Winter Birthday Party |Adalyn & Aniston’s Birthday Celebration

For us, January is just as busy as December. It’s the month of birthdays! Aniston just turned two, Adalyn will be 4 next week, and well, we’re not going to talk about mine. Since it sneaks up so quickly after the holidays, I keep it simple. Just a few beautiful details and adaptations of our current decor. There are perks to having a winter birthday party! This year, I incorporated a few pieces of our Christmas decor as well as our recently transitioned January decor to create a slightly winter wonderland themed birthday party. I say slightly because I don’t like to do anything overly themed. Just a few touches to make it special. I was reminded of this when I was at Target last week and overheard a mom in the laundry aisle on her cell phone talking about how she was so overwhelmed preparing for her daughter’s birthday party and how it will never live up to Pinterest. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or a Pinterest party. Aside from searching for the bird, I spent an hour preparing for Adalyn and Aniston’s party, and, from the look on their faces, they enjoyed every moment of it, and so did I!

Adalyn had a few requests – brownie cake, marshmallow cream, chocolate ice cream and cotton candy milk. Apparently the age of 4 is when you become opinionated. She’s a party planner at heart, and I loved her excitement and anticipation.

I took advantage of after Christmas sales and purchased a snowflake pan to make our own cake this year and it happened to make perfect portions! You haven’t seen a chocolate snowflake before? I dusted it with powdered sugar to give it a little snow effect and we served it with homemade marshmallow cream and chocolate ice cream. Yes, it was amazing. The girl has great taste!

Hot chocolate with snowflake stirrers {also an after Christmas clearance find} and flavored milk were served along with soft drinks. That’s worth having a birthday alone!

For lunch, I served bacon macaroni and cheese. If you haven’t made it yet, add it to your menu planning for next week. It’s easy, creamy and great for large groups.

As I previously mentioned, I kept decor to a minimum. I scoured the yard for fallen branches to create marshmallow trees – one for the entryway and another for the side board. I love it so much in my birch vase that I’m not sure I can replace the marshmallow covered branches with the red berries again. And the bird. I confess, I went to 6 Targets, and sent my sister and a friend on a bird hunt. Maybe I gravitated to the lil guy because he has the same hat as Adalyn and Ani? I don’t know, but thankfully a friend on Facebook had mercy on me {my friends and family} and loaned him to me.

If you aren’t comfortable at arranging flowers, a single stem in a bud vase always makes a statement. Just snip it a half in or so above the top of the vase for yet another quick & easy beautiful detail.

Marshmallows grow on trees in my dreams! Using a mix of large and small {fresh} marshmallows, I pushed them onto the end of stems, snipping some stems down to where they were sturdier to create a “blooming” tree.

I had planned to make marshmallow garland, but I was out of time and out of fishing line before Isla woke up. I made my peace with it and the girls didn’t mind at all.

I asked fellow blogger and calligrapher Madi Reid Sanders to create a Happy Birthday sign that I could frame in my kitchen vignette. It only takes one or two standout details to really make a party come alive.

To allow Chris and I to relax and enjoy every moment of the party, I enlisted our neighbor and babysitter to take coats, offer drinks, serve lunch, and dessert. I wanted to visit with our family that traveled to celebrate with us and just soak in every moment with the girls. I will never again host their birthday parties without. Honestly, I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before! It may seem frivolous, but it was the best money I have spent in a long time.

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