My oldest turned 8 last week!
It’s hard to have a party in the winter but we try to make the best of it (see here and here). This year we thought we would embrace the winter aspect of his birthday and have a sledding party!
It was perfect timing too. We got almost a week straight of fresh snow followed by a warm Friday on which to enjoy it.
I really made the party pretty low key and geared toward my little boy.
The craftiest I got were with the invites.
I made them snow globe style.
.jpg)
Every child seemed to really like them, so it was worth the effort.
Here is a quick how to:
1. I created the words and pictures in Picasa (the trees are Wing Ding 3 triangles and regular dashes) and put them into a table in Word. I then printed them on white card stock. I rounded out the bottoms using my circle cutter mold as a guide (a cup or bowl will do) and made the tops like rolling hills of snow.
2. I cut the paper invites out, as well as two clear vinyl circles for every paper invite.
3. I stacked the paper invite on top of one vinyl cut out, add a dash of silver glitter, then placed the second vinyl circle on top.
4. I sewed with white thread all the way around. The vinyl is sticky so sew slow. You can place tissue paper on the top and bottom if you can’t get it through your machine. I didn’t like doing that because I couldn’t see what I was doing very well. I just lengthened my stitch and sewed slow.
5. Done! Sew 😉 easy.
I also sent home a letter to the parents, inviting them to stay if they wanted to. We got a couple of parents that stuck around and one who helped a lot (I am so grateful to her), in addition to my husband. Although it was a simple party, it was nice to have multiple sets of eyes as 8 boys flew down the sled hills.
We kept the party to an hour and a half at the warmest part of the day which turned out just long enough.
Instead of goodie bags we gave everyone a plastic dish sled. We found ours for $5 at Walmart.
The boys loved it!
I planned other activities like build a birthday snowman (with a birthday hat and noise maker instead of a pipe), and maybe some fort building but all they really wanted to do was sled. So we let them.
Instead of cake or cupcakes, I made each boy a doughnut hole snowman. I originally posted about those here.
I also made a square “snowball” cake which was less successful. It keep falling apart and when it came time to light the candles it was too windy to get them all lit. Owen just pretended to blow them out and all had a good laugh. 🙂
We made sure we had plenty of hot chocolate to help keep everyone warm. I used some lidded coffee cups from Walmart and an igloo cooler to keep it all warm. The igloo cooler kept the hot chocolate the perfect temperature for the length of the party but didn’t last much longer than two hours.
We ended things up with gifting chaos and more sledding.
All in all it was a great party with lots of fun and funny memories attached.
After planning this party, I found a couple of other bloggers who also threw a sledding party. Check them out if you want some more ideas!
Elsie Marley threw an adorable party for her son here.
And Two Straight Lines threw a tail gating version here.
Ready for more Winter White projects? Stop over at Kojodesigns for this uber lovely pillow stamping project:
perfect! and I love love those invites. 🙂
Those invites are great! What a fun party. He'll probably remember that forever.
I love those invites! now to have a child with a snowy birthday 😉
Those invitations are just darling. And this party looks like so much fun!! I would have totally loved something like that growing up!
Oh Delia. Enter my normal comment of, "You are killing me here/now I have to find a reason to do this/so stinking adorable." Love it.
I mean, a sledding party?! Coolest kids at school now, for sure. 🙂
Hi Delia 🙂
I know what you mean about having kids birthday parties in the winter. My 9yr old was born in january. I found this on pinterest – maybe an inspiration for the next party..?
http://pinterest.com/pin/132082201543511962/
Last year he decided to not celebrate with his friends in january. We threw a big party in July instead.
GREAT idea! My oldest son's bday is in November so this will be an awesome party for him too!
What a perfect party! I love all the details, and most importantly, the fact that it was all about what the boys would enjoy. Sometimes the styling ideas are so tempting on their own…
Such a fun idea for a winter birthday…and I love your snow globe invites!
We had a sledding party a few weeks ago for my sons. I think it was the easiest birthday party I've ever given! Entertainment was easy, give them food, and send them on their way!
Those invites are adorable, and what a fun party!! Perfect for a winter birthday 🙂
Aww…thanks friends!
Franziska…wow! That pinterest link is awesome. That multicolored igloo looks like a lot of work but amazing all lit up! Thanks for sharing the link.
Katrine – how fun! Yes. I loved how low maintenance this party was for sure. 😉
What a wonderful party! So great that you got the kids outside and they had so much fun even in the cold winter. Those invites are so cute. Great job! I love your blog btw. All your posts are always so bright, clean, and simple and wonderful. You take such great photos!
What a fun party, Delia!
Great party Delia! I had sledding parties for a few years too and everyone enjoyed them. Love the invites!
What fun! It's a bummer it was too windy for the cake, because it is really a fun idea!
This looks so fun — and the invites you made are amazing! I want to make snowglobe invitations some day. You're such a creative mom!
Also, random question: Sometimes your posts don't always show up in my Google reader, and I go to your blog later and find that I've missed posts. Do you know why that might be happening? It's totally fine to say "user error,"
love those invites! I am not a sewer, but I DO have a sewing machine that my mom bought me to make art journals, etc. and I'm curious: do you use the same machine for paper and fabric, or do you have separate? I just wonder if using it to sew vinyl or paper would age it more quickly for lack of a better way to put it more eloquently 😛
I've yet to actually USE my machine