The favors:
I decided to do a crayon favor months ago when I happened upon an etsy member that made little tins of crayons with each child's name spelled out inside. I was able to find the tins on clearance at Target, so I only needed to order the letters for each child's name.
I also ordered a sticker with each child's name on it to place on top of their individual tin and a sticker to be placed on the bottom that said, "Love Rylee." (after I received the stickers, I went out and purchased my own laminator/sticker/button maker)
After I had these in place, I spent hours and hours searching for the perfect favor boxes. I went through 50 websites and close to 300 pages of etsy. FINALLY, I found what I was looking for.
Shelley, who runs Bug and Boo designs ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5099181 ) was awesome at helping me get together exactly what I wanted in a favor box. She even shipped my order the next day and featured my boxes in her shop!
These were perfect! The tins fit inside along with a little thing of play-doh and I could not have been happier! I'll definitely be back to order more from Shelley, she was great to work with.
You probably noticed the name tags on each box - those also came from Etsy. (I'm like a walking advertisement for this website, they should pay me!).
Rosie, who runs Tokens of Love (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6345555) was also a pleasure to work with! These favor tags were exactly what I was looking for. I didn't want a paper tag, I wanted something that the kids could take and use somewhere else.( I heard a few moms saying they would put their tags on their backpacks, which is a great idea) I love the way these turned out and tied the whole box together, I'm thinking about ordering a bunch for Christmas!
The cookies:
I make cookie favors each year to give out to the kids and adults as well. This year we did a cherry blossom and a silhouette cookie. (Rodney made the silhouette cutter)
Unwrapped:
Wrapped/tagged:
(I didn't think about this but some people had a hard time eating the silhouette. They felt like they were eating Rylee's head --- and they were!)
Decor:
I tried to do a little bit of decorating in the house to tie the theme together. I waited until Target put their outdoor stuff on sale at the end of the summer and bought a set of the cherry blossom lanterns to hang. I also bought the Martha Stewart pom kit to hang in the living room as well. (I bought it from Wal-Mart, $10 cheaper there than Michael's)
My friend April, who is an awesome florist, let me borrow her huge cherry blossom arrangement that she has displayed in her shop for the party (so have to return it this week!) and that really pulled it all together.
Activities:
I decided that since Rylee is turning 3 this year, we needed to do a little more with the party than we normally do. We needed things to keep the kids occupied and happy. I came up with a few different things for them to do.
The first table I had set up was a "popcorn bar." I had paper bags out with markers, glue and crayons for them to decorate and put their names on. I had 5 different flavors of popcorn for them to fill their decorated bag with.
White cheddar
kettle corn
carmel pirate's booty
carmel corn
white chocolate
The second table I had set up was for making your own stick/foam puppets. I found the kits at Michael's for $1/each and thought it would be a really good way thing for each kid to be able to do while they were there.
I also had cupcake decorating. In the weeks before the party, I made each child an apron and painted their names and cherry blossom branches on them. ( I failed to take a picture of the aprons, who knows why) We waited until after the cake had already been served before we let them do the cupcake decorating because I wanted them to be able to take them home.
(we didn't get that many photos of each table, probably because we were running around like crazy)
We also had the bounce house set up and the playset - so there was lots to do!
The food:
I always cook a big meal for Rylee's party. I have no idea why I enjoy doing this but I really do.
This year we did spaghetti again (also did spaghetti the year before last). I had spaghetti with marinara or alfredo, italian sausage, grilled chicken, sautted mushrooms, salad, spinach dip and chips and salsa. I also made cheesecake cups, chocolate-peanut butter cookies and my mom brought pecan sandies. (thanks mom!)
Of course there was cake too!
The bottom tier on this cake was vanilla with whipped lemon curd buttercream. The top tier was vanilla with whipped strawberry buttercream. (the entire cake was covered in vanilla buttercream). I had a lot of fun with this cake and I'm really happy with the way it turned out, especially in regards to the colors. Rylee seemed to really love it too!
So that was what we did with Rylee's 3rd birthday party this year! It was lots and lots of hard work but it was totally worth it. Thanks to every single person that helped (especially Rodney) and attended!
Here are a few random pictures from that day!
