Our girls both have summer birthdays, one the first week of June and the other exactly one month later in July. The kids always pick their party themes months in advance, but I've learned not to let myself get too far down the planning road that early. Inevitably, especially with the younger kiddos, they tend to change their minds at least once or twice.
This year, Leah decided early on that she wanted a Peppa Pig party. She didn't care about any other details, as long as Peppa would somehow be involved. Her party guests were mostly cousins, whose ages range from 1 ½ to 9 so I tried to think of something fun that would include everyone while incorporating the Peppa theme. I remembered an episode (and by remembered I mean I can recite it word for word) where they had a field day and thought that would be perfect for our crowd!
I got to work on her little dress first, since I thought I could tie the decor in to the dress colors. I used The Cottage Mama's Summer Picnic Dress pattern, which was the perfect style. Not too frilly but still sweet for her special day.
I made a birthday banner using scrapbooking paper, a cricut and baker’s twine, painted a picture of Peppa’s house, hung some paper lanterns and used some of our Peppa toys on the food table. I kept the food simple- fruit, veggies, goldfish, cookie pops, “muddy puddle pudding” and of course, Peppa-roni pizza slices.
We also had freeze pops in an ice bucket outside with the field day games. Southern summer heat is no joke and we needed to keep these kiddos cool!
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I wanted to have plenty of different games so no one would have to wait to play and to make sure kids of all ages would have fun. I saw a cute idea for little piggy noses made from egg cartons so I made them for the kids to wear while they played.
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They had so much fun outside but they were ready when it was time for cake! I made a little Peppa cake using round cake pans for her face and adding her little snout and ears by carving those shapes from another round. For the cookie pops, I used a small round cookie cutter and bent it to Peppa’s signature face shape and hand cut the ears (for those of you who aren’t serial procrastinators like myself, you can buy actual Peppa-shaped cookie cutters online…). I used Martha Stewart’s royal icing recipe and added large sugar pearls dotted with black decorator pen for her eyes.
I made enough cookie pops to package up and set out as part of the favors. For the favors, I ended up making the boxes out of cardstock, because I couldn’t find exactly what I had in mind, and embellishing them with scrapbooking paper and little Peppa pictures. Inside were just a few little summer happies- bubbles, sidewalk chalk and candy.
Our little miss had such a special day, she asked to have another Peppa party next year. I know. She’ll change her mind five times before deciding on something else.
As for our sweet seven year old, Nora originally wanted to have a Frozen themed party…just like most other girls her age! We talked about having it at a local indoor ice skating rink to tie in with the famous Ice Queen theme. That was until she saw Frozen Fever. Because there is a huge difference, you know! Frozen Fever is "in Summerrrrrr" and the idea of "summer and sun and all things hot." So Nora decided she wanted a pool party. An outdoor party in the dead of summer. In the south. Heaven help us. We ended up using our neighborhood pool and cabana, which was perfect. I knew we wouldn't want to try to do too much food and beverage since nothing would hold up too well in the heat. We had some light snacks and incredible frozen lemonades, which were created by my amazing mother and father in law!
I made a tassel garland and sunflowers out of tissue paper to hang between the lanterns over the cake table. Nora made Snowgies (the little baby snowmen that Elsa sneezes out in Frozen Fever) out of cotton balls and construction paper and set them on the center of the picnic table.
We had to have the same cake as Elsa made for Anna in the movie, since that was one of the main details. I made a two-tiered cake, 8” rounds for the base and 6” rounds for the top, and frosted it in an ice blue. I found these Wilton flower candy molds and made sunflowers to decorate the outside, then piped a white icing scallop along the edges of each tier. Cake decorating certainly is not my specialty, but the birthday girl was over the moon. I used the molds again and made some lollipops to set out next to the cake.
We based the birthday banner on the fireplace on the one Elsa made Anna in the movie. We added a few Frozen Fever pictures in frames and some small silk sunflowers and that was it for the decorations!
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My sister threw a beautiful bridal shower for a friend a month earlier and incorporated sunflower seeds into her favors. I loved the idea and thought it would be really sweet to have for Nora’s party. Thankfully, my amazing sister had plenty of seeds and the drawstring burlap bags leftover which she gave to me. I put the seeds in a tiny plastic baggie embellished with a picture of Anna and the quote, “true friends are flowers grown from seeds of love.” I added some little bubble wands, Frozen candy rings and a little “thank you for making today a perfect day” tag to finish them.
Despite obsessively watching the weather the entire week before the party and feeling assured we wouldn’t have rain, a thunderstorm came rolling through about a half hour into the party. It actually worked out though- I don’t know if we would have been able to get the girls out of the water for cake otherwise! We let Nora open her gifts while we waited for the storm to pass, then they spent the rest of the party back in the pool. She said it was the “best birthday ever.”
We had such a relaxing summer this year. Nothing too crazy or stressful, plenty of family and good friends. The girls parties are always such a fun way to get everyone together. It’s hard to believe it’s time to switch gears and head back to school!
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