Sage's 3rd Snow White Party

Sage's third birthday party was a blast. It was a lot of work but that is how I do things. Stressful. Everyone around me is like "why don't you go to costco and get some cake, balloons and paper plates? "
That just makes me cringe to think about. I know that works for most people and I just can't do that. Things have to be handmade and unique and different, and I am not sure what I did without pinterest. So many cute ideas. I haven't thrown sage a party before because we didn't have family and because it wasn't worth the stress when she wasn't really old enough.
Sage loves all princesses and she is a bit obsessed. She also would rather dress up as a princess than play with a princess doll or barbie. I don't mind it because I love growing up loving disney and I think it is so fun for little girls. but I hate when girls want to dress up for halloween as princesses and princess parties because they are princesses everyday. I think the same thing about zion and his batman.
I really wanted to do a magician themed party because she loves Sofia the first and she loves the magic and Cedric. but I priced a magician and it was just not in our budget at the time. I loved talking with sage about what colors and what cake she wanted and sage was really into her party.
So I was excited about sage's party because I chose Snow White themed and sage was currently obsessed with snow white. I bought her a darling dress from Zulily and I based the entire party around that.
The colors were red, yellow, and blue and I did a woodland theme for a more "snow white and the huntsman."
And I need to thank over and over again my friend Natalie because she drove down to make Sage's party absolutely perfect. She dressed up as Rapunzel for us because she had the costume from a halloween a while back and I thought of her for sage's party. I didn't care what princess it was because I mean, it doesn't matter to sage.
So I had sage in her beautiful snow white dress I bought and when she made her grand entrance she wore her sofia dress she got from grandma. She still looked absolutely darling but it kind of threw off the theme. but when I took pictures of her with rapunzel they turned out so perfect.
right before rapunzel got there someone was yelling to me that sage got stung by a bee! I ran inside and put some clay on her foot and wrapped tape over it. Sage is such a trooper she stopped crying and felt better quickly to enjoy her party. when we went back out rapunzel was there to greet her and her face was priceless. she wouldn't leave her side the whole time.

 

Rapunzel was such a hit! The girls and boys loved her. Even Zion and that is saying something. They all talked about her for days afterwards. I know there are party rentals that you can hire a princess and they can be pricy so I am really grateful for her. 

We also had a "party crasher" that we had no idea who the kid was. And he was stalking Rapunzel the whole time. I kind of felt bad for her but she thought it was funny. 

Food

I thought really hard about the food. because I wanted it to be snow white.

of coarse I had candied apples because you can't have a snow white party with out apples. We went on a hike with the kids to find the sticks and we made them a couple days before and just covered them.

we did deli sandwiches to make it super easy. and I got the idea from pinterest to do the veggies in a cup.  

 I loved the milk bottles for the drinks but there wasn't enough. next time I will make sure we have a lot of paper cups on hand as well.

balloons, plates, and straws were from zurchers party store. I like them because they have every color you can imagine. 

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The party hats I handmade and they really weren't worth it.  I got some felt and made the hats with the kids. the pom poms were the worst part because I hand sewn them on. The idea behind these were the "dwarves" and they would be running around in their cute little hats. I was trying to save time so I didn't go buy stretchy string just regular and that is what made them so hard to stay on. so they were cute anyway!

the bean bag game was really fun for all ages 

I wish I would have got more pictures of the centerpieces because they were super magical and fun. We had vases with flowers and owls and bunnies. I wanted to light candles but thought it would be a bit dangerous with the kids. and also cans of popcorn for snacking on too. 

My husband didn't like this idea because he had to do it. but I found some hay bales for about $6 a piece. they were originally going to be tables for the kids to eat at, but they turned out to be seats and it was better because there wasn't many places to sit. so we threw out some blankets in front and it was a good way for socializing.

 The cake was absolutely beautiful. Better than I would have thought. I had cody's sister Kristie make it because she is a talented chef and she is such a sweetheart for doing it for her. For some reason I thought that she was going to make cupcakes too so we would have some to pass out so I didn't make any. I thought we would have a bunch of angry sugar seeking children that we wouldn't have enough cake. My husband is such a good daddy and goes into the kitchen and looks up a recipe and makes home made cupcakes in about 30 minutes. The kids loved them and they were hopped up on sugar with blue covered mouths.

sage's blue covered mouth and worn out from her evening of turning 3.

Uinta Mountains Oct 2014

Every post I always say...."I need to get around to blogging more." and again...I hate blogging because computers are not my friend. but I will post about our hike to the Uintas because it was a long drive and very beautiful up there and it is worth sharing. I live-eat-breathe for mountains and I feel like I am trapped if I do not get to be elevated. It is so important for me I can't even describe it. I am so happy to be back in my element and have lots of adventures with the kids in Utah. When we moved here I spent money on camelbaks, hiking shoes, a baby carrier, and all the essentials for adventuring. I plan on getting a huge collection and force my kids to go. Although I don't have to because they love the mountains just as much as me. We have drug them through hot Zion national Park hikes and freezing hikes and they are always good sports and never complain.

I was trying to go to a lake called Dean's Lake that I went to in High School but I had no idea where it was and I think it is a couple hour hike. So I googled easy hikes for kids in the Uintas and everyone said that Ruth Lake was an easy fast hike to a great lake. 

So I packed lunches and off we went. We got a little lost at first because it's been a while since I've been there but we found the canyon and we got to drive a long long way until we got to Ruth lake. We got to enjoy all the gorgeous fall trees and colors and then when we didn't see anything but pines and snow I knew we were going to be high up. we had a few jackets and hats in the car so fortunately we were some what warm. 

When we got to the lake it was so fun but very quickly turned freezing cold and had to run back down. I was holding Raelyn close to me for warmth because I was so worried about her but as I was running down the hill the bouncing must have been relaxing because she fell asleep. I wasn't trying to be careful at all, but she dozed right off. 

We got some good pics and good times and drove home. We knew we wouldn't make it before dark through the canyon so we stopped in heber at a little cafe and got some soup and scones. It was a good day and I hope that we have many more like that. We left all the other stuff behind and for a couple hours we had nothing to worry about but getting up and back down the mountain. Things have changed since we have had kids, and at times I feel like my life is over. No boarding, no long hiking trips, no camping or traveling anymore. It is only a very short while that they are tiny and pretty soon they are hiking along side you and you can teach them. Soon you realize they are wiser than you and you need to learn from them. It is quite an adventure.