Brave themed birthday party

Ever since my little girl saw the movie BRAVE, she has been in love with Merida! So it was no surprise what kind of birthday she wanted this year... It was such a fun movie and I was super excited to make it into a party. There are alot of ideas on pinterest that helped spark some thoughts as well!

For the party there were little Will-o-the-wisps leading to a castle entrance into our backyard.

To create the Wisps I used blue cellophane, twist ties, and a wood skewer to hold them in place.

For the activities I based them off of Disney's Highland Games at Epcot for the launch of the Brave movie.

When guests arrived they spun a wheel to see what family they would represent for the games.

I recreated a wheel by covering a cardboard game spinner with pennants I made using good old photoshop.

Once the kids spun the wheel they got a sash and a button with that clan's symbol.

I printed this poster of all the characters to hang by the wheel.

Clan Dingwall

Clan DunBroch - Avery just turned the wheel to Merida :)

Here where each of the buttons and sashes I made for each clan.

The first activity was archery...

I created a target with a fabric back drop, the arrows could shoot through the center so the kids knew when they hit the bullseye. 

For the next activity I combined Disney's Haggis Flip and Cake Toss games. 

The haggis was made by filling nylons with beans.

For this game we got a board from the hardware store and my sweet hubby cut out the holes. I sketched and painted the triplets on the board and added vinyl names and scores.

Last was the Caber Toss

We used some old cardboard pillars left over from my son's pirate birthday party last year that worked great. They were light enough for the kids to toss but tall enough to make it a challenge.

After the games we all headed inside for some treats...

My sister inlaw works at a movie theater and just happened across these adorable triplet props from the movie just a few days before the party! SWEET! Just LOVE them, they were absolutely perfect for the dessert table!  

 

We stacked the treats on various heights of tree rounds and added greenery to keep with the whole Scottish forest feel from the movie.

 Arrow cupcakes

  Bear Claw Brownies

Celtic Knot Cookies

Cotton Candy Wisps

Scottish Sweet Buns

 

...the triplets absolute favorite!

For drinks we served Witches Magical Mystery Brew

After the refreshments the kids headed over to The Crafty Carver to make bear claw necklaces.

 
The triplet bear cubs were just too cute :)

   Well that is all of it! Thank you for checking out our Brave themed birthday party and sticking through all the pictures! The movie is so cute and we had so much fun playing and recreating some the elements from it! I hope this helps inspire any of you for your own BRAVE celebration.

Vendors:

Party Design and Photographs: Sweeten Your Day Events

Merida Costume and Stuffed Bear Cub Triplets: Disney Store

Bear Claw Necklace Kits: Corps of Re-Discovery

PVC Pipe Bows and Arrows: Backwoods Toys

Castle Corrugated Paper and Cardboard Pillars: Shindigz

Spinner: Oriental Trading

Brave Poster Download: Disney

Recipes:

Celtic Knot Cookies: Sprinkle Bakes - 

I couldn't find all the ingredients for that particular recipe, so I just used a sugar cookie one and it worked out great!
Bear Claw Brownies: Spoonful

Scottish Sweet Buns: C'est Maman Qui L'a Fait - 

English download for the recipe is at the bottom of the post

Witches Magical Mystery Brew: My Recipes

Gender Reveal Election!

Sorry I have been MIA for the past couple of months. It has not been due to lack of projects, and am going to try and catch up on posts, but more of a lack of energy! We are excited to announce that we are expecting a 3rd addition to our little family!  With this being said, the past few months I have just felt so drained and worn out! This one is really taking its toll on me! But I am feeling much better and trying to get back to 'normal' or as close to :) So now I am going to try and catch up on some things that I have been up to, starting with the most recent....

Gender reveal parties are all the rage this year, so I figured I would hop on the band wagon and do something fun and simple for the family. I didn't want to do a whole BIG party, but since our kids have been really excited I wanted to do something special. Our son, Mason, has been wanting a little brother for some time now and our little daughter, Avery, just wants a baby! There are tons of fun little ideas for gender reveals out there and once I saw these printables on Etsy I knew that is what I wanted to do!

We decided to go with this election them, since it is an election year, and also so guests could get involved and have a chance to vote on what they think the gender of the baby will be. 

So the following Saturday after our ultrasound (David and I knew what we were having but not the kids) we invited our immediate family over after Mason's soccer game for a light lunch and baby reveal. I had set up a small area where the family could grab a treat and vote. 

I figure the whole cutting the cake open to find out the gender has been over done. So I made just a simple cake to display, no fancy gender result inside. Instead I wanted to do something in keeping with the election theme though, so on the table I had an envelope with the results to open and announce after everyone had voted.

A few yummy themed treats

Cast your own vote...

Then grab a sticker :)

Mason's proud vote!

I was originally going to create some sort of backdrop based off this card I found online to have everyone stand in front of and take pics

Something like a group picture of those who voted girl and a pic of the group of those who voted boy. Alas it was a good idea, but when the days got closer I just ran out of time :(

Anyway after everyone voted we let Mason do the pleasure of adding up the totals...

 The votes were 16 for boy and 5 for girl, Mason was so excited!

Now for the official result...

 The look on his face said it all!

Our little Avery was so excited to find out she was having a little sister! But our poor little guy was so disappointed and sad, on the verge of tears! We had to take him into the other room and talk to him and try and calm him down. My heart just sank for him :( After talking to him and explaining some things he cheered up a bit for the rest of the day. He is now doing much better and looking forward to meeting his new sister!

Thanks so much for being patient in my lack of posts, there are some really fun ones that are still to come so to stay tuned and I will try to get them up soon! 

Vendors:

Photographs, Design, and Cake: Sweeten Your Day

Gender Election Printables: Invitation To Mars

Cake Pops: Autumn Lynns Sins

Cookies: All Things Exquisite

Paper Fans and Table Bunting: Paisley Petal Events