One big room, my daughter’s 3rd birthday, family, friends and homemade food.
I used Pinterest to brainstorm these thrifty party games for the kids.
Go Fish
Shiloh helped by putting fish stickers on the bottom of the board.
I glued Goldfish and algae streamers on.
At the party Shiloh’s tween cousins helped throw party loot back to our toddler fisherpeople. The kids took their loot home as party favors.
Ball Pit
We lucked out with this thrifty find–three garbage bags of balls for $10 on Craigslist.
- Fill last summer’s pool.
The ball pit was the hit of the party as far as the kids were concerned.
Noodle Jewelery
- Add 1 tsp. rubbing alcohol to ziplock bag and rub around.
- Add desired amount of food color.
- #pinterestfail: my purple noodles turned black.
- Lay parchment paper on cookie tray and allow noodles to dry overnight.
At party I had pre-cut yarn strands and open noodle jars for parents to help their kiddos make noodle necklaces.
Frozen Birthday Cake
I made white cake using an awesome birthday cake recipe found on Pinterest that combined white box cake mix with sour cream and other ingredients. This was my first time using an 11×15 cake pan; next year I will make twice the cake batter and do a layered cake, as 1 recipe made for a fairly short cake.
First layer of frosting was a simple buttercream recipe tinted purple (I discovered that gel food dye is highly preferable to liquid dye, can’t recommend this preference enough!).
This was my first attempt at fondant. It dries almost as soon as its laid on cake surface, my husband helped spread and we decided the gloopy sides were acceptable as “ice”.
A homemade recipe for Sugar glass created the ice castle.
Cheap gel pens result in cheap lettering. After a trial run we learned that we need actual tips for future cake design.
Birthday Dance Party
Tracks included:
- The Chicken Dance (#1 Hit for the toddlers)
- The Hokey Pokey
- Twist and Shout
Shiloh’s great Aunt Rhonda requested The Locomotion and we did a snake train around the room.
I highly recommend setting up a portable speaker and getting everyone dancing!
Shiloh got to dance with her Grandma, Dad and Great Aunt. We made some great memories.
A note on Planning
Have a designated picture taker–I was too busy to capture some of my favorite moments.
We started collecting materials from the Dollar Store two weeks before the party date. Each night leading up to the big day we worked on assembling what we needed for our three craft tables.
One piece of advice I came across was to make a budget and stick to it–while we didn’t create a firm budget, I did keep it simple by limiting myself to 3 activities plus the ball pit.
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