My daughter’s 3rd birthday is approaching, so this Mama has birthday parties on the brain. Here’s one idea (I did this for her first birthday party). This milestone birthday party included many more adults than children (lots of family and friends to share the big event), but future parties will be much smaller…

Puppet Love

We wanted her gift to be very special so I designed a puppet theater, which my husband built (and I painted). We hope that she will enjoy it for years to come and maybe even be able to pass it down to her kids. He cut holes in the tree and the castle tower so that puppets could peek through. I tried to make the theater itself work for several story lines by incorporating day and night scenes and providing a base that could work as a road or a river…. My mom also made two different curtains: one with a forest theme (pictured below) and one black curtain with silver stars all over it.

Ladybug Picnic

Her actual party had a ‘ladybug picnic’ theme. We had it in the backyard.

I converted some of the red plastic plates I bought for serving cake into ladybug decorations.

I made a giant three-layer ladybug cake for the adults and bigger kids to enjoy. My cake was just featured at parentingpink.com so please visit there for more information about how I made it.

I also provided a fruit plate and some other snacks, as well as an ice bucket with a wide variety of juices, water, and pop. The party took place on a Sunday afternoon (timed to begin shortly after nap time), so we didn’t have to provide a meal. Oh and I put out little snack bowls filled with cheerios and goldfish for the VIPs at the party…

Showtime

My friends and I put on a performance of my daughter’s favorite book, The Gruffalo. To keep costs down, I crafted some of the characters from our existing puppet collection (see the ‘fox’ and the ‘Gruffalo‘, pictured above). We bought her the brown mouse puppet for her birthday…

We put down some colorful floor mats on the grass in front of the puppet show and then lawn chairs behind that so that everyone could see the show. The mats also doubled as a hazard free play area for the duration of the party (I put out lots of toys). I had a play tent out as well, offering some shade for the little ones.

Some Bunny’s First Cake

I made a banana cake for the one-year-olds to enjoy. The recipe is posted at recipezaar.com.

My husband and I have decided to alternate years for big parties and smaller celebrations. Last year we took our daughter and grandmother to Maplewood Farms to visit the animals. Then we went to a doughnut shop and let her pick out the gooiest pinkest sprinkliest donut and stuck a candle in it.

This year we’ll host another backyard brou-haha – this time it looks like it will be a Princess Lizard Pumpkin theme (subject to change)…

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