Äya's 3rd birthday
Äya's third birthday is coming up at the end of June and I want to create something special without spending a ton of money. Here are some of my initial ideas of how to make this happen.
At present she is crazy about Mary Poppins and My Neighbor Totoro (2 very fantasticfilms which I will comment at a later date), so the park was a natural choice for the party's location, not to mention how much we love being out-doors. Taking from the Poppin's song "Let's go Fly a Kite" it was decided (by all) to have a kite party. This lead to all things that could fly; kites, birds, butterflies, planes, bubbles, etc... To aid in my selection of decorations and party favors I'm limiting my color palette to sunshine yellow (a color aya loves), orange and hot pink.
Using Google as my shopping aid (what would we do without Google), I've assembled a few things already. Coastal Kites have a nice variety of kites such as the NT diamond kite for $7.95 which I plan to order in pink, orange and red and also the Flamming Butterfly in red for $14.95.
Plum party has a beautifully edited collection of partyware that could easily make you want to spend hundreds of dollars just on their site alone. Their circus theme section is amazing. For now I plan to order the very adorable animal straws and the ice cream cone bubbles for party favors. The lovely pink and orange polk-a-dot dessert plate and cocktail napkins from Caspari will be just the right touch to add a little flavor to the yellow paper plates, and cups I plan to by from the local grocery store.
Pearl River had a few things I'm considering such at the butterfly accordion and a butterfly paper garland, but we will see if that fits into the budget.
Instead of buying a typical table cloth or blanket, I'm going to head over to Purl Patchwork in Soho and B&J in nyc for beautiful cotton fabrics by Darlene Zimmerman produced by Robert Kaufman fabrics. Using these both on picnic tables and on the ground, it will give everything such a festive and vintage flair and after the party is over, I'll just throw them in the wash and stash them away for future projects.
I also plan on picking up helium balloons in yellow, orange and pink from our florist across the street and some sweet lemon and orange lollypops to add to the favors.
Last year we ended up spending way too much on the food for our guests, so this year I'm planning to ask everyone to bring something which I will include in the invite. I will provide the drinks (lemonade with strawberries, milk, sparkling water and white wine) and the cake (or cupcakes). On my guest food list will be chips, pretzels, cheese, bread and fruit.
Now to the two really fun parts... the activities and presents!
My husband and I have always believed that a ton of toys are really not necessary. Everyone ends up with tons of toys they don't want that clutter their house, so another thing to add on Aya's invite is a note about presents. One parent I knew put "no gifts please" on her invite, which could be an option, but I'm sure it must be a pleasure for all to bring and get a little something so I'm thinking of gently guiding the gift giving with "if you would like to bring a gift may I suggest books, puzzles/games or art supplies. Hopefully this will help in keeping Aya's rapidly growing managerie of stuffed animals at a liveable level (or they might literally take over our apartment).
Taking some ideas from "Games Parents Play" page 112-119 in Real Simple's lovely special spring 2006 Family issue, the feather blow, egg-roll race and "everybody wins" musical chairs (blanket since we are in the park) will be fun and taking from the dress-up relay, I might just bring a bunch of dress up clothes, scarves, masks, etc for the little ones to play with.
More to come...the invitation, handmade presents and anything else I think of between now and her birthday.
At present she is crazy about Mary Poppins and My Neighbor Totoro (2 very fantasticfilms which I will comment at a later date), so the park was a natural choice for the party's location, not to mention how much we love being out-doors. Taking from the Poppin's song "Let's go Fly a Kite" it was decided (by all) to have a kite party. This lead to all things that could fly; kites, birds, butterflies, planes, bubbles, etc... To aid in my selection of decorations and party favors I'm limiting my color palette to sunshine yellow (a color aya loves), orange and hot pink.
Using Google as my shopping aid (what would we do without Google), I've assembled a few things already. Coastal Kites have a nice variety of kites such as the NT diamond kite for $7.95 which I plan to order in pink, orange and red and also the Flamming Butterfly in red for $14.95.
Plum party has a beautifully edited collection of partyware that could easily make you want to spend hundreds of dollars just on their site alone. Their circus theme section is amazing. For now I plan to order the very adorable animal straws and the ice cream cone bubbles for party favors. The lovely pink and orange polk-a-dot dessert plate and cocktail napkins from Caspari will be just the right touch to add a little flavor to the yellow paper plates, and cups I plan to by from the local grocery store.
Pearl River had a few things I'm considering such at the butterfly accordion and a butterfly paper garland, but we will see if that fits into the budget.
Instead of buying a typical table cloth or blanket, I'm going to head over to Purl Patchwork in Soho and B&J in nyc for beautiful cotton fabrics by Darlene Zimmerman produced by Robert Kaufman fabrics. Using these both on picnic tables and on the ground, it will give everything such a festive and vintage flair and after the party is over, I'll just throw them in the wash and stash them away for future projects.
I also plan on picking up helium balloons in yellow, orange and pink from our florist across the street and some sweet lemon and orange lollypops to add to the favors.
Last year we ended up spending way too much on the food for our guests, so this year I'm planning to ask everyone to bring something which I will include in the invite. I will provide the drinks (lemonade with strawberries, milk, sparkling water and white wine) and the cake (or cupcakes). On my guest food list will be chips, pretzels, cheese, bread and fruit.
Now to the two really fun parts... the activities and presents!
My husband and I have always believed that a ton of toys are really not necessary. Everyone ends up with tons of toys they don't want that clutter their house, so another thing to add on Aya's invite is a note about presents. One parent I knew put "no gifts please" on her invite, which could be an option, but I'm sure it must be a pleasure for all to bring and get a little something so I'm thinking of gently guiding the gift giving with "if you would like to bring a gift may I suggest books, puzzles/games or art supplies. Hopefully this will help in keeping Aya's rapidly growing managerie of stuffed animals at a liveable level (or they might literally take over our apartment).
Taking some ideas from "Games Parents Play" page 112-119 in Real Simple's lovely special spring 2006 Family issue, the feather blow, egg-roll race and "everybody wins" musical chairs (blanket since we are in the park) will be fun and taking from the dress-up relay, I might just bring a bunch of dress up clothes, scarves, masks, etc for the little ones to play with.
More to come...the invitation, handmade presents and anything else I think of between now and her birthday.
posted by caro at 10:28 AM
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