Katie Turns 4 and Her Rapunzel Birthday Party!

Katie was an adorable happy birthday girl!

So this year Katie asked me for a Rapunzel party… at first I was a bit overwhelmed since we have been watching this movie all summer and its pretty amazing.  I knew she would want all kinds of details from the movie.  So I started by asking her which parts of the movie were important to her for her party.  She was quick to answer!  A tower cake, a tower in the house, floating lanterns, banners, and a Rapunzel dress and hair… tall orders and small budget.  So I wrote it all down and did some looking through my craft stuff. 

Banners:  I found purple card stock and cut it in half and found a sun stencil at Walmart for 1 dollar and I had gold paint.  So I stenciled suns on the card stock which I cut in half and hot glued to a ribbon every other horizontally and vertically to mimic the movie banners from the scene in the city.  I made two rows of 6 each, I saw that you could buy some online 6 per row for 12.99 each row, I made them for 1 dollar for two rows.  They may not have looked as professional but Katie loved them and that’s what counts.

here's a close up of the banners I made

Flower wall:  Katie loves the theme of flowers everywhere throughout the movie so I decided to make a flower wall that says happy 4th birthday Katie.  I had lots of old tissue paper that I kept from past gifts (I know its strange, and I don’t care… I use it and it saves us lots of money on tissue and my silly crafts like this one) .  So I gathered lots of pink, purple and green and twisted and taped and came up with a flowery wall with vines and wrote Happy 4th Birthday Katie in curly lettering on some paper and taped it up to the wall also.  Soooo, this was the result… not gorgeous but cute and she loved the girliness of it.

Katie next to her flowery wall

a closer look

 Floating Lights:  Now this was one I had no idea what to do and then just two days before her party I remembered in a box downstairs in our wedding stuff was the round paper lanterns from our wedding reception!  I went and found three of the white ones and got the cords and light bulbs that would fit and with my tall hubby’s help got them hung in the living room where her party was to take place.  When we turned them on they were just ok, so I remembered from the movie they were more cylindrical and different colors of purple, yellow and orange.  So back to the tissue paper (see, useful to keep 🙂 )  I taped purple, yellow and orange tissue to the lanterns and…. the glow they gave off was magical to Katie!  Again not professional or perfect but Katie loved it and that’s my goal.

these are Katie's floating lanterns she loved 🙂

a better shot of the tissue paper covering the lanterns

Rapunzel Dress and Hair:  Ok so this one we got some big help from Eric’s Mom and Dad.  They sent Katie a gift card for Toys R Us and she immediately wanted a Rapunzel dress and got it with gift card left over still!  Thanks Grammie and Grampie…. she adores it and wears it all the time!  Now, the hair.  That is one of my crafty free ideas… I went through all of my scrap fabrics looking for shades of gold.  I found three fabrics with gold colors, one was shiny gold satin and the other two were goldish tulle.  Each was just a thin long strip of fabric so I decided to braid them and then braid into her hair.  I’m glad two were just tulle because the braid is long but not heavy at all.  She pointed out that Rapunzel in the movie when her hair was braided there were lots of flowers in it.  So I went to her bow drawer and pulled out about 8 flower bows that I’ve made her and randomly put them throughout the braid.  She loved it and wanted to wear it everywhere, she even wore her outfit and braid the next day to church since I let them all wear whatever they want on their actual birthday.  🙂  Again not a professional wig like they sell in stores (20-40 dollars each) but it was free and she loved it!

The whole braid

a close up of the braid

 Tower in our house:  I needed to cover the cords from the lanterns anyway so I found some blue fabric and tacked it up to the wall and put a strip of silver satin I found up on the blue for a tower “in the sky”.  I also crumpled some white tissue paper (useful!) and taped it to the blue sky fabric as clouds.  I found some purple tissue paper and folded it into a triangle for the top of the tower and when I stepped back to check out my work, Katie said,  “where am I in my tower?!”  Well I had to remedy this fast so I went and got one of her school pics not in a frame and taped it to the tower.  She then said, “Where is all my long golden hair?”  OK, I ran down to my craft room and searched for something to make her hair long and come off the tower…  I found some gold satin ribbon I’d gotten for 10 cents at a garage sale a long time ago.  It was perfect, I tacked it behind her pic and trailed it out of the tower and spelled her name next to the tower with it.  Her final critique was, “Its perfect mommy!”   This made my heart smile 🙂  Again not professional wall art but my four year old to be loved it!

Katie in front of her "tower"

 Tower cake:  Ok so as for the tower cake, I tried and failed and finally succeeded…  I knew this would be a tough cake but I tried to do it the day of the party.  My biggest mistake.  I have seen towers online done with rice krispie treats, so I assumed I could do this also.  Well I tried it and when I put icing on it the tower just kept sliding downward and I learned that to do this properly I needed to let the rice krispie treats dry in tower shape for a few days so that the marshmallow isn’t so soft and holds shape better.  So plan B, I also saw an non-edible option of taking a paper towel roll and covering it in icing.  So I went with it a few hours before the party and was desperate.  The base is a large strawberry cake (Katie asked for Strawberry and chocolate) covered in a chocolate fudge icing and then covered in fondant.  I placed the tower on it and then positioned the characters we got her as a gift.  Next I decided that I wanted to spell out her name in fondant “hair”.  My immediate thought was to find the kid’s play dough press that makes the play dough into long thin strips.  Then I decided I had to have something similar that was only used for food.  I found my garlic press and it worked great!  My sweet husband even offered some muscle for the cause 🙂  So I wrapped the fondant “hair” around the entire cake and then spelled Katie’s 4 with it.  I also made small purple fondant flowers and shimmer dusted them and placed them all over the tower and cake.  She went nuts over the cake.  It was ok, not my best but cute. 

tower cake from the top

A farther away pic, sorta blurry...

a better up close shot

candles lit!

she was super excited!

So here are a few more pics from her party and afterwards.  I did buy a plastic Rapunzel table cloth, plates and napkins from Walmart, so after everything cake, food and all her party cost less than 30 dollars.  So even with a low budget Katie got a Rapunzel party that she still talks about two weeks later 🙂  I spend a lot of time and effort on my kids and that’s just the way I like it.  I want her to always know she is loved, I hope this is just one little memory among many that remind her of my love. 

just sitting at her table waiting for her party 🙂 so sweet...

ready to open presents 🙂

happy about a piggy book!

she got an adorable Rapunzel build a bear

 So she loved her party and felt like a princess!  Goal acheived 🙂  She got many more wonderful gifts but we got so into the party we didn’t get all the pictures we wanted.  That always seems to happen!  Maybe we need to ask someone to come that barely knows us and can focus on picture taking so we have the pics later but can be focused on the party 🙂  I love my brand new 4 year old!  She is so vibrant, artsy, happy, sweet and loving.  I’m blessed beyond what I deserve to be her momma. 

Happy Birthday sweet girl 🙂