Emma's 4th Birthday party: The plan

It took Emma awhile to decide what kind of party she wanted.  At one point when I had asked her what she wanted for her birthday party she’d just said things like “cake” and the like.  So, then I started trying to think of what things she really liked and considered a baking party/cupcake decorating party, and then she gave me a suggestion that led me to believe she’d like a puppy party again.  However, finally one night at bedtime she told me she wanted a Trolls party.  Now that was something I could really work with, because there were lots of fun things we could do with that!  As for where to have this party, well she said she wanted it at a park.  That was very doable, but we needed to choose which one.  She suggested our neighborhood park, but that only has one picnic table.  John suggested the same park that we had Evan’s water party at last year, since it would then give the kids the option to play in the water feature if the weather permitted.  So we went with that and I booked the shelter.

So, we had a Cupcakes and Rainbows themed Trolls party!  I came up with some rainbow snacks that I found on Pinterest, including what I called “rainbow bars” (think Rice Krispie treats but with Fruity Pebbles instead), rainbow twizzlers, rainbow colored goldfish crackers, and a rainbow assortment of fruits.  The kids even helped me make the rainbow bars, which was a lot of fun for them to be so helpful, and so I think we may need to make homemade krispie treats in the future since that went well and they enjoyed that.

Snack prep for the party

For the cake, I went with cupcakes for the theme, but also since we were having the party outside at a park.  I tend to like cupcakes for parties away from home so I don’t have to bring forks and knives and extra stuff to cut up and serve a cake.  I also like to set out cupcakes on my cupcake stand.   It took awhile for me to find a cupcake style though.  I had really wanted to make a rainbow cake style cupcake, but I don’t have an oven still (due to our kitchen remodel) and I didn’t know if I’d have time to make them anyway.  No bakeries at the grocery stores will make that either, so I was limited to how the cupcakes are frosted.  One morning I asked Emma what kind of cupcake decoration she’d like, and I showed her a few options on Pinterest.  She didn’t like either (rainbow frosting piped together into a swirl, or different solid colors frosted and laid out in a rainbow).  She saw another pin I had saved and said she wanted that.  Guess what, it was the one I wanted too with the rainbow cake!  So, I made plans to borrow my friend’s kitchen the day before her party to make them.  However, that very day before I was supposed to make the cupcakes, Emma and I were shopping together at a store I had yet to look at their bakery selection and they offered rainbow decorated (white or chocolate cake) cupcakes with little sugary rainbows and rainbow sprinkles on white frosting as part of their standard offerings.  Emma saw them and loved them and said she wanted them.  I asked her to clarify she wanted them instead of the rainbow cake one, and she said yes!  So, that made that a LOT easier for me! 

Rainbow cupcakes!

The other Pinterest find that I knew I wanted to do for this party was make Troll hair headbands for all of the kids to wear.  Can you imagine it?  Lots of 4-7 year olds running around looking like Trolls!  How cute!  This was my DIY party project, and thankfully John helped me one night too (he cut lots of tulle strips for me!), which made it go faster.  I had a lot of fun making them, and they were a hit (more on that in an upcoming post about the party).

For the activities, well, I figured we could play a game of “Bergen tag”.  What’s that?  Well, it’s just tag with someone pretending to be a Bergen chasing trolls.  Emma loves “tag you’re it” right now, so I thought that would be particularly fun for her and since the kids would be wearing “Troll hair” I figured it would be quite appropriate.  That was the only really structured game I had in mind, since the playground (and possibly water feature) would offer plenty of other fun to be had.   One other thing that I planned was to have “hug time” at various points during the party, so I brought our musical triangle to ding when it was hug time. 

I didn’t plan any other major decorations, since we were having it outside that would just mean more to set up and clean up.  I just got a Poppy table cloth and several other yellow table clothes to match, some cupcake plates and pink plates, and a Poppy mylar balloon.  I also got a little cupcake balloon and we brought Poppy hairstyling stations (ours that Emma had just gotten for her birthday and our friend’s) to add to the décor and also be an activity some kids could play with.

For the party favors, I figured the Troll hair headbands would be part of it, but I also made up goodie bags with some candy, pencils that were sparkly and different colors of the rainbow, lollipops, Trolls gummy fruit snacks, and Emma picked out some plastic flower rings as well.

Favor table (left) and drink station (right)

Now we were ready for the party…(see next post).