Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Kids Birthday Parties

It seems like in the last 10 years, kids' birthday parties have gone from a small birthday at home with boiled hotdogs and pin-the-tail on the donkey to expensive, everything matchy and perfect parties. I'll admit, when my oldest turned one I was determined to pull off one of those perfect parties. I quickly realized that they can become stressful, expensive and your kids could care less whether the napkins matched the icing. I love to plan parties. I grew up with parents who put on great birthdays and hosted fab parties. I knew that I could somehow find a balance between creating a pretty birthday party without the stress.

Our oldest son turned 7 last week. Holy time flies. Between my three kiddies, I've planned a few kids parties and I thought I would do a little series of Kids Birthday Party posts in case you are looking for easy themes, with little stress.
In no particular order I thought I would start with my baby girl. When my oldest turned 1, we threw this big party with family, friends and neighbours. Of course, as child number 2 and 3 came, their parties got smaller and smaller. Typical first child and third child parenting ;) However, what I also learned was that I put way too much pressure on myself with my first. Enter in, an easy and cute party for a toddler girl.
 
Invites: My mommy friends who have little ones my baby girl's age. These are the kids who are in our baby girl's world anyway and I love their moms. Double win.
 
Menu: Snacks, cupcakes and wine for the mummies.
A quick stop at the dollar store and party store and we have the makings of a birthday party. I didn't plan any games, because really...at this age, all these little muchkins want to do is play with toys and hang with their mamas.

Décor - Stick with one or two colours. If you're looking for something soft, go with complimentary colours. Want to add punch? Go with colours that are on opposite ends of the colour wheel from each other.
My baby girl is really into princesses right now. But it doesn't mean that every thing from the table cloth to the cutlery to the balloons need to have a princess on it. Remember, she's 2. So, a few princess straws and she's happy as a clam to be able to choose which princess straw she gets.

Snacks: Keep them simple. A little fruit, a little junk = toddler food heaven.
Dessert: Cupcakes are easy for little fingers. Whip up your favourite cake recipe of bring on the mix. These...are mix and the kids ate them up. They were easy, cute and delish!

  Lootbags: Keep it easy. I added some princess necklaces and bracelets, bubbles, suckers and a mini stuffty.

Toddler birthday parties can be a total zoo so keep your décor simple. Stick with a colour theme and just go with it.

Here she is, our big girl!
Keep it Beautiful.

7 comments:

  1. I definitely agree about kids' parties being out of control...but yours is so cute! Love the tip about simplifying the color scheme. And your little one is ADORABLE!

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  2. I have home parties all the time for my kiddies. Once, in the middle of a birthday party soccer game at the park, a little boy guest looked up at me and said "When are we going to the party?" I said "This IS the party!" And he quickly ran off to join in the game! Ha! Home parties rock!

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  3. Aw, Happy Birthday little princess! It looks like she had a great party - yummmm on the cupcakes!!. I know what you mean about parties too - we went from inviting the entire class for an all-out themed party (even removed ALL furniture out of our master bedroom to make it an extra room for games) to last year he went zip-lining by himself and a couple buddies for a sleepover.

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  4. Your little princess is a cutie! I'm dying to know which princess straw she chose ;-) ... Your post is bang on and I hope many, many moms read it. Take the pressure off and enjoy the celebration!

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  5. I hear ya! I just threw a paired-down birthday party for my DH and it was refreshing! I even had paper plate!

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