When we celebrated Abby's 4th birthday earlier this month, I knew exactly what I wanted. FUN! I wanted everything to be kid friendly, in fun bright colors, and there to be an good mix of Christmas and birthday. I wanted her to feel like we celebrated her birthday and Christmas.
Because of that initial thought, I focused on words and colors related to Christmas, but not the first ones you think of... for example, I used JOY on decorations and along with red and green, we added in pink and turquoise. I used polka dots and stripes, rather than Christmas trees and Santa in the wrapping paper choices.
The food was no different. We had cookies, veggies, chips and dip and the cutest cakes I have ever seen!
I used my cupcake holder and cupcake liners to serve veggies with Ranch dip. It made is easier for people to eat and a vertical display helped with me limited serving space. I also made Abby's favorite gingerbread cookies and my favorite, Peppermint Snowballs.
I had our cakes made at the local grocery store and did a variety of flavors. I placed them in the middle of the buffet on my stove top cover. The JOY letters were inexpensive wooden letters from Hobby Lobby that I painted and placed on the tile with foam tape.
I ordered the presents as you see them with fondant dots and big bows. The round cakes were ordered with a plain white top so that I could decorate them into snowglobes.
This little girl loved her cakes! She was so cute about them!
The snowglobe was super simple to make. A blanta bowl for $4.99 from IKEA fits perfectly when turned upside down onto an 8" round cake. I simply had to decorate the top of the cake before sitting the bowl on top. I used a bottle brush tree, ornaments and glitter on one cake and a tree with snowflakes on the other. I used lots of sprinkles and edible glitter!
One tip with the glass bowl, just lightly sit it on top of the cake. Pressing it down creates a mess as shown on the Happy Birthday cake above.
One the other half of the kitchen buffet, I set up the drinks.
I topped this counter with more wrapping paper and fun Christmas placemats. The pitcher on the right held melted snowman, aka iced water, and the ice. I saw the colander in a bowl trick on Pinterest and love it! So smart!
Along with cups and straws, I placed gift tags on the counter so that people could label their cups in keeping with the theme. I filled out the from with Christmas people like Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, etc.
It was 70 degrees at her party, so typical winter beverages like Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Wassail were out. Instead I found two new punch recipes online and prayed they were good. God answered my prayers- they were both yummy and I will make them again!
I wanted a red punch and a green punch- the red was a little like a Cherry Limeade and the green punch tasted like melted sherbet. I loved it!
About an hour into the party, while everyone was snacking and crafting, the doorbell rang and we told Abby as a good hostess, she was to answer the door! Look who appeared-
We knew all the kids would want to see him quickly, so Abby held his hand and escorted him outside for a group photo. My husband juggled to occupy them so that all 20 parents could get photos!
The kids then came inside and lined up and we did individual photos. I simply added a large backdrop to the hallway wall with wrapping paper. It worked out great and we got so many awesome pictures of the kids. I am grateful I didn't have to endure the mall!
Happy Birthday Sweet Abby! We love you and hope you never forget your 4th birthday party!
