Fun, Simple Birthday Celebrations
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We recently celebrated our little man’s 3rd birthday at our home. I have really enjoyed the planning and execution of his birthday party each year and it is something I look forward to.
Each year I have chosen a theme that I feel suits his personality and what he is loving at the time. I think this is important even at such a young age because it all relates to back to him (and the reason we are celebrating). For his first birthday, we had a “wild one” theme. He was on the move and into everything at the time, plus he loved to yell so we felt it was appropriate. For his second birthday, he was all about the farm animals and could make all the farm noises, so we had a barnyard theme. This year, he has really been into “helping daddy” with all the home projects. He has a little work bench and tool set and he likes to get them all out to help fix things…ha!
After we have chosen a them, I follow a simple checklist to plan his birthday parties. This checklist could easily be used for any birthday celebration (or any other party) to help organize and simplify.
Invites – There is such a big price range for invitations, and they can really add up if you have something custom-made. I like to order a PDF download from an Etsy shop that I can customize and print at home. It saves us $, they have so many cute ones, and they are very user-friendly.
Decorations – I do not spend as much time doing crafts as I did before having kids. However, when it comes to their birthdays, I tend to get back into it. I took to Pinterest this year to come up with some decorations for our construction theme. There are so many creative people on there that come up with great ideas. This year the hubby helped me create a bucket that resembled a CAT excavator with balloons dumping out of it. I did purchase a banner and a few hard hats that little man talked me into. I also made a few CAUTION signs, added some CAUTION tape, along with my husband’s ladder, wheelbarrow and tool belt and called it good.
Bonus: We sent home a hard hat and a balloon with each kid as party favors. They were a hit!
Food – We like to make all the food for the party. Not only is it more economical, but we feel we can serve exactly what we want and it is most likely healthier than anything we can order. Grilling is an easy way to serve a big crowd. We served pizza this year with a veggie tray alongside it. We also had a Build-A-Sundae Bar to go along with our construction theme. Little man enjoys ice cream occasionally but really doesn’t like cake.
Cake – I am not a baker by any stretch of the imagination, but I have always felt the desire to make my kids birthday cakes. On his first birthday, our son had not been exposed to sugar and I wanted to limit his consumption so I made a healthier organic smash cake for him and a separate cake to serve our guests. For this 2nd and 3rd birthdays, I have made a fairly normal cake with plenty of sugar. The cake recipe I used for his 3rd birthday was the vanilla cake recipe from the cake girls along with their chocolate buttercream frosting. It is dense and delicious and was a big hit with all of our guests. I have a feeling I will be using this recipe for many future birthday cakes. After frosting the cake, I added small toys on top to go with the theme. This is a simple, easy way to decorate and your kids will love it.
Activities – Many parents feel the need to plan extravagant activities for kids’ birthday parties that can end up costing a lot of $. In this case, I do not think more is always better. Kids are very happy to just have something different to do with their buddies. For our son’s 3rd birthday, my hubby set up several stations for the kids to play at. We had cones set up in the yard as a sort of obstacle course, a sand table full of excavators and diggers, building blocks that resemble Lincoln Logs or Jenga blocks, and a piece of wood with nails pre-set to allow the kids to finish nailing them in. These were all simple ideas that we already had at home and they entertained the kids for several hours. They were having so much fun with the activities that they didn’t even want to stop for cake or to open gifts.
At the end of the day, our little man had the best time on his special day and that is what is most important! Bonus: I have enjoyed planning our little man’s birthday parties and I am now looking forward to baby sister’s 1st birthday in a few short months.
I hope you find this post helpful when planning your next birthday party! Have questions or comments…leave me a note below.
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