We did it! Another birthday party for the books and I have to say, this was the best one yet! I LOVE birthday parties, the planning, the decorating, all the things, except all the stress, haha. For real though. This was the first party where there were no freak outs and no tears! I’ll show you all the fun stuff and where I got it, but first I’ll share a few things I did differently, which I think made this party stress free!
First off, I started planning A LOT earlier. Maybe you think I’m crazy, but I started planning this party months ago! I did this because I didn’t want a repeat of last year. It was stressful, I wasn’t in a good place and I just didn’t enjoy it even though I wanted to. I also know that Fall is a really busy time for us so it only makes sense to get a few things prepared before it becomes a pain. I also picked up some dollar store items when I was in Vancouver in the summer where the prices are much more reasonable. When it came to party time I started prepping two days in advance. I made a few things each day so it wasn’t so much the day of. I was actually completely ready half hour before the party started! This has NEVER happened for a birthday party that I’ve hosted before.
Second, and I think this was really key, there was no lunch! I have always served lunch before, last year was homemade pizza and as much I as love to be able to provide a nice hot meal for our friends, I knew something had to give. So snacks it was! SO MUCH EASIER! Only took me 5 years, but I’m glad I made the switch! A fruit platter, cupcakes and a charcuterie board. Easy peasy lemon squeezey! Our daughter was allowed to pick one snack from the chip aisle and she chose bugles! It took everything out of me not to go back and grab something I liked… but I resisted because I did tell her, only one thing!
Third, we kept things pretty small. My daughter isn’t one for crowds and well neither am I or my husband, so I made sure just to have a small party. Although this wasn’t a change from years past, I do think it is key to our party success. If your kids are used to big gatherings and love that then by all means, have a hay day, I’m just sharing what worked for us. 🙂
And now the fun part, what we did and where we got all the things!
Goodie Bags
A friend made the paper parts with her Circuit for the unicorn bags and my daughter and I put them together. I used paper bags that I had for markets, I’ll share a link below in case you’re looking for a good deal on a large amount of bags! I wouldn’t suggest this for a party, but maybe you need more for other purposes.
Inside the goodie bags we added a unicorn pretzel horn that we made with white chocolate and sprinkles and homemade unicorn bath fizz! We found the plain pretzel rods at Safeway and for the bath fizz we used THIS recipe from Pinterest, put it in glass jars we had at home, tied a ribbon around it and glued a unicorn figurine on top.
A few other small trinkets got added that were given to us from family for the party and my daughter added some colouring that she did. 🙂 AND there may have been some fabric scraps that said little person put in there…
Most of the items were purchased at dollar stores in Vancouver, but I’ve checked Amazon and linked any of the same or similar things below in the “Shop this post” section.
Snacks
Like I said above, if a meal is stressing you out, go snacks! Snacks can be as simple as a couple bags of chips, that’s all the kids really want anyways. We opted for a fruit platter and charcuterie board because I love making them! I also made a dip for the fruit, equal parts whipped cream cheese and greek vanilla yogurt with about a tablespoon maple syrup. It was yummy and we’ll be having leftover fruit and dip with pancakes this morning. Juice was frozen pink lemonade.
Dessert
We went with cupcakes and I am really loving this because it’s just easy! No cake cutting, no plates, no fork. One serving and you’re done. We made the unicorn horns and ears using fondant and by following a video from Youtube. I could only find the white fondant package on Amazon so I’ve linked it below so you can see what it looks like. We got ours at the local kitchen store. It was my first time using fondant and it was super easy.
For the icing, I mixed three colours, blue, pink and purple, and layed them out in rows then did the icing. I was going for a mixed look, but there were issues with the icing application, my buttercream icing wasn’t totally smooth and the chunks of butter made for a less smooth application. I’ve had the icing colours since our daughter’s first birthday and use them for all special occasions, they last a super long time, I’ve linked them below.
Decorations
I love it all, but I really LOVE decorating! It’s fun and our kids are only little once, so as long as my daughter enjoys it, I’ll continue to do it! Last year I didn’t do paper plates and maybe that was another added stress. As much as I think it is wasteful, I decided to do myself a favour, make life simpler and get paper plates and napkins. When you have a small amount it is fairly inexpensive, plus I sold the extras on the local buy and sell when we were done. I’ve linked below the same ones we had, although it comes as a set and I purchased just what we needed individually.
The glitter unicorns and unicorn garland is from Glitter Paper Scissors which is a momma run handmade shop in BC. They made the cutest party decor. Oh, we even got the paper straws from there. You can click HERE to check out their Etsy Shop.
Now let’s talk about that giant unicorn balloon! It was $11 from Safeway (less expensive than our dollar store) and I can’t even begin to tell you how much my girl loved it!! It was definitely a hit. First time for me buying one, but it was super fun.
Of course the dress is made by momma! Although I don’t sell this type of dress, I do have slouchy beanies available in the same unicorn print. You can find them HERE in my Etsy Shop!
Games
I don’t like to have every minute of the party planned because I think it’s great for the kids to play on their own, BUT I do like to plan at least one activity. This time we did Unicorn BINGO! It was super fun and FREE! I printed it off Pinterest, click HERE for the link.
More Parties
If you love party planning, check out our past birthday’s:
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