Isabel's birthday party; tangled up in some serious fun!

For Isabel's 6th birthday party we decided on a Tangled theme. And then she decided to invite 17 girls and 1 boy. I told her she was going to have to add a couple more boys or rule out boys altogether. She added two more to the list. She ended up with 15 girls and 1 boy at the party. No matter. It was THE boy. More on that later.

Let me just state up front that I totally copied ideas I found online for the most part. How ever did we event plan before the Internet, I ask?

Invites for the girls were embroidery thread braids coming out of a tower window. Boys' invites were Wanted Flynn Rider posters, on the back it read "You are WANTED at Isabel's 6th birthday party."

I saw this darling idea to make a 14-foot-long braid out of yarn, and I just HAD to do it. Funny thing is, the instructions said to use 3 people to make it, and it would take 10 minutes. I thought, surely I can handle this on my own. So 2 1/2 backbreaking hours later I finished it.

I made paper lanters, hung with fishing line to give the appearance of floating. I found the actual golden sun medallion from Disney and made them for the lanterns. Hanging near the light actually gave the a slight glow, as shown in the non-flash picture.

For a take home goody, I bought watercolor paint sets, removed the packaging, and added a line from one of the songs. I also gave the guests some sweet treats.

I printed out several Tangled coloring pages for the guests to work on while everyone arrived and got settled. This was especially helpful as it was pouring rain and freezing the day of the party. This is when I was grateful it was mostly girls, who were perfectly content to talk, color and listen to music for a bit.

The long braid hung perfectly from the loft. It was so much fun seeing the guests' eyes light up when they walked in and saw it.

We did a craft, making Pascal the chameleon with party-blower tongues. This.Was.A.Huge.Hit. HUGE! I had cut out all the adhesive-backed foam pieces prior to the party (yes, I might be a glutton for punishment), which included mirror-image heads, 2 eyes and 2 eye centers for each Pascal. Of course, since he changes color, they could make red, blue or green. Then you use a pink party blower for the tongue, which of course makes it look as though he's flicking his tongue; this is stuck between the two heads. This was a very simple and manageable craft that only involved removing the paper from the back and assembling the pieces. I can't even tell you how much fun they had with these.

One of my original ideas was to play Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider's head, which as I researched for ideas, turned out to be not so original. Oh well. I knew if I tried to draw a Wanted Flynn Ryder poster it would look more like a potato we were going to cook in the frying pan, so I turned to dearest husband and asked him to give it a go. He's got decent skills (almost went into architecture, didn't ya know). But I was astounded - astounded, I say! - with what he produced. He did this all free-hand, no ruler or anything other than a pencil and the image on the computer as a guide. Impressive, no?

I printed out a frying pan for each child, blind folded 'em, and let 'em at it. Very entertaining.

Per Isabel's request, we had a dance party to the Tangled soundtrack. Now, let me take a minute to bring you up to speed on something. There's a boy. His name is Nate. They have become best friends. Everyone in their kindergarten class knows they are Isabel and Nate. Even the teacher. I don't know, but I honestly think she is seriously crushing on him. Maybe it's the fact that she told me they pretend to kiss each other. Or that she told me when she marries him her name will be Isabel Charlotte R_______. Or that his was the first gift she opened, the only thank you she has written so far, and her favorite gift of the day. And it is freaking me out. Seriously, in kindergarten? I am not prepared for this. When I met Nate's mom, she told me that they hear about Isabel from the time Nate wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed at night. So, um, at least it's mutual? And, it must be said, he is the sweetest, cutest little thing ever. So I guess I approve? You might notice the situation as you peruse the dance party pictures. I mean, can you see this look she is giving him? I dunno, you tell me.

We had lunch at the Snuggly Duckling. I had visions of making a fun sign, but all I was able to do was print this snuggly duckling template and throw it as Isabel before the party started with instructions to color it. We served what I thought was apropos for lunch at the Snuggly Duckling: grilled cheese sandwiches, chips and grapes. And I made individual blue jello cups with orange slice sailboats, to represent when Rapunzel and Flynn went sailing. This was also a huge hit. And, I knew I wanted to make Hazelnut Soup, Rapunzel's favorite that she always had on her birthday. I found an actual recipe from Disney, but it required such ingredients as squash and apples, and I just wasn't sure how it would be received. So, I took it down a notch. A lot of notches, actually. Since it was a cold, rainy day, I decided to make hot chocolate with hazelnut syrup and call it hazelnut soup. They loved it, and ate it up. Or rather, drank it up. And the cake was made to look like Rapunzel's tower along with cupcakes decorated with purple and yellow flowers.

We had our very own ruffian working in the kitchen. He was so very helpful, cooking the sandwiches and hazelnut soup and cleaning the entire restaurant after the party.
And then there were presents.

And of course, singing and cake-

She declared it the "best party EVER!" And they all lived happily ever after. The end.