Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Round & Round Party


Oscar's 3rd Birthday Party was Saturday. It was a hit! I have a million pictures and ideas to share.



I asked Oscar what kind of party he would like. His answer involved blue cake and circles. So we decided "Round & Round" would be a good theme.
This is the invitation. I sent it out via email instead of snail mail — because I had procrastinated.


The decorations: Circles of course. My older kids helped me make circle garlands. We hung them all over the place. Oscar started adding circle to the door, so we went with it.
Maude remembered we had a few round lanterns in our holiday storage bin so we added those too. We added colorful round confetti to the table.


For the garlands we used construction paper, curly ribbon, glue sticks and two borrowed oversize hole punches (thanks laura!). We used regular hole punches to make confetti from the scraps. The garlands were easy to make and turned out wonderfully, so after the party I wrapped them up for storage on a spare piece of foam board. (These would be great for other parties as well — you could make them more sophisticated by using origami paper with subtle patterns.)



The round menu was geared toward 3-year old appetites: round pb&j, cucumber & carrot rounds, circle crackers and pineapple rings.


Blue cupcakes with circle sprinkles.

The party favors: bags of super balls in pretty marbelized colors.

For activities we did "round" things. Danced to "You Spin Me Right Round, Baby Right Round". Walked around a hula hoop while singing "The Big Black Bear" song. Sat in a circle with our feet together and rolled a ball around. Plus lots of free play so they could build with the duplos and try out the puppets in the playroom.


The 3 year old birthday party is always my favorite one. It's the first year they really get it. How to unwrap a present. What a present is. How to blow out candles (they're not very good, but they know how to try). They have no expectations and are just delighted with the whole thing. I recommend keeping it small and short. 6 or 7 kids for an hour and a half is just about right.

You can see a bazillion
more pics here.

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28 Comments:

Blogger Dariela said...

What a great idea!! I love party themes that are different like this one!! Cool pictures! Thanks soooo much for sharing!!

1:21 PM  
Blogger Emily said...

I have got to bookmark this one for when my 9 month old turns 3! Fun fun.

1:28 PM  
Blogger Cruze said...

I love it. Simple, fun and age-appropriate. And you have such a knack for making something simple into something special.

1:44 PM  
Anonymous Cherry said...

Thanks for sharing all these wonderful ideas! Happy 3rd Birthday to your little Oscar :).

1:50 PM  
Blogger Casey said...

ah, love it! what a great idea!

1:50 PM  
Blogger Denise said...

Man that was a fast 3 years! Happy Birthday, Little Oscar.

1:51 PM  
Blogger Darleen said...

What a darling party! This great idea will be put in my children's birthday idea folder. That's for sharing.

1:54 PM  
Blogger lisapow said...

love love love this!

3:27 PM  
Blogger Heather said...

This is adorable. You made a very simple idea totally fun and magazine-worthy! Hapy B-day to your little guy.

3:28 PM  
Blogger Liss said...

This is one of the most fun and creative birthday themes ever! And it was SO cute!

3:37 PM  
Blogger angie said...

i'm feeling inspired - i have a 3 year old party to throw in three weeks! thanks!

4:12 PM  
Blogger Mamalang said...

So cute...both the party and the boy!

6:58 PM  
Anonymous Chelsea said...

Super cute.

7:12 PM  
Blogger The Collins said...

Hi, I have just recently discovered your blog. Love it!! Such a cute birthday party for a 3 year old!! I have a question for you though. I have been looking for some cute retro wall paper for my little boys room. Do you know of any good wall paper sites that I can look at? I have been searching forever. Nothing with characters on it. I was thinking something more like geometric shapes or something of that sort. I am waiting to find something that just pops out at me..to where I just have to have it.

7:19 PM  
Blogger PLO said...

You are so clever! What a wonderful, colorful party you must have had! Happy Birthday big 3 year old!!

7:20 PM  
Blogger ~moe~ said...

That is such an awesome party theme! I may have to do that for my 33rd this year. And fun round games? Well Twister, Spin the Bottle, and maybe the Hokey Pokey... :)

7:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful party! I love your ideas.

I see you have the monkey clock that we have. It's. . . loud, isn't it? Between our bee clock, the rooster clock and the monkey clock (WHAT were we thinking??), we are really, really awake in the morning. Hope your monkey does the trick for you.

Tara

8:02 PM  
Blogger shea-shea's mama said...

I totally agree with the post from cruze, you definitely can make simple, amazing! Great job and wow, a lot of work went into making his party special.

What an adorable kid'o! =)

8:13 PM  
Blogger allysha said...

When did he get so big? The party looked fab.

9:17 PM  
Blogger nie nie said...

Gabby,

looks so fun. great idea, that oscar is so darling!

10:57 PM  
Blogger Allison Smith said...

so cute. inventive, fun and easy.

11:46 PM  
Blogger annie said...

So clever and fun! I love your blog!

12:55 AM  
Blogger Julie said...

Wow! Great ideas! He is a beautiful child.

10:50 AM  
Blogger Joslyn said...

this is so very, very cute!!!!!!!!

11:04 AM  
Blogger KJ said...

I did a watered down version of this for my baby's 1 year (really it was us and the grandparents, but I wanted it to be festive) and I loved it. You of course went the extra mile and it looks delightful! I may do a repeat on M's 3rd...Oh, Oscar's curls are just killing me!

12:43 PM  
Blogger Lisa & Jeremy said...

LOVE it! You never cease to amaze me!! Thanks for the ideas.

3:30 PM  
Blogger Angela said...

Love, love, LOVE this! I am sure Oscar and his friends did, too. Got to keep this in mind for our next little one. Happy Birthday, Oscar!

4:00 PM  
Blogger jennwa said...

That party looked great. I loved all the ideas.

8:49 AM  

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