Claire’s Winter Birthday Party

We celebrated Claire’s third birthday with a small Winter Birthday Party!

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My baby girl is not so much a baby anymore! She is now quite the bright and spirited, and often hilarious, 3 year old.

The original plan wasn’t to have a party. We moved a few months ago to a small townhouse and lost a lot of room and parking availability. We are also going to New York City at the end of the month as a bit of a celebration for both kids since Spring Break is right between their birthdays. But as we got closer to the date, I decided that I really wanted to put something small together.

For Claire’s first birthday, we had a Spring Garden-themed party. Last year, we celebrated with Minnie Mouse.

When coming up with ideas for this year, my mind kept going back to winter and snow. Claire’s original due date was mid-March. She caught us all by surprise when she came quickly at barely 36 weeks in the middle of a blizzard. If it wasn’t for that snow and already frozen-over roads, we would have been sent home from the hospital with the belief of false labor and she would have been born in the car.

Ever since, there has been snow on her birthday here in Northern Virginia. We even had snowflakes during her party this year! It didn’t stick and was mixed with freezing rain, but still counts! With us moving to Los Angeles in a few short months, the streak is about to end.

I lined the table with two tablecloths, one light blue and this Clear Snowflake Tablecloth to cover it. Evan loved helping me hang these snowflakes from the ceiling. I served the food on these Snowflake Plates. I have made the birthday banners in the past, but this one worked well for the occasion.

Winter Birthday Cupcakes

Due to recent travel, my mom was unable to fly in for Claire’s birthday this year. She usually decorates the kids’ cakes. I still planned on making the cake myself, but then Claire specifically requested cupcakes. This worked for me, since cupcakes are a bit easier for me to handle.

I made three types of cupcakes: Chai, Vanilla, and Brownie. I covered all of the vanilla and half of the chai cupcakes with a light blue vanilla buttercream frosting using a Russian ball piping tip. For the other half of the chai cupcakes and all of the brownie, I used a snowflake tip from the Russian piping set and a stiffer frosting to pipe on little snowflakes.

I used a variety of snowflake liners and these Tulip Cups. For a final touch, I melted white chocolate to pipe little snowflakes onto parchment paper and placed them on top of a few of the cupcakes after they set. I arranged the cupcakes on this 4-Tier Stand.

Hot Chocolate Bar

Along with juice and water (melted snowman), I also put together a Hot Chocolate Bar to go with the Winter Birthday theme. For easy prep work, I made the hot chocolate in the slow cooker using this recipe from Dinner at the Zoo. I used snowflake-decorated paper cups and straws for serving.

To pair with the hot chocolate, I dipped marshmallows in melted chocolate and sprinkled the edges with winter sprinkles. I got this candy spoon mold for Christmas and used the party as an opportunity to make chocolate spoons (white chocolate with crushed candy canes, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate). I also had mini marshmallows and whipped cream on the side.

Winter Birthday Food

Other menu items included:

• “Snow-Covered” (Yogurt) Pretzels 
• Blood Orange Shortbread Cookies (cut into snowflakes with these cutters)
• Fresh Berries with a Honey Yogurt Fruit Dip
• Pandesal (Filipino Bread Rolls- smaller rolls featured above and a second batch made the size of hamburger buns to hold meat and cheese) 
• Vegetables with a Ranch Dressing 
• “Cold Cuts” (Deli Meat, Sliced Cheese, and Sandwich Rolls)
• My mother-in-law also made her famous Pancit and brought over Lumpia from our local Filipino restaurant

She had such a wonderful time spent with friends. Happy Birthday Claire!