the murrays: The Party Girl gets her party!

We planned for weeks, months even, and the day finally came! Whitney's birthday party!

She chose the movie Frozen for her theme, so this was my attempt at Elsa's Ice Palace on top of a snowy mountain for the cake. I was unsure of it's coolness until Whitney saw the finished product and gasped- completely validating my work, so a huge smile of relief from me!

It slipped, slid and all but collapsed by the end of the party under the weight of the homemade hard candy on top, prompting Eric to give me an engineering lecture using terms I've already forgotten, it was hilarious. Apparently he would have been helpful in decorating the cake after all!

Then here's how the party went- the kids arrived and got dressed up as Elsa or Sven the reindeer. (This year Whitney and Katelyn have both opted to have fun costumes for their guests instead of a pinata- too costly to do both. I"m happy because I think costumes are more fun!)

Here are Brody, WHitney, Lorena, Vivi and Damon, then in front Adrey and Bekah and Will. Not pictured are our little neighbor girls who were predictably an hour late, and Whitney's cute friend Porter whose invitation apparently never made it home so he didn't know about the party! Sad!

Then we played "Do you want to build a snowman?" You can see on the wall the awesome snowflakes Katelyn made for us to decorate with- she was a big help getting ready for the party!

They each had a partner and supplies to make a snowman.

We were going to have a 2-minute time limit, but it ended up taking them much longer than that!

Next we did 2 crafts- Katelyn supervised the Ice Bracelets...

and we did Ice painting with epsom salt- it turned out pretty cool!

Of course we had to have our obstacle course- Eric's like "why do we do this at every birthday party??" and it's true, we have always done one, but it's because it's always a hit! The kids always love it and want to do it over and over! To make it fit in with the theme we called it "Anna and Kristoff's Obstacle Course" because several times in the movie they are racing through the snow- away from wolves or the giant snowman or back to the castle. So they went in pairs and had to jump off the deck, go through the tunnel, then (and Eric came up with this, he's a genius and so cute to be willing to do it) hop on the sled to be pulled by a reindeer...

Here's Whitney and Brody on that part....

then run through the pool, over a picnic table, then to the playground up the ladder and down the slide, then back to the deck. :) Super fun.

Then we had cake and ice cream and blue slush punch. Isn't she cute?? :)

I love how Whitney's smiling in this picture, feeling all special as her friends sang to her. :)

Eating their treats.

Some impromptu sleigh rides- it took a lot of "reindeer" to pull two kids!

We opened presents, and this was a hilarious cats-meowing-happy-birthday card Vivi gave her.

Lastly we played "unfreeze Anna and Hans"

They were supposed to be on teams, but it kind of ended up being a free-for-all, with everyone sprinting back and forth to get more water. It was fun!

Whitney with her ice bracelet- they turned out pretty!

And my little princess and reindeer. :)

I'm not as into decorating as I am into planning fun activities, so our only decorations were the snowflakes in the kitchen and this Olaf on the front door, which Owen hugged the first time he saw him! I drew it myself, thank you, proving I do have a tiny bit of artistic skill and I didn't need to print out a $10 poster like the people on the internet whose idea I used!

After the party we went swimming and rockclimbing at the Provo Rec Center.

And then Sunday was Whitney's real birthday! As usual for her, she got up bright and early and opened all her presents! Well actually this year she saved a couple for later in the morning haha.

We gave her the Frozen soundtrack:

I love her expressive face- ponies from Grammy and Grandpa Jamie were exciting!

And definitely her favorite present ended up being this sweet spy kit from Grandma and Grandpa Murray, full of gadgets that let you see around corners, change your voice,