girls birthday party Archives - Darling Darleen

Birthday Beach Dinner

Birthday Dinner at the Beach for my 15 year old!

When you live just a mile from the beach and you visit so often that it’s like your backyard, throwing a birthday beach dinner at the last minute is really quite easy. Stella’s 15th birthday crept up and with how busy her schedule is, we were planning her birthday party at the very last minute. In fact we weren’t even going to do anything, but she wanted something nice where she could hang out with her friends. So, dinner at the beach was my first thought and of course I had to put my own twist on it. Her 15th birthday beach dinner party turned out perfect. The weather was pleasant. The beach was not crowded–in fact they were the only ones on the beach the majority of the time. Many of the items– pillows, rugs, sheepskin, throws, lanterns, runner–were items from my house.

I bought the pallets at this location, and when you are done using them you can bring it back, and they will refund your money. Win, win. I then threw down an old vintage rug I had, along with pillows from the house. We brought the sheepskin throws for a cozy touch, and throw blankets if someone was cold.

We wanted to make sure we didn’t bring any glass or breakables on the beach. So the plates were melamine plates, melamine dessert plates and bowls, along with plastic utensils and cups. Since I was so late in putting this together, I decided to have the birthday beach dinner catered by Palmers Market. The food was amazing! After the dinner, the girls wrote birthday wishes on large Chinese lanterns and then we launched them to the sky. It was magical!

I am so happy Stella enjoyed her 15th birthday and was able to hang out with all of her girlfriends. Such a sweet magical birthday beach dinner.

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Gingerbread House Decorating Party + FREE printables

Gingerbread House Decorating Party–the perfect holiday birthday party

Gingerbread House Decorating Party + FREE Printables

I am so excited to finally be sharing details from Chloe’s birthday party! She is a December baby, so this year we decided to celebrate her 8th birthday with a Gingerbread House Decorating Party. It turned out so cute, and it’s the perfect party for the perfect age. Chloe and her friends spent so much time enjoying decorating (and eating) their gingerbread house. They only needed minimal help, so there wasn’t too much hands-on help needed from me which was great! My house was already decorated for the holidays so the party decorations were mostly decorations from our Christmas supply.

The main party activity was decorating gingerbread houses! So, to have a unified look I bought pre-built gingerbread houses that came with candy and frosting. It saved me a ton of time and less stress! I was thinking originally of buying the ginger house kits and then assembling it, but to make 13 gingerbread houses made me cringe and also I was concerned that many of the houses would break and fall apart. Which they always do! The pre-built gingerbread houses were worth the extra dollars, and they were sturdy and easy for the girls to transport. If you plan to host a gingerbread house decorating party, make sure you have plenty of Saran Wrap so you can wrap the houses up with a bow and the kids can take them home without getting damage.

I made sure to supply printables and the link to download is at the end of the Gingerbread House Decorating Party post!

I placed the gingerbread houses on glitter 12×12 paper and then I bought a few more bags of candy but most of the candy came from the kit. For the departing bags, we just gave the girls bath bombs and then the little thank you bag served as a place for the girls to put their left over candy.

We also had a dessert table, of course! The best part of a birthday party. I had the bakery match the cookies and cupcakes to the printables. They all came out so cute! We also had milk and snowflake marshmallows.

Aren’t the printables so sweet? They are my favorite and just make the gingerbread house decorating party. I linked all the resources below and a Pinterest pin photo. Don’t forget to share this party idea with others!

Gingerbread House Decorating Party Resources:

Gingerbread Party Printables–design by Masha Studios and Melissa Designs for DarlingDarleen.com
Pre-built Gingerbread Houses—Palmer’s Darien (which was much cheaper than the link I provided!)
Birthday Cake–Whole Foods
Custom cookies and cupcakes–Palmer’s Darien
Large Nutcrackers–Target

If you see something else I am missing, please ask below!

DOWNLOAD GINGERBREAD House Decorating PRINTABLES

Chloe’s Frozen Hot Chocolate Birthday Party

Frozen Hot Chocolate Birthday Party: Never late to post a really cute Frozen birthday party even if it’s a few months behind! My baby Chloe turned 4 in December, but because of the holiday rush we didn’t celebrate her birthday party until January. It was kind-of a last minute party. My kids were getting bored during the last couple days of the holiday break, and I was getting tired of all the holiday decorations. I knew I wanted to have her Frozen party while we had our white Christmas tree and all the white tabletop trees out. So, I called her friends’ parents and everyone was free to attend her party the day before school started back up. It turned out really cute! The Christmas decorations came in handy.

Her birthday party was focused around a Frozen hot chocolate birthday party. When the little Elsas and Annas arrived, they decorated fairy wands and played pin the carrot on Olaf. Then a real-life Elsa and Anna arrived and sang songs and danced with the girls. Then after they all sat down for popcorn and hot chocolate. There was a lot of anticipation and build up for the Frozen hot chocolate party. The girls did not want to leave when their parents arrived. I’d say it was a success. All the resources are listed below.

frozen elsa dress for birthday party or halloween

Resources:

White Christmas trees: holiday decor from west elm, target and michaels

White Flocked Tree: Pike Nursery

Cake: Publix bakery and just added the doll

Printables: Lil Blue Boo

Paper Snowflakes: Cricut explorer

Garland: The Flair Exchange

Elsa and Anna: Marietta Princess

Chloe’s Elsa dress: Custom (email me for pricing)

Here are other Frozen Party Options:

Spa Party: The Party

I’m finally sharing with you Stella’s 7th birthday party that we celebrated last month. Honestly I was trying hard not to throw a birthday party for her this year. Being gone all the month of August, then jumping right into school and her birthday being only two weeks away–I just didn’t have the time or energy. I offered instead a day in the City at the American Girl Doll store, but she tearfully told me she really, really, REALLY wanted a birthday party. Yup, I think I’ve turned my children into birthday party monsters.

We decided to do a spa theme with a small group of girls–pedicures, manicures, facials. Sounds easy and I had most of the supplies on hand. After we decided on the theme, a few days later One Charming Party posted their Spa-aah Party ideas and printables so it was perfect! And it saved me a ton of time, not having to do much of anything except printing and gathering supplies. The girls loved it!

I hired two high school girls to come over and do the manicures and pedicures. And my girlfriend had one of those pedicure at-home spa baths and let me borrow it. The party guests rotated between pedicures, manicures and do-it-yourself facials. I turned on pandora’s top hits radio station, and those who had to wait were singing and dancing. They were all so cute and energetic!

Spa Water

Homemade Salt Scrub for party favors

Homemade Lavendar Bath Salts for party favors

The cupcakes

Strawberry Smoothies

Dessert and Party favors table

Spa Table

When the girls first arrived they received a white hooded robe
and a pair of spa flip flops.
These items were apart of their party favors

Birthday Girl

Party Resources
spa printables: One Charming Party
paper accordian decorations: pearl river mart in soho
gingham tablecloth: sewn by me, fabric from Fabric.com
mini glass jars for salt scrub: michaels
clear tubs for bath salt: In the Clear
white polka dot blue serving trays: Ikea
Cupcakes and cake: Nibble
Spa fondants for cupcakes and cake: Eat Something Cute
Small mirrors: HomeGoods
Nail polish: esse and o.p.i
small clear bowls and smoothie cups: Ikea
white hooded children’s robe: cotton age
flip flops: old navy (i hot glued little white flowers onto them that I got from michaels)

Spa Party Invitations

spa birthday party invitation, free printable spa party invitation

Spa Party Invitations. I’m excited to finally share with you details of Stella’s spa birthday party. I love sending out physical spa party invitations because the children get so excited for the party, and it set the stage of the party. And these spa party invitations were the perfect excitement buster, especially for a group of 7-year-old girls.

I so wish I could take credit for designing these darling paper sleeping masks spa party invitations. But because of lack of time and Stella’s birthday right around the corner, I found instead these printable masks on One Charming Party and customized it to our party date. It saved me a ton of time!

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