The Krinks Family: Kaitlyn's 5th Birthday Party

I'm not quite sure how 5 years have passed since my sweet little Kaitlyn entered this world. But here we are--proud parents of a 5-year-old! She was SO excited about this birthday. Being 5 is a big deal to a small child. It marks the transition from a "little" kid to a "big" kid who is now old enough to go to "big" school. Sigh. And being 5 has brought on a thirst for more independence too. I've lost count of the times that she's started a sentence like this lately: "Now that I'm 5, can I ____?"

Several months ago, she decided that she wanted a Rapunzel/Tangled party. So we invited a few girls over for her party on Saturday. Mom and Jim came up early to start the festivities.

Opening her Rapunzel doll

A princess doll house

I didn't want to go overboard on this party (money-wise or time-wise), but I couldn't resist a few ideas that I stole from the internet. In the movie, Rapunzel spends quite a bit of time painting, so the party favors were water colors, Rapunzel pictures to paint and some stickers and tattoos.

Party favors--water colors and Rapunzel pictures to paint

And when I saw this on Pinterest, I knew I had to do this. In honor of Rapunzel's hair, I made a 15-foot braid out of yarn! The whole thing cost less than $3 and Kaitlyn enjoyed helping me make it. I hot-glued some cheap flowers to barrettes and clipped them to the braid for decoration. Each girl got to take home one of these flower clips too.

The only other decoration I made was the flag banner that is hanging on the wall. In the movie, there are flags hanging all over the kingdom with the sun emblem on it. I used some old purple file folders to cut out the triangles. Then I cut out a sun shape and stenciled the sun onto the flags using leftover paint. I used yarn left over from the braid to string the flags together into a banner. So it was basically a free (and cute!) decoration! Hooray!

And here are the obligatory cake and paper goods picture. I have to say that Kroger makes a yummy cake! :)

Since it was a girl-only (+ Ethan) party, I knew I could get away with some crafty activities. So the girls happily colored Rapunzel pictures...

...and made necklaces and bracelets with beads...

...and painted a mural on the wall. This last activity was a bit risky because it involved real paint in close proximity to my furniture. But I trusted Crayola's slogan of "Washability you can trust." I armed each kid with a smock, put a drop cloth down, and hoped for the best! I think they had a blast! And there were only a few minor mishaps that all easily cleaned up with water. Go Crayola!!