Birthday Party Ideas

I'm kind of a weirdo sometimes - I like to plan things.........like well in advance (I'm already thinking of birthday party ideas for Riley and her birthday isn't until November). I like to make lists, I like to know what I need to get and the excited feeling I get when I get to mark things off that list. I know, I admit it, I'm kind of a nerd.

Anyway, since I'm already thinking about Riley's next birthday, I thought I would share some fun things that we did for her first two celebrations.

*******************************************************************************

Riley first birthday was - LADYBUGS - which was an easy choice since that is how her room was decorated and we had so many ladybug things already. We decorated the tables with ladybugs from her room and had a cute personalized banner (which has since disappeared boo). We had red and black plates since I couldn't find any ladybug ones that I really liked and the food was simple - punch, lots of fruit and of course cake - Riley loved the cake!

She was only one, so we didn't really do any games, but we did have a pinata. Riley really wasn't sure what to do, but she did swing the bat a few times so that's all that mattered!! I learned that you could pack a pinata too full though - and if you do this (not that I did ahem) that they are really hard to break. And when they do finally break open, you'll likely have a lot of smashed candy sense you had to beat the snot out of the thing to get it to open. I thought it just meant more candy to share......boy was I wrong, it meant more candy bits to sweep up - yikes!

Probably my favorite things from this first party were the favors - we did little bags of candy with all kinds of buggy goodies and stamps and then little pots with seeds in them and we printed this little poem to attach. "Here is a gift, a special present just for you, and just like me they will grow too, place them under the sun and beautiful flowers you will see, Thank you for celebrating my first birthday with me." Maybe it was just because my baby was turning one, but I loved that little poem which I found on some website somewhere - if it was yours, thanks for sharing!

*******************************************************************************

Riley's 2nd birthday was - DORA - again another easy choice because she loved and still does Dora the Explorer!!! She would gladly watch it every single day if you'd let her. This party might have been more fun to plan because she was much more involved!! When the kids got there, we made telescopes. (You'd be amazed how many tp rolls you can get in a week when you put the word out that you are collecting them!!!) We colored and stickered these up then we went on a true Dora adventure.

Using my not-so-great art skills (the kids were all very impressed) I had drawn a map just like you'd see on the show and we were on a mission to find our goodies to take home with us. We checked the map and saw that we needed to go thru the Golden Tunnel, into the Rain Forest and then to the Bouncy Castle to get our treats. When we got to the forest we had a problem though, Boots had lost a boot so we had to each find one in the trees and then we played Pin the boot on Boots before we could continue on (again the kids were very impressed with my artistic abilities). Then at the Bouncy Castle (small bounce house we borrowed from my SIL) the kids all got a Dora or Diego plastic cup filled with treats to take home.
Funny moment to share - this is when Riley froze - she was tired, everyone was trying to play with her new things (which normally wouldn't bother her) and she nearly had a meltdown! She wouldn't open anything else and she didn't move for nearly a minute.......memories!

****************************************************************************

Well that brings me to Riley's third birthday which is coming up - we are thinking either a Darby party (from My Friends Tigger & Pooh) or a Cooking party - and both seem equally fun!!!


Darby Party - the Super Sleuths could have a great mission - I think it would be fun if the cake disappeared and we had to follow clues to find it! I also saw a great idea where we could make some "honey" (homemade slime we would tint yellow) which seems like something the kids would really love. The cake would be a breeze too - just use the Super Sleuth's emblem and we could even make it with cupcakes if we wanted too. Favors would be fun too because we could do toy magnifying glasses, compasses, mini flashlights, teddy grahams, Super sleuth masks, I Spy bags (which I think are super cool and don't look too hard to make) or tons of other options. I think this would be a pretty fun party and not too girly for the boys that would be there.

Another favorite would be a Cooking party - ohhhhhhh. Favors would be easy - kids sized aprons, maybe a chefs hat and if we wanted to get real fancy, maybe a cookie cutter or mini rolling pin and whisk to take home. All depending on cost of course. We could have the kids all mix up their own special cupcake batter to bake and then decorate before we left (with lots of decorating options of course) and send home in a little bakery box. We could cut out Jello Jigglers. We could make ice cream sundaes. We could do mini pizzas or.............the options are endless. For games we could do an obstacle course where they'd have to run with an egg (hardboiled of course) on a spoon (or in a measuring cup) which would be fun. We could do some kind of race where they had a bag to fill up at the store and had to run back and put their groceries away in the play kitchen. We could make "meatballs" using this recipe for treasure rocks.


What do you guys think - they both seem fun, just not sure which way to go................oh, why do I love to plan things so much, it really is kinda silly!