Frozen Party on a budget

Every parent wants to give their child lasting, happy, childhood memories. Creating the perfect birthday party is unattainable, yet something most of us try every year. It always goes the same way. You scour over a guest listed and hope that at least half will RSVP (but in this day no one does and it's irritating), then you shop, decorate, and create party foods that all tie in to your little ones theme perfectly. You may spend days, or weeks on something that is over in the blink of eye. You may stay up late making every little detail count or spend countless dollars on catered food or elaborate cakes. While I'm in the business of selling cakes, I'm also the first to limit how much I spend. I say pick one thing you can't live without and invest. For everything else, go to the Dollar Tree.

I have always kept my girls' guest lists to a minimum. My family tends to enjoy themselves better when they can concentrate their attention. Plus, I hate crowds :-P This also helps the pocketbook. A good rule of thumb is to invite as many guest as your child is in years. 5 years old  = 5 guests.

When it comes to decorations, I always look around the house to see what I can transform to fit our theme. If I have to buy something, I try and make it something that I can re-purpose.  For my daughter's Frozen party, we used Christmas decorations. The few I did buy, were from the Dollar Tree.

The food is all stuff that is quick, easy, and inexpensive. Most kids aren't going to go for fancy hors de oeuvres and you certainly don't need to feed them a meal....they have parents for that.  Pretzel rods and marshmallow pops dipped in white chocolate, carrots, candy in our theme colors, popcorn, and the cake. Done. Minus the cake, that was all $5. The real trick is to see what's on sale and how you can make it work. I just renamed all the snacks.

 

Believe it or not, this cake was simple. It was frosted in blue icing. I just used a round tip to make icicles around the top. The snowflakes are white chocolate. I simply taped a piece of parchment over a template I printed off of the internet and used my piping bag to pipe the melted chocolate over the lines. Then I topped it with mini dolls and an inverted glass bowl to give it a snow globe effect. The dolls were also a gift, so I wouldn't include that in the cost. I found the bowl at the Dollar Tree. If you can't afford to hire someone like me to make you a cake, this is a viable option. There are a ton of ideas on the web. When all else fails, just Google it.

I had to include the black and white because it made the snowflakes on top stand out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a ton of games that you can look up online and modify to fit your theme too. Think outside the box. I took a few well known games and gave them a wintery makeover. Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, we played pin the nose on the Olaf. And instead of making TP wedding dresses, we built snowmen.We even guessed how many jelly beans were in the jar with candy that I had already purchased for the party.

A bit blurry, but you get the idea.

Sometimes, having a great AND inexpensive party takes a little time. Sometimes, it takes a lot of time between researching ideas and trying to execute them properly. In the end, it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be fun. No matter what, it will be a special day for your little one. Do you have other tips and tricks for a great party? Please post some below!