Abigail's Little Einsteins Party
It was a no-brainer to celebrate Abigail's third birthday Little Einsteins style, as she could probably do all-weekend marathons watching the show if we let her. I'm not much into brand-theme party kits, so I tried to incorporate the spirit of the show without the commercialized feel by DIYing as much as possible. This really makes the cost low too.
{Invites}
Front
Inside
Back
Envelope
I kept the design very simple, using extracted images from a coloring book for characters and logoes. Please keep in mind that these are all copyrighted images, so tread with caution; I just used it for a small kid's party. There is no Little Einsteins font out in Internet Land, so I found a font that reminded me of the logo font and put a thick blue stroke over the yellow. I sized the invitation to fit some envelopes I bought on extreme clearance last year.
{Brunch menu}
Freshly made whole wheat waffles, thanks to chef Daddy
Bistro bacon
Mini quiche, broccoli and cheese
Huge veggie and fruit tray
Orange and apple juices
Cupcakes
{Decorations}
photos taken a day before the party
Nothing too fancy here - the main banner is just a paper bunting I made from cardstock that I purchased eons ago. The "Happy Birthday Abby" was printed out on regular copy paper, cut out, then taped on with double stick tape. Child-sized Ikea silverware, plates, and bowls contribute to the colorful nature of the environment.
{Favors}
for Abby's small friends
I loved the way the crayons turned out! I'll be sharing the crayon box template tomorrow - be on the look out for that. The local Dollar store had 8-count crayons in sets of 3.
And markers for Abby's older friends, aka older siblings of the small friends
Markers were also a dollar a pack. I replaced the insert with a personalized design.
I wanted to teach Abby to send thank you cards for the partygoers, so I made one that she could "write out" on her own. See her shaky outlines? I used the free font Print Dashed.
{Activities}
Art made by the children
We opened up the party with art time. The kids were given markers to draw on foiled wrapped cardboard - this was a hit! I'm glad we had plenty of extra boards, because most kids did at least two or three. More on this tomorrow-
making rain sticks with the kids
I took cardboard rolls off some gift wrap I have and cut them to 9" or so. Then I used my Xyron machine to make regular copy paper into sticker paper, and had the little kids color the paper. Adults helped peel the backing and adhere the decorated paper onto the rolls, and the older kids helped the younger kids add rice into the rolls. Adults helped tape the ends together with colored Duck Tape.
We used these to play along with the Little Einsteins Theme song, a CD I borrowed from the library.
"Guess the instrument" was another game we played. I played various instruments behind a screen and had the children take stabs at which instrument they thought was being played. Once the game was done, I laid out the instruments to let the children experiment with them.
After the party, one of the moms told me that her daughter now wants to take music lessons. Yay!
I revised an idea I got off the web search for game ideas and came up with this simple outdoor activity:
a very happy little birthday girl
The older kids were given chalk to draw fluffy clouds, and once that was done, the little kids were given little hula hoops they used as "Rocket". As you can see from the video, it was a great way to get their wiggles out after the indoor part of the party.
Opening gifts on the front porch - plenty of help from friends and big sis
Perhaps my favorite image of the whole party was taken after all the guests were gone:
Post party, and Abby hits the food AGAIN!
For some reason, I hear, "It's my party and I'll eat if I want to" playing in my mind when I view the photo....
