I have to admit…I love having kids because it means I can plan LOTS of parties!! But I’ve always hated following trends so when I planned out our son’s three year birthday party before our second baby was born, I had no idea that an ice cream theme was so popular this year! Our son has loooooved alphabets, reading, numbers, shapes, colors…anything we teach… since he was 18 months. While we love how much he enjoys all these things, doing an alphabet or learning theme two years in a row just wasn’t my favorite idea. Soooo…since he loves ice cream and it was during the summer I thought why not have fun with an old fashioned ice cream party and add color, shapes, numbers and other things he loves.
At one of the craft shows I was at, our studio was stationed next to a vintage ice cream truck. They made the best ice cream I ever tasted so I knew I had to have them for his party! Between that truck and a small shop that makes scrumptious and squishy scented playdough (Doughberry) that he loves, our theme was set!
Due to some unforeseen circumstances and busy July schedules, we ended up having to reschedule the party to almost a month before his actual birthday (month long birthdays aren’t so bad!). Of course, it was summer and so we ended up with a pop up storm that looked ominous shortly after everyone arrived. We had to hurry in taking everything back down…only for the “storm” to barely shed any rain. Thus confirming that we will keep our summer birthdays inside from now on!
Needless to say, we didn’t get many pictures at the park that day so we got to do a mock set up at our house the next day. The Doughberry stand was a hit though and kept the kids busy while the adults frantically cleaned up! We had some lawn games out since he loves bowling, ring toss, and soccer and the park also had a mini golf. I built the Doughberry ice cream station out of some scrap wood, curtain rods, yellow seer sucker fabric, chalkboard paint and some leftover white cabinet paint. The owner of Doughberry whipped up some perfect ice cream themed jars so the kids could make their own “ice cream” with mint, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla as well as smaller jars for the favor bags. Wooden spoons, mini wooden rolling pins, chocolate yarn, and cherry pom poms added to their toppings and fun!
The favor bags were so much fun to put together too! Each muslin bag was hand-painted with dots to match the pastel and pops of red color scheme. The older kids’ bags were filled with confetti candy, a Doughberry ice cream flavor, felt ice cream from Muffinbubdolls, wooden spoon and rolling pin, and bubbles. The infant bags were filled with a Doughberry jar, felt ice cream with spoon and rolling pin, bubbles and an ice cream teether from Brixton and Phoenix. Their little kids’ picnic table also had jerk soda hats for them to wear.
Since we coordinated with the Chillwagon for them to be available to more than just our party at the park, I made simple bands out of the yellow seer sucker fabric that I used to make the table runners and Doughberry stand canopy. Our partyers could wear the band to skip the line and also get a free ice cream that was put on our birthday tab.
The last little touches included a Chavamade outfit for our littlest one, handmade blue seer sucker shirt from Milkweed & Mango with mint striped bowtie from Little Mister for Alrich. We used the colorful pastel bunting around the ceiling and meant to hang playful paper balls that matched as well but when the wind was blowing our confetti balloons so much we decided against it. Ice cream sundae cups filled with sprinkles and a small bouquet of white carnations to look like an ice cream sundae also held down the confetti balloons on each table and added an extra fun ice cream pop without being too girly! Combined with the pictures of Alrich at different ages with the coordinating number and the Shutterfly books we make every year of him, some books, monster trucks, and alphabet blocks…Alrich loved every bit!
He has a lot of toys already and did not really need anything so we gave him a book that we spent lots of fun creating over the past two months. We took pictures of him doing or playing with the things he loved for each letter of the alphabet and called the book “A is for Alrich.” It is now his favorite book and has already become quite worn! We may end up having to print another in hardback by Christmas!
With all said and done and how fun yet short-lived it was, I’m kinda hoping I find another party where I can use the same décor again so I can actually enjoy and finish it like I wanted! But I’m just so glad that despite all the chaos for that bit, he had so much fun and again the next day when he got to play with it all over again!
