “goobies” turned into bacteria making her sick.

And now let me show you how our house looked for weeks.  Alice loved having a Rapunzel house for….oh who am I kidding, half the Rapunzel decorations are still up!! HAHA!

I made Rapunzel inspired banners from colored print paper using my Silhouette and a downloaded template I found at Fleeting Thing.

Using the same template I made this larger birthday banner for Alice.

After seeing this Rapunzel inspired wreath at Corner House, I had to make one of my own for Alice.

I used my Silhouette to cut a stencil for the letters and suns for this plaque.

Using colored print paper and Silhouette cut suns, I made these Tangled inspired floating lanterns. 

I fell in LOVE with these pretty cupcakes from Supermom Moments.

I had to show y’all, while I was baking the cupcakes Alie decided to decorate one herself.

So cute, huh?

I decide to make some similar to this but with sugar flowers and that way it was all edible.  I kept picturing these adorable preschoolers eating silk flowers!!  I purchased those gorgeous yummy little flowers from Mochasof on Etsy.  I HIGHLY recommend her shop! Her prices are half the cost of other shops and her flowers were gorgeous and delicious! She even sends a few extras in case some break during shipping.

Now for the party food!!

I made these cute lil Peanut butter and jelly SUN sandwiches and  ”Tangled”-fish sandwhich triangles.  But, I didn’t get any before pics!

I had the veggie tray above, a bowl of chex mix and another bowl of chips set up behind the King and Queen snacks tent label.

I had a drink station set up on another table but I put it together here to share with y’all what I had.  I made Sun-Flower punch which was really just Island Punch from Tampico.  I had planned to make Golden Wedding Punch after I saw the idea here.  But I ended up just using the punch. It was a HUGE hit by the way. The kids and adults alike went thru the punch faster than I could refill the bowl!  I also had iced tea and iced green tea for the adults.  I placed a large Silhouette cut sun on my ice bucket.

 Here is a close up of the punch.  On Supermom Moments I saw how she compromised with her daughter on the cups.  Her issue was that the cups wouldn’t necessarily match her theme.  I decided to have a separate area where I could use all the Rapunzel store made decoration to keep the baby girl happy.  I knew that just like with the daughter at Supermom Moments, my daughter would REALLY want all the store made decorations too.  So opting for a separate area of “those” decorations worked out perfectly.  Why I don’t have “those” cups is the cost!  More than $2 for 8 cups when you have a head count over 50 is just ridiculous right?  So using the idea I found at Supermom Moments I bought yellow and purple cups at the dollar store.  BTW, 18 cups for $1 at the dollar store!! SCORE!  I bought Rapunzel stickers and added them to yellow cups and Mod Podged Silhouette cut yellow suns onto the purple cups.

 When I saw this basket of “treats for Maximus” on Catch My Party’s Tangled Up In Fun Party I KNEW I had to do something similar.  There were more apples, but some humans ate a few of Max’s apples!

So, if you can image….there were bowls of snacks, the veggie tray, two trays of Tangled-fish sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and more apples.  The drinks were all on the store bought Rapunzel party table and the cupcakes came out a little later.  But, as I sat scarfing down what tuna, sorry TANGLED-FISH (hubby’s idea…cute eh?) sandwiches that were left and eating left over veggies like they were going out of business (any other mom’s completely forget to eat during a party you’re hosting???) I was staring at the table and I remembered suddenly “OH MAN! I forgot to get before pics!”  So, I set this up just for y’all to give you an idea of what I did.

 My sister thought it would be cute to add the Rapunzel dolls to the shoot!! Cute huh?

Now, picture a panicked, super tired, stressed out mom who maybe keeps mentally beating herself up for not having everything done in time even-tho she was given an extra few weeks and maybe keeps voicing said frustration of not having everything ready in time.  Now, imaging hearing the sound of silverware shuffling around and drawers and cabinets opening and closing.  Then a sweet little girl walks in with this container pictured above.  She sets it on the party table, turns around and says to me “Here mama, I made this for my party, I helping you. My friends can use these to eat”  Oh my gosh, I was so touched I actually teared up a little.  What a sweet daughter I have!!

And now…..it’s PARTY TIME!!!

Alie’s cousins Angie and Zane getting something to drink.

Alie’s classmates Sofia, Daniella, Valentina and Alie’s very bestest friend ever Mark!

Sweet beautiful Sophia.

 Here  all the kids are getting ready for Rapunzel Painting Time!  Alice and Daniella are in the back and from the left is Alie’s cousins Emma and April, her friend Sofia, cousin Mehreen and friends Mark and Valentina.

I thought I came up with a GENIUS idea with the painting activity.  Instead of  supplying old shirts, paints, painting canvases and all that jazz, I thought using those cute and convenient little paint pages with the paint already on them would be perfect.  They aren’t terribly messy, kids really can’t ruin their clothes, they are inexpensive and there is no need to buy more paint. Only problem, the paint really doesn’t work.  Kids used more and more water trying to get the colors to come out. They also pushed harder on the paper trying to get more color and we had a few tears over torn papers.  And if you have about 18 kids make sure the package you buy has more than 12 paint pictures!  WHOOPS!  Not having enough sheets for all the kids or replacements for the torn papers was bad.  The kids started out having fun but it ended with a bunch of frustrated kids.  I think if I had just gotten paints, papers and dug out a bunch of old shirts to keep the clothes clean, it would have been a lot more fun for them.

My mom got Alice a Rapunzel pull string pinata and the kids had a blast with it!!  I didn’t get any before or during pictures.  I did get a few after pictures.  This is Sarah showing us her pinata goodies.

Here is Mark (remember he is Alie’s very bestest friend ever!!) and his pinata goodies.  He actually ended up pulling the string that dumped all the goodies out.

My precious Alie Marie bagging up her pinata goodies.

Here is Alie’s adorable friend Valentina and her mom.

Alie getting ready to blow out her candle.

Here is my awesome friend Sarah and Alice.

Alice and her cousins April and Angie.  And yes, they are playing drums with dishes and my ice container!!

David’s mom Alice in the pink top ( yep! Alice was named after her), David dad, Alie’s cousins Maranda, Zane and little Emma.

My sister spied our parents sitting under the floating lanterns like this.  So, I quickly snapped a picture! So sweet huh?

Alice watching Tangled with her cousins and friends.

I really wish I could remember what was happening during the movie when I snapped this picture.  It looks so serious!

 I also didn’t get a picture of the kids playing the Pin Pascel on Rapunzel game.

Present time!! The kids all had fun helping Alie open her presents. And Alice didn’t mind at all.  I hadn’t planned on opening present during the party but my friend Sarah just HAD (winks at Sarah) to have her open her present and then all the kids started bring their presents to her.

Here are all her party presents and cards.

Remember Alie’s bestest friend ever, Mark??  Well, here is the story.  Alie’s teachers have told me how the two of them always sit together in school, during rug time and lunch, too.  They play together on the playground and have sometimes even been spotted hold hands!!!  His mom and I have talked a little bit about this special friendships our kiddos have.  It’s really sweet and cute but once  puberty hits we are moving to Greenland with Alice!! LOL just kidding….maybe!  Sorry, my point…the above picture is the gift from Mark!  The inside of the card says “love love kiss kiss” TOO!  It’s just too cute!!  It’s so sweet to see his mom has totally bought into this whole Alice and Mark cuteness!  Seriously y’all, how cute?

At the end of the evening after walking out the very last guest, I was walking back in when I saw Alie putting on her boots to go help her daddy water the plants in the backyard.  I told Alie “say cheese” and I got this adorable lil pose.  So cute right, and a perfect end to her party.

This was my first BIG at home birthday party for Alice.  It’s a lot harder than it seems.  I kept thinking and even posted on Facebook at one point “OH!!! This is why parents opt for parties at Chuck E. Cheese!”  It all kinda seemed like a whirlwind and I missed out so many opportunities to talk to the mommies of Alie’s friends, make some new friends, pass out blog cards,  hang out with family.  I missed SO MANY opportunities for pictures.  I don’t think I have a single picture of my sister Nori. She was my BIGGEST help for the party. Oh. My. GOSH! I don’t know what I would have done if she wasn’t there!  I didn’t get a picture of Alie and Mark, or Alie with family. There was a lot of family and I didn’t get many pictures of them either!  So, I think either hiring or designating someone to take pictures and having a list of MUST GET pictures would be SO HELPFUL!! My friend Sarah was incredibly helpful too!! She is super awesome with kids!!  I was also so focus on feeding the kids that the few snacks I had out for the parents really didn’t seem like enough!  I realized during the party the kids were preoccupied with playing and party games and it’s the hungry parents that really needed to be fed!  I also didn’t “time” plan things.  I didn’t think of it before or at the time but after I realized having a schedule would have been helpful.  The party dragged on a lil longer than the invite schedule and I know that happens often.  BUT, when your guest aren’t all family it’s better to stay on schedule.  We had a few of Alie’s friends leave before I had even gotten the cupcakes out.  So here are the lessons learned:

Have more than enough “grown up” food!

Hire/designate a photographer

create a list of “MUST GET’ pictures during the party.

make a “time framed” schedule to help keep the party flowing timely

All in all I’m really happy with how everything came out!  Alice and her friends were VERY HAPPY!  I even got several compliments for parents and family about my party decor.  The owner of Alie’s preschools daughter (lil Sarah) came to the party with her mom.  When I dropped Alice off at school the following Monday, Sarah’s dad told me about how much his wife and Sarah enjoyed the party.  His wife described all the decor to him with lots of wonderful compliments.  It made me feel so great!

Do you have any other helpful tips for at home parties?  Did you forget to eat too?  Have you every opted to have a party somewhere else and let the facility plan the party?

disclaimer: I did not get parental permission from all the parents to post these pictures.  If you do not wish for me to display a picture with your child or wish to formally give me permission to show them please send me a message using the contact form. Thank you!!

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