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We recently celebrated my five year old's birthday and I can't even believe I'm saying those words. It seems like yesterday, my husband brought this plump, 11 pound, chubby cheeks, black haired angel up to my cheeks for a quick kiss before taking her away to do her newborn well check. And now I want to go scroll through all of her pictures ever taken because sometimes it hits you that you are done with babies and it went by too fast. Too fast. So fast forward to 5 years later and Hannah decided that she wanted a rainbow unicorn birthday party. What else would a 5 year old who is obsessed with Disney princesses and all things magical request? I personally was dreaming about doing a whimisical, fairytale tea party for her. My pinterest board was already full of ideas. But it was not to be this year! Still dreaming about it though. Maybe I'll just do an adult one for me and my ladies! Hey!!
Okay, Unicorn Birthday party here we go! So, we live in Florida and it is pretty darn hot in the summer. If your get togethers don't involve a pool or waterslide or water of some sort, it's not even happening! Am I right? I asked Hannah to help me pick out a water slide to rent because I wanted to be sure it was something she would actually go down. Last year we rented a slide for her Frozen themed birthday party and she didn't even go down once. I am happy to report that she has since conquered her fears of inflatables.
We used Jimmy's Jumps. They're local so find them on facebook if you're interested. They were fantastic with setting up and removing on time.
Once entertainment was taken care of, I started to pinterest ideas to make the rest of her party cute and unique to her. I decided to make sugar cookies as the party favor. This was so fun because Hannah helped cut out cookies from beginning to end (and ate raw cookie dough along the way, it's fine, she's fine!). She loved being involved. I got these unicorn and rainbow cookie cutters from Amazon. I also ordered the meringue powder, food coloring and even the piping bags all from Amazon.
Party favors were cookies and rainbow bubble wands. Easy peasy!
Next I tackled the cake. Full disclosure, I love decorating and making things beautiful but I'm always wary of the actual baking process. I always get upset when my cake doesn't have the perfect amount of moisture, or flavor or whatever. I'm always undercooking or over cooking my cookies or baked goods. Baking can be so precise. I much rather the working on the finishing touches. Last year, I ordered a plain cake from Publix and decorated it myself, frozen style. This year, I decided to bake a vanilla cake for the bottom layer and a strawberry cake for the top. It was definitely a doctored cake mix kind of cake. Milk instead of water, throw in some pudding mic, extra eggs, mayonnaise instead of oil.... that kind of thing. You can find tons of ideas for doctoring cake mixes on pinterest or with a quick search on google. This is what I ended up with. Definitely not my best work, but Hannah oohed and awed over it the entire time I was making it. And literally squealed when she was showing friends her cake that her momma made. Oh be still my heart! That made it all worth it and no imperfection mattered.
I also found this idea for cute rainbow cupcakes on pinterest so I gave those a shot as well. They were super easy to make but not all the candy pieces stayed perfectly curved. The unicorn dip was also a pinterest idea that didn't come out exactly how I thought it would but everyone enjoyed both so calling it a pinterest win!
The balloon garland and "I believe in unicorns" sign I ordered from Amazon and the tablecloths were from target. Usually kids don't pay attention to the little details of their party, but I can honestly say that Hannah loved every bit of hers. I mean, look at her face...
Birthday parties are a great way to foster and grow relationships and even make new friends. It is definitely a part of "adventuring" for our family. They can be stressful to plan and execute but I know that my kids are growing up fast and pretty soon they will not want to have a "party" and will want to either go on a trip or go out with friends. I'm looking forward to that too but for now, we party on!
XO
Janine
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