3rd Birthday Parties

lulu8109 · October 2013

This board is so slow! C'mon, ladies :-) Share your 3rd birthday party ideas: theme, decorations, party favors, etc.

DS looooves bowling, so he wants to do that for his birthday. I'm torn between going all out and doing a big bowling party which would be $$$ or just doing a small gathering with immediate family and DS' 3 closest buddies. I grew up having big birthday parties. They weren't anything fancy - just lots of family, friends, and food. They were usually at home or at a local park. DH grew up not having parties at all. We have this dilemma every year. For DS' 1st b-day and baptism, we had a ton of family and friends over to our house. For his 2nd b-day, we had it at home again, but cut the guest list by about half.

I saw some really cute iron-on bowling decals on Etsy that I want to use to make t-shirts for DS, DH, and myself. DS also asked for a Cars theme, so I guess we'll do a Cars cake.

tiffanyp · October 2013

Fun! Someone once suggested to me that the number of kids you invite should be equal to the age the birthday kid is turning, so 3 friends sounds perfect to me

Poor Avery has never had a real birthday party. We don't have family around, and we are always travelling on her birthday because it's Dec. 25. This year she understands the concept of a birthday party because she's been invited to a few, so I think we need to actually have a party for her. For some reason, she has been talking about having a "Goofy" cake for a long time. I have no idea where she came up with that, but I guess that means we're doing a Mickey Mouse Club House theme.

EVM1216 · October 2013

I want to do a fairy tale themed birthday party for DD this year. She just loves the 3 little pigs and little red riding hood, so I'd like to work that into the party. I just don't know where to have it or how much time I am going to have to spend on it. $$ is totally a factor and since I work 6 days a week my free time is practically nil.

sdpookie13 · October 2013

You ladies are making me realize that it's already almost NOVEMBER! What the heck happened to the time!? Seriously, I can't even take a breath without months flying by. I seriously need to get into gear since the holiday's tend to clutter up my time around C's b-day. Poor kid! I honestly have no idea but I LOVE the bowling idea. C's never been but that sounds like a really fun rainy day event. We usually wait to have her party in January and have a sledding party at our house, we have a big hill in the back yard. Not sure of a theme though...she does like princesses....hmm....

missmuffin87 · October 2013

We did pretty big family parties the last 2 years, so this year we're keeping it small (sort of). My mom got us tickets to the nutcracker in Boston and we are going to the nutcracker brunch at the ritz before the show. So not lots of people, but still very special for hazel. When she's 5 we are going to disney, so no party then either. So next year I will do a party with her friends. I'm thinking either tea party or ice cream party.

lulu8109 · October 2013

tiffanyp said:

Fun! Someone once suggested to me that the number of kids you invite should be equal to the age the birthday kid is turning, so 3 friends sounds perfect to me

Poor Avery has never had a real birthday party. We don't have family around, and we are always travelling on her birthday because it's Dec. 25. This year she understands the concept of a birthday party because she's been invited to a few, so I think we need to actually have a party for her. For some reason, she has been talking about having a "Goofy" cake for a long time. I have no idea where she came up with that, but I guess that means we're doing a Mickey Mouse Club House theme.

I never heard that about the guests = age. I like it!

Aww, I forgot Avery was a Christmas baby. MMCH is a great theme.

lulu8109 · October 2013

EVM1216 said:

I want to do a fairy tale themed birthday party for DD this year. She just loves the 3 little pigs and little red riding hood, so I'd like to work that into the party. I just don't know where to have it or how much time I am going to have to spend on it. $$ is totally a factor and since I work 6 days a week my free time is practically nil.

My tip is to have it somewhere where they do everything for you! That's my goal this year. I don't have the energy to clean my house AND cook/order food AND decorate AND make favors.

lulu8109 · October 2013

sdpookie13 said:

You ladies are making me realize that it's already almost NOVEMBER! What the heck happened to the time!? Seriously, I can't even take a breath without months flying by. I seriously need to get into gear since the holiday's tend to clutter up my time around C's b-day. Poor kid! I honestly have no idea but I LOVE the bowling idea. C's never been but that sounds like a really fun rainy day event. We usually wait to have her party in January and have a sledding party at our house, we have a big hill in the back yard. Not sure of a theme though...she does like princesses....hmm....

It snuck up on me too! The only reason I'm starting planning is because two people have already asked me when the party was! DS's b-day is Dec 30, so we usually celebrate in January too, so we can avoid all of the holiday craziness.

lulu8109 · October 2013

missmuffin87 said:

We did pretty big family parties the last 2 years, so this year we're keeping it small (sort of). My mom got us tickets to the nutcracker in Boston and we are going to the nutcracker brunch at the ritz before the show. So not lots of people, but still very special for hazel. When she's 5 we are going to disney, so no party then either. So next year I will do a party with her friends. I'm thinking either tea party or ice cream party.

Aww, the Nutcracker sounds like so much fun! What a great way to celebrate!

jnicolen1 · October 2013

all of these are fun ideas! i hope one of the boys wants to do bowling one year. i was planning on doing a superhero theme, but i think we are going to just do family this year. all oliver wants is "cake" when we ask him...and it would be nice to forgo all of the planning/spending. im thinking we will take him somewhere fun with the grandparents for the day. they will all be in town.

jarebearsmom · October 2013

We did parties the past 2 years. My sister is due Dec 27 and his bday is the 29 so I'm guessing we will probably just do something special for him with just us

TMNTgirl · October 2013

DS turns 3 on November 15th - ahhh - just over 2 weeks away!

I'm actually going to be out of town for a huge work conference (our biggest event of the year) from until the Saturday the 16th. So we are having his party of Sunday the 17th. I'm going to be sooo tired and it's going to be crazy pulling it all together the day before/morning of. But oh well!

We are having a football themed party and inviting friends/family to stay all afternoon to watch football at our house as well. DH is a huge 49ers fan.

Whenever I ask DS what kind of birthday party he wants to have he just replies "brown". It took me a while to figure it out - but what he means is he wants a chocolate cake. So brown, chocolate football themed cake will be perfect! And he'll be happy!

janneann1127 · October 2013

I feel bad that we aren't doing much this year. His birthday is the week before Thanksgiving, and with the new baby, things are just too hectic. We are having all of our mommy and me group friends meet us at the park on his actual birthday, which is a Tuesday. I told them I will bring cupcakes. We had a big Elmo party for his 1st and a Cookie Monster for his 2nd, so it's not like we haven't done it.

@lulu8109 - Bowling sounds fun! G has never bowled, but that's a great idea. Guess we need to do that. :-)

mommyfied · October 2013

We're inviting the three kids we spend time with outside DC, and 6 friends from DC. He is going to have a pirate-party - although really simple, low-cost and FUN

If the weather is nice this will be outside - or maybe start inside and finish outside.

I am buying some black felt and are making super easy captain's hats of that, saving all the paper rolls I can find to make telescopes with paint and buying black eyeliner from H&M to draw mustaches.
I have through the year bought the plates and some flutes on sale (I don't know what they are called in US), so now I just need some napkins and cups and we are done with stationary.
I am printing the invites and painting over them with coffee (and roast them in the oven for the old look) with a treasure map (to get to our place) on the back.

I am pre-making the meals upfront so it is just to heat up, and this is what I came up with. (not super healthy, but hey, they have 364 other days to do that)

For dinner we will be serving nuggets and french fries, mini-pizzas and hotdogs.
For dessert it will be served buns, cinnamon rolls and cupcakes.
I do not have child-seats for them to sit around the table and eat - so I will buy some cheap pillows on IKEA so they can sit around the living-room table and eat (or take it outside)

The games we are having are

Fishing - is it a boot, fish or candy - or something else?
Pirate dancing - I downloaded some of J's fav music to spotify, so they can sing and dance all day.
If the weather is nice we can play in the snow or something (will decide that the day before)
Treasure hunt - This is where I will hide the "Here is a bag of candy, now take your kid and leave"-goodie-bags. At the end.

I dont want to have it in the afternoon, so I am inviting people to come at 10.am and leave at 1.pm. 3 hours I believe is enough for the parents, kids, J and me.

stephy1221 · October 2013

We are doing a pancakes and pajamas party with a big mickey mouse influence, mickey waffles, mickey pancakes, mickey yoplait yogurt etc.

I am also going to hire this local magician/face painting duo for some entertainment.

Ainsley's birthday is the weekend before Christmas so I like to add some entertainment since I appreciate that there is a shortage of free time then and the kids are so jazzed up for Santa it gives their energy focus.

Last year we hired elmo and OMG these toddlers tackled him to the floor, my mom compared it to the teenage girls when the beetles came to the US, LOL.

kat81again2 · October 2013

I don't know what to do for DS's 3rd birthday. He has a lot of friends at school but he's not friends with EVERYONE in his class, which is huge. I would not be able to have a party for his whole class, even if we had it at some location that throws parties (as opposed to our house), and even factoring in the fact that people might be out of town for Christmas, etc. For his 2nd birthday he had two friends (just one from school) so we could do that same metric and give him 3 for this birthday, but now I feel like he has more friends than that and it would be nice to invite more people.

Today a teacher at his school asked me, "did you go to R's bday party?" We were not invited, so I said no. I was sort of offended that we were not invited, because DS and R do seem to be in the same "clique" of boys and if the teacher knew about it maybe lots of kids were invited, but otoh I know I wouldn't be able to invite everyone in the class. Maybe I'm annoyed that the teacher went spilling the beans like that...!

SugarSnap83 · October 2013

I love Stephy's idea about the pj-pancake party!

I've been asking Noah what kind of party he wants, but I still don't think he doesn't understand the party concept yet. We did a BIG first birthday and a big second birthday, but I'm thinking three is going to be a bit more chill. We're probably just going to have a regular party. Nothing special just a get together with family (with just immediate family members, we're about 35 people (counting DH, DS, and me)) at our house.

I think when Noah starts asking for something more specific I'll get back into the "big" parties.

sdpookie13 · October 2013

LOVE the Pancakes & Pajama party idea! C LOVES her PJs! Totally might steal this!

lulu8109 · October 2013

Update on DS' party - We're pretty sure we're going to do something on a smaller scale. We got the pricing for a full-blown bowling party and DH and I were shell shocked.

@TMNTgirl - LOL at the "brown" party!

@janneanne1127 - I think that sounds lovely! I think all of yalls responses are making me feel better about just doing something small.

@mommyfied - That sounds like an awesome party! But exhausting =P Good luck!

@stephy1121 - I love the all-out Mickey theme. I love infusing the theme in ways like that.

@kat81again2 - That is always an awkward situation =(

EMOmamma · October 2013

I think we're just going to invite a couple close friends/cousins to a jumping castle place, then back to our place for pizza (his favorite) and cake. Last year we went swimming on his actual birthday and had family and friends over for cake on the weekend.

lswivel · October 2013

DS's birthday is on Thanksgiving this year so we are having his dinosaur party the Saturday after

I asked him what kind of party he wanted and he picked dinosaurs, which he is obessed with.

Nicole0012 · October 2013

lswivel said:

DS's birthday is on Thanksgiving this year so we are having his dinosaur party the Saturday after I asked him what kind of party he wanted and he picked dinosaurs, which he is obessed with.

Yep. Dinosaurs all the way over here, too!

GrayGhost13 · October 2013

We don't have any friends with kids in the area, so no party for us.

I think we're going to go to Disney for a special day out with mommy and daddy, but I haven't figured out the details yet. I want to make sure to do a few special things that day that he'll really be excited about.

mrskelly731 · October 2013

DD's birthday is 12/24 so we decided to have her birthday the first Saturday in December 12/7. She's been really into Hello Kitty so that will be the theme. We will be inviting our friends and family as well as 3-4 friends from daycare. We have been friends with some of the daycare parents since before our LO's were born so it will be a good time.

kj07 · October 2013

We usually just do a small party with friends and family but are debating doing a party where we invite his classmates (13 3-year-olds). If we do, DH wants to have it at a local indoor play area. I'd rather steal an idea from one of B's classmates and have a music party. B goes to a music class once a week at daycare and it's his favorite part of the week. I'd like to see if Mr J would come do a 20 min music class for B's party. We'll see (a) if he would do it and (b) how much it would cost.

Five Months to Plan · October 2013

We are just having a family party again this year which is 25-30 people. We are having a rainbow theme because last year we had bubble guppies and all she wanted were the balloons and party hats. I figure I can do rainbow theme with just some balloons and party hats. We're doing dinner so I am thinking different types of soups, salads, and some sandwiches. It will be a Sunday afternoon because of other family commitments. We do not have any friends locally with young children. All the nieces and nephews are 9-14. She is at home with DH and grandma so there are no school friends. I figure this is my last year without having to invite friends.

Coltsdad · October 2013

As of right now, J just has family parties, but this year he is VERY aware of birthday parties...he's asking where is his party already. He's got a few friends he's made during his 1 day a week at daycare, but DW doesn't feel right inviting them to the party since we don't know the parents. Our families are big enough as is... the party usually winds up being about 26-30 people. J has told us 2 different themes he wanted his party to be so far... first it was Avengers, but now for the past 2 months it has been a Spider-Man themed party, so we have already started piecing together things (plates, favors, etc.) for the party, since coming up with money for Christmas, his birthday presents and his party all at once proves to be kind of tricky.

We would do a Mickey party, but we are holding off on that for A's 2nd birthday because we will have just returned from Disney World and figured that would be a great way to incorporate pictures of our trip into the party, and Mickey will likely be fresh in his mind still, so it might mean more.

We figure next year he'll probably have his first friends party... no idea where we might have it, maybe our local children's museum, maybe some place else... we have a year to start thinking of that.

stephy1221 · October 2013

sdpookie13 said:

LOVE the Pancakes & Pajama party idea! C LOVES her PJs! Totally might steal this!

I'll tell you what really inspired me to do it was to get it over and one with for nap time and get people on there way so they can finish up their last minute Christmas shopping. Once I saw visuals of the theme on pinterest I really fell hard for it.

Strunella · October 2013

I have no idea what we'll do. He's a Christmas Eve baby, so we're likely looking at the first weekend in January. But I'll be 9 months pregnant then, so don't really want to drive myself crazy. Our family is really small, so they usually come over on Christmas Eve for presents and cake, but that has proven to be chaotic because we're still trying to do Christmas stuff too. Every year I vow to not make the same mistakes I made the year before! It's still a work in progress!

If I do a party in January, it will be REALLY small...nothing crazy at all.

babycakes · November 2013

TBH, I haven't really thought about Griffs 3rd birthday yet lol. I don't think we're doing anything big anyways. Probably just do it at Kid City with his lil cousins.

mommyfied · November 2013

Oh boy! Just went to a parent - teacher meeting this morning, and found out I had got things all wrong! :O
Turns out that those boys he keeps talking about are not his playmates, but more "class-clowns". And that he has three completely different friends in DC. And that the boy who is pinching, slapping and biting J is actually nice to him (he has some kind of "challenge" that I did not know about and he sees a spes.ped everyday to guide him) when he does not do those things. Turns out that the boy hasn't cracked the social codes yet. So now I don't know who to invite? Should I invite those the teachers see are his friends, or those he talk about at home??

erind0213 · November 2013

We have a place called Bounce U. We did the all inclusive package for 20 kids and its $ 450. This includes pizza, drinks, cake, goodie bags, complimentary return pass and 70 minutes bouncing.

bumpuser260585 · November 2013

We are just doing a family party as of right now. We just moved last month, so we don't really know the kids in the neighborhood or at his new daycare well enough to invite them over. My nieces and nephews and DH's cousin's kids will be here though.

I think we are doing a construction theme. I got some hard hats to give to all the kids and I want to get some of the cloth tool belts from Home Depot to fill with favors.

ChicagoBroad26 · November 2013

Ava is having a pirate themed birthday party at My Gym. I'm encouraging everyone (adults and kids) to dress up, and I bought a parrot costume for Mila today. :-) I think there will be about 15 kids there (close friends and family) and about 20 adults. Pizza, cake, done, boom

bosha711 · November 2013

As of now we intend on letting him have a party at daycare, which will most likely be Thomas themed, and then have family parties on the following Saturday & Sunday.

We'll have to do MH's family & mine separately bc our house isn't big enough for everyone at once.

We did big parties the past two years & dd just had a big 1st bday party at the zoo, so we're toning it down for this one to give everyone a break!

pitterpatter129 · November 2013

Trains, what else? I asked and he said TRAINS!! I have found a bunch of stuff on pinterest. My favorite so far is a train made of cardboard boxes and a electrical tape tracks on the tile floor. That will probably be the extent of the train theme if I'm *this* enthusiastic closer to the party. I have a first birthday to plan too! I'm mostly just sad my babies are getting so big!!

jnicolen1 · November 2013

for those of you doing a thomas party....

https://www.wish-works.com/thomas-the-tank-engine-party/products/275/1/0

sorry not a clicky...

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