Party, Party, Party!

This party has been a long time in the making! My Little Miss M has been talking about her 3rd birthday since last years' birthday ended. (Anybody find the same thing happening?) Well it finally arrived! Last week Miss M turned a big 3, not that we are allowed to say big yet. She received a groovy pink scooter from us which she has been riding and riding and crashing everywhere.

Yesterday was the party with her special friends and family attending. Until now we have kept things very simple with just family or family and one special friend helping to celebrate, so this was IT. We have launched ourselves into the party planning stage of life - eek! It was so exciting to plan everything but the real fun came when we could put all the planning into play.

We set the yard up with free-play activities....sand play, swings, collage, fence painting, bubbles and play dough which was intertwined with party games. I like to keep kids busy and having fun all at the same time. All Miss M's been asking for is "parcel parcel" (pass the parcel) and musical statues. We added a butterfly hunt (my very first memory ever, playing this at my own 3rd birthday party) and a pinata too. We couldn't go without a pinata! (I was keen to try a different design)

Butterfly Hunt

You will need.....

Cellophane

Scissors

Cut the cellophane up into smallish rectangles, about 6cm long.

Twist in the middle to make a butterfly.

Hide the butterflies and have the children find them.

The child who collects the most butterflies wins the game.

Miss M likes to play shops so we had an ice-cream shop during afternoon tea, then the requested Dorothy the Dinosaur cake and to end the afternoon we opened up a lolly shop for the kids to choose some lollies to take home in a bag. These were really fun to make.

Lolly Shop

You will need.....

Glass or plastic jars - I bought ours at the cheap shops

Lollies of all kinds - I was looking for ones from our childhood (remember the days?)

Table

Sign

Small tongs or scoops

Small paper or plastic bags

Fill up the jars with lollies.

Make a sign from a large piece of cardboard or paper.

Set your jars up on a small table at child height.

Have the children choose some lollies to put in their bag to take home, with parental supervision - even the mums, dads, aunties, uncles and grandparents got to dip in!

Lots of tired little poppets went home at the end of the party and I heard Miss M ask Daddy as he closed the door for sleep time if she could have another birthday party very soon. So much fun for one "little girl". And we start all over again......