{above: e-invitation illustration thanks to Kate of Picklebums}
Last weekend we celebrated Immy’s 3rd birthday with a fairy party in the garden. I am a big believer in keeping parties simple for under 5 year olds and stuck to a few fun activities, one ever popular party game, classic party food and lots of time to play.
Party Activities
The children had the opportunity to decorate cardboard crowns with paint dabbers and lots of sparkly collage materials.
{The birthday girl in her bumblebee fairy dress and party crown}
There were also butterfly and star wands to decorate with more sparkles and LOTS of glitter.
We played pass the parcel and each layer contained a bag of homemade playdough and a cookie cutter with a special prize of a little cooking set for the winner.
Decorations
The garden was decorated with strings of homemade bunting of retro floral, rainbow striped and brightly coloured star fabric, and bunches of pink balloons.
Food
Being that our celebration fell in the height of a very hot summer (although we were blessed with an unusual but very welcome cooler, overcast morning), the party was held early morning and so for morning tea I chose classic and easy to prepare birthday party fare of;
- Fairy bread (buttered bread covered in coloured sprinkles for overseas readers)
- Small sandwiches cut into flower and heart shapes
- Fruit and marshmellow kebabs
- Fairy sized jelly cups with cream
- Little red sausages
- Mini quiche (mainly for the adults)
- Coloured popcorn (at the birthday girl’s special request!)
After completely over catering for Immy’s 1st birthday party where the children were more interested in playing than eating, I did cut back on the food this time.
The birthday cupcakes
Cupcakes were the birthday cake of choice of our three year old fairy. They were decorated with bright pink icing and homemade fairy toppers.
Time to play
Concoctions were mixed and bubbling stews stirred as the children enjoyed our sandpit and brand new cubby house which was Immy’s birthday present from my family.
There were also individually labelled containers of bubble mix for bubble blowing fun and lots of laughs as fairies bounced together on the trampoline.
Party bags
Our visiting fairies each took home a little bag containing a homemade mini bunting, a set of mini star crayons (available from House of Baby Piranha), stickers, balloons and a few sweet morsels 😉
And that was our fairy garden party. In the words of one small guest as he left, “Well that was a great party!”
If you are looking for further birthday party inspiration, check out the responses of real Mums in the comments on our last Mum 2 Mum chat – The Lowdown on Kids Birthday Parties,
and visit these fabulous posts by Childhood 101 contributors;
- Birthday Boy (and Bear) – a 2 year old’s jungle themed party via Squigglemum
- She wore a 36 year old handmade dress – a lovely vintage inspired garden party for a 3 year old via Little EcoFootprints
- It Was A Rainbow Party – 7 year old twins celebrate in bright, colourful style via Picklebums
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
Looks fantastic! I love the cupcake toppers very cute. Thank you for showing our little star crayons and linking them up much appreciated 🙂
Thank you for your lovely crayons 🙂
Wow you did a great job with Immy’s Birthday…so much colour and looks like so much fun. The cubby looks fantastic I am sure she will have hours of fun in there.
This looks so fun! I love the part where the kids were mixing up their concoctions! Thanks for sharing the pics. 🙂
They had so much fun just playing together
Sweet party, Christie!
Thank you, Tania
What a perfectly delightful way to celebrate a 3rd birthday! xx
🙂
wow ! great timing !! I was just thinking today about organising my daughters 3rd birthday in a few weeks time and were thinking fairies and cupcakes too 🙂
did you have any boys attend ?? – most of our friends are boys 🙂
and where do you get the stick-on stones/butterflies/objects ?? I did try to look around for some buttons like those you used in the sewing post, but couldnt find anything suitable !??
thankyou for some wonderful ideas !!
I really enjoy your blog 🙂
Lauren
We did have boys and girls, Lauren. One boy came in a wizard cape and hat (you can see his hat in the sandpit photo), the others were just dressed in everyday clothes and they had just as much fun as the girls 🙂
The bits and pieces for the wands and crowns were all from Spotlight and Riot Art (and our buttons are mainly from Spotlight too).
Hope that helps.
What a terrific fairy party you’ve pulled off, Christie. I especially love the ‘mini-bunting’ loot bag gift and the jelly cups. Happy birthday to your girl – she will LOVE that cubby house!! x
Thanks, Bron, we had a fabulous morning and the cubby is sure to be a favourite playspace for years to come.
How fun! Immy looks so grown up. Happy birthday to her!
Theme parties are excellent! My middle girl had a fairy party for her 5th last year and a lot of the things here are familiar – we did wands too (although not tiaras), had a pass the parcel, a decorate-your-own-cupcake station, and the food was light and fairy-ish. We also had a fairy entertainer come to dance, sing and paint faces.
Our best theme party to date was probably my eldest’s party last year, though, which was a science party.
My baby has her 2nd birthday party coming up on Saturday and it’s not themed as such, but will feature pass the parcel, musical statues, an egg & spoon race, and lots of playtime.
Have a great time on Saturday, we love egg and spoon races and egg toss too 🙂
What a beautiful party! I cannot wait until I am allowed to throw parties for my girls… I have this bookmarked for future reference 😉
Happy birthday Immy! Looks like you had a great time 🙂
Oh Christie what a brilliant and perfectly age appropriate party.
I bet the birthday girl and all her guests had the best time.
Happy birthday to the big three year old and congratulations to her Mama too.
How gorgeous is Immy and her party spectacular –
It will be day she remembers for a long time.
Love the party idea and the way it was conducted.
Belated Happy B’day to Immy 🙂
Bravo Christie, I can’t imagine how busy you were leading up to that, especially with all that handmade bunting. All the details look gorgeous, the kids look like they had lots of fun and Immy looks so big and grown up!
Looks like it really was a great day 🙂 Simple is definitely the best at this age as I have noticed. Our 4th birthday party was a lot of work, and stress for me, and I have seen more laid back parties go much better.
That said, I also wonder at the etiquette of parents staying/going. Only one parent (a Dad, who I told to go after an hour) stayed at our last party. If I hadn’t roped in my sister to help I would have had 1o kids, 4-10, all on my own. I am yet to leaveMiss 4 at a party by herself.
a very sweet party … so many lovely details and looks like lots of fun was had by all!
What an absolutely gorgeous looking party, Im glad little Immy had a wonderful day! The mini bunting in the lollybags is fantastic, and the HOBP crayons are on my shopping list for my eldests party later this year, love them! Everything from the invitations to the decorations look so colourful and vibrant, what beautiful memories.
Happy Belated Birthday Immy 🙂 Your party looks fantabulous, I bet your mum had lots of fun party planning!
That is so absolutely lovely. I wish I could have parties like that again.
Happy birthday to your gorgeous girl… looks like the party was wonderful!
What a truly magical and fun birthday party! Love the theme and every detail. Happy Birthday to your beautiful gal! Kerri
What a gorgeous party. So simply, yet very stylishly, executed! What 3 year old would not LOVE a fairy party?!! Thanks so much for linking it in to DIY parties collection!
i love the invite and was trying to find something similar for invitations for my daughter’s birthday. can you share the image? I tried to find it using the link/credit you provided but could not. for some reason fairy princess feels less Disney, though its probably MORE when taking into account my daughter’s affinity for Tinkerbell!
Thanks for the inspiration
Snap alright!!!
I could just use that invitation! Same name, same age, same theme!!!
Thank you for making me giggle 🙂 Have fun at your party!
Girl’s parties can do similar personality themes using Fairies and Tinkerbelle for quieter party kids. But after having a party of ten little girls squealing and laughing I have changed my mind now that even the quietest kids squeal!
Hi there!
Lovely party and some great ideas. I’m planning a similar birthday party for my daughter. Could you please tell me where and how did you get this invitation? I tried looking for that in the website you specified, but couldn’t find it. Did Kate design for you separately?
Hi there, I am sorry but I don’t think Kate is selling her design files at the moment.
Wow this is so amazing am currently searching for good topics to include to my article and might include this one as well. Thank you for sharing