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It’s a good thing that birthday celebrations are just once a year because I am always left completely exhausted by them! Given, that’s likely because I do way too much for them… but oh well! I love throwing their parties. I have had so much picking the themes and making decorations, favors, food, etc for all of them so far and since I know I only have a couple of years left before they start telling me what they want for their parties I am totally going all out when I can. Plus, I am an Event Planner by day. I mean, what do you expect?
![]() Poppy the Birthday Girl! Living in California, the Bay Area to be more specific, the weather tends to be nice however sometimes unpredictable in the early Spring. This year was no exception. We had been having fine weather - overcast maybe a bit chilly, but minimal rain. I planned for Poppy's 3rd birthday party to be outside in our backyard because the entire week before the weather forecast promised a 25% chance of rain. Well. 25% was all we needed, apparently! I had set up the whole party; everything was good to go outside, than the rain started. At first it was drizzling. Than it was a downpour. Clearly this rain put a huge damper on all of the cute activities I had planned for outside. Not to mention, I didn't get a ton of pictures of the decor/activities or even of the birthday girl because she was running around in our super-packed little house! Stupid, Stupid rain! On a more positive note, the kids still had fun running around and playing in the house and thank goodness for the big playroom upstairs so that the 30 kids (and adults) could be some-what dispersed throughout the house. As I have said for every other birthday party I have blogged about, I like to keep the themes gender-neutral while I can. Pretty soon the kids will be (likely) asking for specific birthday party themes so while I get to choose, it will be a theme that works for both their boy and their girl friends. For Poppy's 3rd Birthday party we went with a "Cowboy & Cowgirl" theme because Poppy just loved seeing Jessie the Cowgirl at Disneyland! Here are some of the shots I was able to get of the party & the details about them... One of the outside activities was "Horse Wranglin" where I had a wooden rocking horse and a stack of hula-hoops and the kids could try to get the hula-hoop around the horse. A few kids were able to play when the weather cleared up for a little bit, thankfully!![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Poppy & her favorite Tia Patrice! ![]() Hudson loved the pie pops and used his beautiful blue eyes to get the ladies to share with him! ![]() Poppy enjoying handfuls of popcorn... not gracefully! ![]() My sassy Woody! ![]() Baby Woody & I ![]() Poppy & I! Happy VERY-Belated Birthday, Poppy Ireland!!!!! Enjoy!! xo ER ![]() I hung up a bunch of other signs that I made through out the house/yard and I also used real signs that I was able to borrow from the City of Moraga thanks to some connections! ![]() I used our kitchen table for the desserts. I used things around the house for props/decorations like a canvas tool bag, a saw storage box, and paint trays. My dad loaned me old blue-prints which I used on top of the table over a black plastic table-cloth. I stocked up on paint chip cards from Home Depot and threw them around the table for color & decor, too. Some of the desserts included "paint brushes" by dipping rice krispies in different colored candy-melts and putting a stick in them and displaying them in a paint tray. The "sledgehammers" were marshmallows dipped in chocolate with a pretzel stick, piled into the back of a plastic dump truck. The "wrecking ball" cakepops were poked into Styrofoam and displayed in the back of a dump truck, too. The "construction cones" cupcakes were strewn around the table for effect. I used the canvas tool bag for the construction themed cookies & had real tools in the pockets for effect. I did a candy buffet, also, and hung a sign that said "Fill Your Bucket". I displayed the big clear plastic paint buckets from Michael's & Jo-Anns with the candy in them. I made paint brushes on my Cricut and made each paint bucket a certain color (red, purple, yellow, pink, orange, green, and blue). I filled the buckets with the matching color shred & then filled it with the candy. I stacked them on the Diwalt saw case for height and accessibility. The buckets the kids (and adults!) filled were small clear paint buckets which I stacked up on our big ladder and stuck it in the corner. ![]() ![]() To continue the theme I got Home Depot canvas aprons & Home Depot pins for each child and set them on a table along with a plastic yellow hard-hat for them. To display them I used 2 of my dads saw-horses and put a large piece of plywood on top. I set out the uniforms and then scattered various tools among it - without the batteries in the power-operated tools! *Safety First* Here are some additional shots of the DIY details: As much fun as I had planning for her party and playing along with the theme, I wanted this party to be fun for the kids but also benefit needy children, also. So, for Poppy's 2nd Birthday there was not a thing that she needed and there was nothing that I wanted her to receive, either. So I decided that in-lieu of gifts, we would request that each guest bring a donation for the Project Night Night Foundation. I am a huge advocate of reading and Poppy just loves her books, blankets, and favorite piggy so this organization was the perfect fit. They provide a book, blanket, and lovie per child for children who are homeless. I requested that each guest brought one or all of the 3 items. We have amazing friends because they all brought donations and most brought multiple donations. The following Monday I proudly took all of the donations to the local drop-off location in San Francisco. I loved this idea and I will definitely do it for future parties, also. I want my children to enjoy celebrating their birthdays with friends and do it to have fun and not for the presents that they might receive. My children are very fortunate that they have all they could need/want right now and they don't need any more 'stuff'. As they get older I will include them in the charity-picking for their parties, but, for the next few ones I will continue to donate to Project Night Night! All in all, the party was a great success. Poppy had a blast, her little friends had fun, and even the adults had a good time! & most importantly, over 30 homeless children received blankets, books, and stuffed animals thanks to our very generous and loving friends and family! Thanks for checking out her party! Enjoy!! xo ER ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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