Throwing a Party for a 3 year old?... Here's what we did.

With 2 weeks until Miss 3's birthday, I still didn't know how we were going to celebrate. I looked out onto our very ordinary back yard and wished there wasn't a big hills hoist clothesline looming right in the middle of it. That's when I realised that I needed to work with what we had instead of fighting against it and things couldn't have turned out better. 

I scoured the local op-shops for yellow and pink vintage sheets. I found 5 and borrowed another 5 from my sister-in-law Rebekah. The morning of the party, Dean and I pegged the line to the ground and tied sheets around three sides of the clothesline creating walls. We also threw sheets over the top and secured everything with pegs. We finished it with a bunting made by Rebekah from Just For Daisy, and voila, we had a party tent!

Instead of organising party games, I thought it would be best to set up several 'invitations to play'. The first was the tent with foam blocks, which the kids used for building and seating. The second was a hatstand and mirror ready for the girls to choose their own hat and jewelry. I spent several evenings making felt flowers to decorate the hats which doubled as party favours.

And lastly, we placed several cardboard boxed around the back yard. What child doesn't like playing with a box?

When posting the invitation we asked everyone to wear their finest pink and yellow outfit, this way, our guest could act as decorations (and they did a great job!). I loved the way the photos of my nieces rainbow party turned out thanks to colourful clothing and wanted the same effect.  I think we'll have a colour theme for every party we have from now on.

We decorated with flowers and butterflies wherever possible. I made flower-shaped food and butterfly straws using this Martha Stewart template.

I also made my very first birthday cake. In the past I've only made cupcakes but Miss 3 was insistent on a BIG butterfly cake. I did cheat though and used a packet mix. I didn't want to worry about baking something complicated on top of everything else. It got a little damaged before I took the photo but I was still happy with it for a first attempt.

The most important thing I try to remember when organising a party is to plan it around the child and their interests. Miss 3 is very girly and her favorite colours are pink and yellow, hence the flowers, butterflies and colour scheme. She is also quite sensitive and doesn't like crowds so we only invited 4 friends. Even this amount of people was a bit overwhelming for her. It didn't help that she was still tired from her actual birthday the day before. Towards the end of the party it was clearly getting to be all too much for her so we abandoned our plan to keep everything outside and the girls went to Miss 3's room where they huddled together and listened to my mum read stories. The tears subsided and she played happily for the rest of the day.