Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!

Zany Janie turned the Big 0-4!  To celebrate this monumental birthday she insisted on having a Rapunzel themed birthday party.  We had fun planning the party and found the Internet to have a wealth of ideas on this theme. 

I have never made invitations in the past and quite frankly really didn't want to make some sort of Rapunzel invitation, until I came across this idea.  I think they turned out super cute!  See here for a tutorial.

Besides hanging lots of yellow, green, and purple balloons around the house, I tried to be creative with the decorations.  I made four very long (probably 15 feet long) yarn braids which I placed on the door and throughout the house.  The kids loved them and by the end of the party they had taken them down and were having fun playing with them.

I also made lanterns to symbolize the lanterns from the movie.  I had planned on making several and having them throughout the house, but decided since it was a day time party we really didn't need glowing lanterns.  For a tutorial to make the lanterns go here.

I do have a Cricut machine and used it to make some decorations, but was disappointed that there is not a Rapunzel cartridge.  I ended up using the Paper Doll Dress up Cartridge to make a princess, then used yarn to make "Rapunzel" hair.  I also used the Cricut to make the flag banner.

Since Pascal is a main part of the movie, I wanted to use him in some games and as decorations.  The only problem was I didn't have a Chameleon on any of my cartridges.  I had to get really creative.  I used the Zooballoo cartridge to cut out an iguana then cut out a monkey (using just the tail) for the tail and tongue of Pascal.  I know they are kinda funky, but you have to admit they are cute!

Going along with the Rapunzel/Pascal theme, I made these cute party blowers for a game.  The kids really seemed to love them.  You can find the tutorial to make them here.

We didn't get all that creative with the food.  We had your typical hamburgers/hot dogs.  We did have an assortment of fruit and skewers so everyone could make their own Fruit "Tower" kabobs.  We also made these adorable jello boats to represent when Rapunzel and Flynn were watching the lanterns in the sky.

One game we played was pin the frying pan on Flynn.  I got this idea, as well as several other ideas for the party from the Super Mom Moments Blog. 

The kids thought it was hilarious to try to put the frying pan on Flynn's face. After the game some of them were trying to put the frying pan on each other's face.

We also made a Rapunzel Scavenger Hunt separating the boys and girls into groups.  Each group had to find colored "Pascals" hidden throughout the house/outside.  In order to earn a prize they had to do an activity related to the movie Tangled at each Pascal.  Some of the activities included:  Yelling the line "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let your hair down!"; holding your breath; Using a frying pan to hit a balloon with a face drawn on it; using the Pascal party blower's tongue to hit Flynn in the ear; testing ones sense of smell; and finding a hidden tiara.

Since Rapunzel loves to paint we decided to be brave and let 10 kids under the age of 6 loose with paint and paint brushes.  They loved creating their own masterpieces and actually kept all the paint on the plastic tarp below them-at least we have yet to find paint on the walls!

 

Finally, no party is complete until a Pinata has been broken!  I found this cute star Pinata at none other than Walmart.  It was cheaper than any other Pinata we have had at parties and it actually held up twice as long!

And as an added bonus, the ends of the star could be broken off into several princess hats!  You can't beat that with a stick...or can you?

Of course we had a cake, but it was a store bought cake.  Despite having the "Crazed Cricut Mom" (see her blog here) as my good friend, I just couldn't stomach the stress it would take to attempt to make my own cake.  Maybe in the future...Probably not, but maybe...

I think it turned out to be a wonderful party for Zany Janie!  The theme was a fun one and both girls and boys could enjoy it.

Zany thought of the day:  What's your favorite theme for a party?

Second Child Syndrome-Not my baby girl!

I vowed since I found out I was pregnant with my first child that I would not be the mom who had a complete baby book on the first child and an empty book for the second child. I am a second child myself and I have yet to even lay eyes on my baby book! I am an avid scrapbooker and went overboard with Wacky Zacky’s baby scrapbook. The book is a whopping 80 pages, does not lay flat and weighs so much I struggle to pick it up! What can I say, he was my first baby and I was so excited to document everything from his first steps to his first sneeze. Just kidding, I didn’t actually do a page on his first sneeze but you better believe if I knew the date and had a picture it would have been documented! I also used all of the best baby poems on his pages. The scrapbook layouts are all elaborate and I took well over an hour planning and doing each page. I was obsessed! Then Zany Janie came along and things changed…For those of you without kids or with only one child, one child plus one child definitely does not equal two children. It feels more like ten at times! Somehow time began to move at warp speed! So now here I am, Zany Janie is almost 11 months old and I have 32 pages done for her book with 100s of pictures waiting to be scrapbooked! What’s a mom to do? I’ve found that I had to change my style of scrapbooking just to get them done. I now use fewer embellishments and try not to allow myself to agonize over the details. I hope I can reach my goal of 80 pages on her book so the day Wacky Zacky and Zany Janie count the pages to see who mom loves more (you know they will do it!) both books will be equally full! Below are a few layouts I completed in the past few weeks from Zany Janie’s book.

Zany thought of the day: I remember as a child summer vacation seemed to last forever. Time moved much slower then. I vaguely recall older people telling me to enjoy it because when I got older time would fly. I would laugh and guffaw thinking they were losing it. Now I have found that the older I get the quicker time does seem to move. I long for those lazy summer days.