This past weekend was spent celebrating our magical girl turning seven! We are truly in awe of the passion, creativity, and sparkle Isla has added to the world, and we wanted nothing more than to provide her with a day filled with wondrous surprises around every corner!

To say Isla is obsessed with the How to Train Your Dragon movies might be an understatement— she lives and breathes dragons right now, so our party theme for her 7th birthday was an obvious choice. We started dreaming up ideas months ago, and I had so much fun thinking of intentional, unique, and meaningful details for her celebration.

For the decor, we decided to create a scene that blended a bit of Berk and the Hidden World. Our backdrop was made by spray painting a sheet of kraft paper. We keep a roll of painter’s kraft paper (the stuff you cover the floor with when you paint) on hand and use it for SO many projects! Most of the backdrop was painted to look like sky, and we darkened the bottom right corner and dusted it with glitter to mimic the splendor of the Hidden World.

Isla has drawn countless pictures of herself riding on Toothless, so I thought it would be fun to surprise her with a little composite I created in Photoshop. Isla was beyond thrilled when she realized SHE was riding Toothless! Below is the complete composite. I am having it printed for Isla as a keepsake. For the party decor, I cut out Isla and Toothless and attached it to our painted backdrop.

The island of Berk was created with cardboard boxes, painted kraft paper, green tissue paper, a little hot glue, and tape. The best part of these simple props is that they doubled as a gift that Isla and Cole have continued to use when they play with their dragon toys!

• Arrange the boxes in the shapes you would like. We left the base boxes as rectangles, but angled them on a diagonal. To create the towering mountain, I took long rectangles of cardboard (think the side or flap of a cardboard box) and folded them into triangular prisms, secured with hot glue. I then stacked the triangles on top of one another.
• Paint long sheets of kraft paper with shades of grey and brown. Make sure to overlap some of the colors. To add a textured appearance, continue painting strokes when most of the paint is off of the bristles and the brush is dry.
• Once the painted paper is dry, scrunch it a bit and wrap it around the boxes. I secured ours with a mix of tape and hot glue. Be sure not to wrap the paper too tightly. Allow for it to bunch and crumple in places, to look more organic.
• After all the individual cardboard pieces are covered with paper, stack them and attach with hot glue.
• Crumple green tissue paper and adhere it to the top of the cliffs using a few dabs of hot glue.

Isla had asked if we could make Berkian houses the week before her birthday, so I included them in our scene. They weren’t really to scale, but it didn’t matter! To make the houses, we honestly just experimented as we went along. We cut and bent shapes from cardboard, secured with hot glue, added spiny ridges, and then painted them using acrylic paints. I love that were able to incorporate some of Isla’s artwork in the decor! We try and do that as often as we can with parties because they kids feel such a sense of pride seeing their work displayed.

After waking up, Isla excitedly walked out into the living room, still in her jammies and wearing the Astrid headband I had surprised her with the day before. “Oh my…” she began and then her jaw dropped. Her eyes were sparkling, she clasped her hands, and started jumping up and down. This girl was elated!!! Isla stood in front of her display and intently looked at each and every detail. She later told me, “I wanted to really focus on the things you made me because I knew they were really special and you worked hard on them.” Cue the tears! Instilling a heart of gratitude in our children has been one of my top priorities as a parent. So basically, for her birthday, Isla gave me one of the best gifts ever!

Heat and humidity took a bit of a toll on the cake (particularly with the crystals and frosting), but thankfully that didn’t diminish Isla’s excitement. Modeled after the giant crystal throne from the Hidden World, our favorite lemon cake boasted isomalt crystals and a hidden surprise gift– more on that later in the post! It was my first attempt working with isomalt and molds, and the process was surprisingly easy and fun! It was a shame the crystals half-melted during the night, but they had looked really impressive when they first came out of the molds!

HERE is the recipe for the cake. It is the best lemon cake ever! We top it with a simple cream cheese frosting (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and a splash of vanilla).

For wrapping this year, I created two large flat-bottomed fabric drawstring bags, using materials that looked like Toothless and Light Fury. I followed THIS fantastic tutorial. The bags looked festive for the party, and more importantly, can be reused! Isla now stores all of her dragon toys in them.

We like to let the kids open gifts throughout the day, as opposed to all in one setting. It allows them to focus more on each gift and express their genuine appreciation. It also stretches out the fun, and who doesn’t want more fun?! We found this incredible dragon wing and tail set on Etsy. We knew Isla would get a ton of use out of these during her imaginative play, plus they will be part of her Halloween costume (and I didn’t have to make them). Win-win-win!

After admiring the decor and opening a present, we headed down to the beach for a walk. Isla was in full dragon mode the entire time. Naturally! Nana and Papa joined us, and it was such a beautiful way to start the day!

We returned to the cottage after our walk, dusted off the sand, and enjoyed a delicious brunch! The menu included sausage, kale and potato crustless quiche, fruit salad, and our new favorite pumpkin doughnut holes.

Cole topped his brunch off with a little decorative sugar from the table. Oi! Never a dull moment with this kid!

During Cole’s nap time, we let Isla open another gift and then snuggled up and watched How to Train Your Dragon. We gave Isla a new pair of hiking boots and tucked a baby Light Fury toy into one of them. She was so surprised and absolutely ecstatic!

Loved seeing our sweet girl SO overjoyed! For the record, she loves the boots too.

After Cole woke up from his nap we started the actual party– a small gathering with the grandparents and Grauntie and Gruncle. We also received the sweetest calls and messages from aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. While we certainly missed being able to host a big celebration for all our loved ones, this was a really special experience for Isla. In fact, she said it was her best birthday ever!

We feel it is incredibly valuable to encourage the kids to make gifts for one another. It is so heartwarming to see the them take such pride in creating and giving! I help the kids brainstorm and produce their projects, and really try to make a big deal of it, so that they see the importance of the process. This year Cole helped make a Toothless collage for Isla. He painted all the papers, sponge painted the background, and chose the image he wanted to copy. I cut out the shapes, then Cole helped me glue them all in place. I love that you can see his little sticky fingerprints all over!

Isla received a hatching Toothless from Grauntie and Gruncle and her mind was blown! The kids were absolutely giddy watching the egg crack open.

After dinner (Isla requested salmon, because dragons love salmon the most) we surprised her with one last gift. But we didn’t just hand it over– she had to find it! We created a simple scavenger hunt and hid clues around the house. Isla had to read each clue (always practicing our reading!), and the last one said, “You have worked very hard. Let’s take a break and have some cake!”

I had been making a really big deal about Isla being old enough to cut her own cake in the days leading up to the party because I hid her final and most coveted gift in the top of her cake– baby nightlight toys! I put the toys in a little Tupperware container. Before frosting the baked cakes, I cut a hole in the top layers and tucked the container inside. That way, when Isla cut down, her knife hit the Tupperware. She was so confused at first, but was absolutely ecstatic to find one last surprise!

Isla Grace, YOU are made of magic, and we are eternally grateful for the sparkle you add to all our lives. Thank you for blessing us with your spunk, creativity, thoughtfulness, and love! Watching your imagination, intentionality, and integrity grow brings us more joy than you can imagine. We adore you and look forward to your epic tree frog hugs each day! Happy SEVENTH birthday, precious girl!