Disney's Frozen Themed Birthday Party

(Not my picture)

Addisyn and Brookelyn's Frozen Birthday Party

Oh my goodness! I got a little ambitious with this one! Ok, I'm not a great blogger. I'm not witty or funny. I don't know a lot of big words. I'm not a "beat around the bush" type person, let's just get straight into everything that went into this party.

The Elsa dress:

I modified a pattern I found on another blog that I really liked (DIY Maxi Skirt). I lengthened the top to make it a dress rather than a skirt. Kept the bottom the same. 

(Brookie's top was too itchy.)

(Addisyn's Dress before adding the straps)

I was rushing to finish at least Addisyn's dress before the party. I braided three pieces of fabric, a sheer fabric and two of the bottom color. Clipping to a cutting guide REALLY helped.

(Strap)

I used the sheer fabric to make the "cape" part of the dress. Just cut it the desired length, added a small piece of fabric that matched the top of the dress (so it didn't itch her neck). My mom sewed in a piece of rope? string? cord? I don't what you want to call it. We tied it to the straps because it was too tight around her neck if we tied the ends together.

Party favors:

Do you want to build a snowman bag. I just put 3 marshmallows, two stick pretzels, three chocolate chips and an orange tic-tac in a small snack size baggie for each of the kids to take home.

Snowball playdough. Here's the recipe Playdough Recipe. It was super easy and fun to make!

Glow Jars. For this I had Shayelynn and her friend help me. They just took glow in the dark paint, two different sized paint brushes and put dots all over baby food jars.

Rock Candy. An epic fail. I attempted to make "rock candies" for the kids to take home. Like these:

Well, the rocks never formed :( so they were thrown out.

Snacks:

We had a great assortment of snacks.

Do you want to build a snowman?

Marshmallows

Pretzels

Chocolate Chips

Orange Tic-Tacs

Sven droppings (Junior Mints)

Kristoff's Ice (Blue Jello). I didn't make this quite right for what my vision was. I wanted to cut out snowflakes from the jello. But, I didn't make it according to the "Jigglers" recipe on the box. So, we just had cubes. So, remember if you're cutting shapes out of jello use the Jigglers recipe on the SIDE of the box!

Glacier Punch. Purple Kool-Aid. 'Nuff said!

Decorations/Games:

The table: I have a HUGE piece of what I call Ice Blue fabric that we laid on the table for a table cloth. We made signs for the table out of poster board and wrote on them with permanent markers. On my small chalkboard picture frame I wrote "I like warms hugs" and added a snowflake.

Decor: Shayelynn and her friend cut out snowflakes. I found these awesome designs with instructions. Frozen Snowflakes

Games: We played pin the nose on Olaf. Here's the poster I made:

Sketch before outline in marker.

After outlining and coloring.

We cut noses out of poster board and colored them orange.

We also had to kids color a coloring page, we just googled "Frozen coloring page":

I was going to have the kids play "Don't Break The Ice" but wasn't able to get my hands on the game in time.

THE CAKE!!

This is absolutely by far my most favorite cake ever! Here's a link to the recipe Simple White Cake. Brandon says you can't make it the same unless you have goats milk, haha. I added a cream cheese filling. SUPER simple! 1 package of cream cheese, teaspoon of vanilla (or if you measure like I do, I count to two while pouring it in) and powdered sugar (I just keep adding it until I get the consistency I want, maybe 2-3 cups?). With how "firm" the cake is, it spread on VERY easily. We topped it with a Fluffy White frosting from a can. I didn't have time to throw together a frosting. I attempted to make hard candy cracked ice, it was an epic fail. Here's what my vision was and how it should have looked:

I never got a picture of the cake finished but before it was eaten, so here's the only picture of the cake I have:

Mostly eaten cake

All in all the party was a huge success! While searching online for ideas I was so overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of the lengths parents go to for birthday parties. This was by far the "biggest" birthday party we've ever done. Some of the parties I saw must have cost the parents a fortune! I don't think their 3 year old cared or will even remember most of what was put into it. Anyways, that's it for now. I hope this will help anyone out there that may be wanting to plan a Frozen themed party themselves. It was totally worth it to see how happy our girls were.

Playdough Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Food coloring (optional)
Glitter (optional)

Instructions
1. Mix all ingredients in a 5 quart pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until mixture is a thick dough consistency (no longer sticky). Scoop out onto a cookie sheet to cool before playing.
2. *Add food coloring during the cooking process.
3. *Add glitter and knead after the dough is cool. 

Simple White Cake

This is the first time I have tried this recipe and I LOVE IT!!! It's the best cake I've ever made! It tastes like a sugar cookie and is just dense enough it doesn't fall apart when you frost it. Although, it's not totally a "white" cake, it's a little yellow-ish. I think by only using egg whites and not the whole egg, it would be white. Anyway, here it is:

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45-50 minutes (in gas oven)

Size: 13x9 inch pan or 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups white sugar

1 cup butter

4 eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

3 cups of flour (we use unbleached organic)

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups of milk (I used our very first goat's milk!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan or line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl or stand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder in separate bowl. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 45 to 50* minutes in the preheated oven. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

*Cook times may vary by oven. The original recipe that I based mine on says to bake a 9 x 9 cake for 30 to 40 minutes and cupcakes 20 to 25 minutes. Since I doubled and adjusted that recipe, mine took longer. I started the timer at 35 and added 10 mintues twice.

Slow Cooked Fruit Butter Recipe

I titled this "Fruit Butter" because I have made Apple Butter and Pear Butter using the same recipe. 

Surprising fact: There is NO butter! I'm sure most people know this, but my kids were amazed when it wasn't on the ingredient list.

 We mostly eat Apple/Pear Butter on toast for breakfast. We have also put it on pancakes and I recently read that some people put it in their oatmeal. I'll have to try that one.

Most apple butter recipes I have seen say to peel the apples. I prefer to leave the peel on, that's where all the nutrients are after all. Once pureed you can't even tell.

Anyway, on to the recipe...

Slow-Cooked Fruit Butter

6 large Honeycrisp Apples, cored, finely chopped
OR
10-12 pears, cored, finely chopped
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Place cut fruit in slow cooker, it should fill the pot to the top. Top with sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Mix well. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened and dark brown. Uncover and puree in blender or food processor. Spoon into sterile jars or containers and refrigerate.

Alternative:
Cook on high, uncovered, for 1-2 hours.

P.S. Growing up surrounded by orchards I am a "fruit snob" and very picky about my fruit. We get all of our apples and pears from Stemilt World Famous Fruit in Wenatchee, WA.

Rice Filled Heat Pad

I did it! And, it turned out how I envisioned it! Well, the second one did anyways.

Of course I didn't take step by step pictures. But, here's some step by step instructions:

Materials:
Outside:
Faux Fur, maybe 1 yard depending on the size you want
Cotton fabric to match, same size
Matching thread
Bear skin rug outline template

Inside:
Rice
Essential Oils (optional)

1) Trace the outline onto the cotton material. Fold fabric over itself and cut. So you end up with two bear skin shapes of the same material.

2) Do the same with the faux fur material.

3) Pin together in this way: cotton, cotton, fur, fur. With the right sides of the fur together.

4) Sew around most of the shape. I left the "tail" area open for filling.

5) If you sew like me, make sure you caught all the layers, then trim excess fabric.

6) Turn materials right side out, through the opening you left.

7) In a bowl mix rice and a few drops of essential oils. I used Eucalyptus and Lavender.

8) Fill bear with the rice to your preferred "fullness" and sew up the opening.

It took me all of about an hour including tracing, cutting, sewing, etc. Pretty simple. 

When heating I put in the microwave, on a paper towel, for 30 seconds. You could probably toss it in the dryer for a few minutes too.

Organic

About six months ago we decided for the health and well being of our family we are going to be as self sufficient on the farm as possible. With all the chemicals, hormones and who knows what else they put in commercial food now-a-days we want to eat what I call "whole, raw" foods. To me this means getting our food as close to the source as possible.

Not long ago I never really worried about it or cared. In fact, I kind of thought "organic" or "granola" people were crazy. Not anymore. I'm on board! Right there with them!

I'm not one to try to convince someone to change their opinion or beliefs. But, here are some of my reasoning's behind making the switch:

Milk

I don't know how animals are treated, what they are fed, what the condition of the land is, etc. on a commercial dairy. It is my opinion, I have not done extensive research, that the cows are injected with hormones so they will continue to produce milk. One of these hormones is estrogen. "Estrogens are used as part of some oral contraceptives, in estrogen replacement therapy for postmenopausal women, and in hormone replacement therapy for trans women (Wikipedia)." Whatever the cows ingest goes into the milk they produce. How can increased estrogen levels be good for boys/men? Who knows what kind of pesticides are put on the land around the cows that they may ingest through breathing or grazing. Again, this all comes out in the milk. I could go on and on with my "conspiracy theories" until the cows come home ;) This is why we decided to get dairy goats. Being new to the milking process we decided to start with goats rather than a cow. Here are our goats, Blue Thunder and Pepper. They are purebred, registered Lamancha does.

 Blue Thunder is due to kid any day now and we can finally have our fresh, raw milk!

Pepper will kid towards the end of the month or early March.

I take comfort in knowing EXACTLY what is going into the goats and what will be coming out in the milk :)

We also have a Nubian doe that we will breed sometime this Spring/Summer. She's only a year old and a little pain in the butt. We love her anyways and she's SUPER cute! Here she is, standing in the hay manger, bad girl!

Hay

We made the switch to organic hay when we bought the goats. I have had TERRIBLE hay allergies ever since we started our farm. I have to wear long sleeves and gloves to throw hay to the animals, protective eye wear and usually have to close my eyes when it's windy. Not to mention hold my breath. If I don't, I break out in hives, get red, itchy, watery eyes and sneeze the rest of the day. Since switching to organic hay I haven't had any problems! I couldn't find my gloves the other day and was worried about feeding the goats. I haven't had any problems with hives, sneezing or itchy eyes! Yay!

Beef 

A few years ago we bought some black angus steer from Horseshoe Angus Ranch in Connell (http://horseshoeangusranch.com). It was the best beef we have ever had! With beef prices in the stores rising constantly we decided to buy our own registered black angus breeding stock from the same place. After doing the math, we spent more on ground beef alone in a year than we will on hay for the cattle. Right now we have two heifers that we will take to be bred this Summer for late Spring calves in 2015. If we have a bull calf we will castrate him, raise him and then butcher him. Heifer calves will be sold to cover the costs of raising the animals for the year. Just like the goats, we will know EXACTLY what is going into our beef. 

Here is 236 "Madison" and 318 "Belle"

Plans for this spring: Chickens, pigs and a garden!

Heavy lifting

Let's face it. . .God did not create me for lifting heavy things. This presents certain challenges on the ranch. ESPECIALLY during the day when Brandon is gone and something NEEDS to get done. 

Thus, redneck ingenuity ensues. 

We're expecting a hay delivery today, four 1,000 lb bales. We didn't know it was coming today until after Brandon had left for work. So, it was up to me to prepare a "landing" place for the bales. We have a few pallets laying around here and there so I figure I'll throw a few down for a base and then we can build a lean-to with pallets and a tarp around the hay. No problem, right?

Problem, big problem.

Dragging these things through 4 inches of snow is tough! Again, God did not design my body for this. I've been sick most of the week and the lack of energy isn't helping either. That's when the redneck light bulb turned on! If I had some sort of pulley system I could glide them along the top of the snow.

I go to the barn to steal a couple of Jordyn's lead ropes. I wrap the lead ropes on either end of the top of the pallet and hook them to themselves. PERFECT! Now, all I have to do is pull them into place. 

It worked great! Just like a pallet toboggan. I wish I had a camera with me, or my phone even, to get pictures of this epic moment.

Now to just sit back and wait to see if the hay bales fit on it...let's hope!