My baby girl is five. I feel like it was just yesterday that she was born. Time is surely flying. For Savannah's first birthday I planned a cute cupcake themed party. We were living close to family and they all came to celebrate her big day.
We moved to Texas a couple days before she turned two and on her birthday we celebrated with ice cream, burgers and fries. Just the three of us.
For her third and fourth birthday I still wasn't really feeling planning a party so she invited a couple of her girlfriends to do different activities. Her third birthday party was at Chuck E Cheese at ten in the morning (we had the whole place to ourselves, perfection) and her fourth birthday party was at a local ceramic painting place.
As her fifth birthday approached I kept thinking about how big of a deal five was. You're no longer a 'baby'. That's a big deal. I wanted to throw her a party that would be fun, colorful and easy on the pockets. I think I succeeded. The kids had a blast, it was a bright beautiful day and we spent less than $300. I consider that a win. There were 15 kids and 14 adults at her party.
To keep things easy we decided to go with pizza, applesauce, sugar cookies and cupcakes for the menu. I packed a cooler with juice boxes and bottled water.
The sugar cookies were a big hit. To make these I purchased pre-made pull apart sugar cookie dough and sprinkles (also known as colored sugar, sugar crystals...). I baked them according to the package directions. They came out perfect and fit the theme of her party really well.
I ordered three dozen cupcakes from the grocery store. They also made the birthday ribbon for her sugar cookie platter. It was tossed in as a freebie with the cupcakes.
As her party guests arrived they were able to create a pony mask of their own. We found these pony masks on etsy and had them printed on card stock. The kids used crayons and stickers to decorate their masks and they used yarn to tie them to their little faces.
Once their mask was done they had the opportunity to take a picture in the photo booth with their mask. I found My Little Pony photo booth props on etsy and had them printed on card stock. I found the sticks (and the yarn for this party) at Hobby Lobby.
The photo booth was made from disposable tablecloths (the bigger size) found at Dollar Tree. My husband hung the table cloths using two command hooks and lots of tape.
After all of the posing was over we headed over to the gym for a pony race. I made ponies using pool noodles (and yarn and ribbon) that I got on clearance at Walmart. The ribbon was purchased from Dollar Tree.
These ponies were supposed to have eyes and ears but I got sleepy somewhere around eleven o' clock and decided that they were fine just like this...
The kids had a great time racing each other while my husband went to pick up the pizza. It was the perfect activity for this age. When the party was over it was hilarious to see that in all the race pics Little Mike was out front. He's a fast one...
We used streamers to create the lanes for the pony race.
After all of the ponies were tired from racing it was time to eat. The pizza from Dominos was actually pretty good.
Before heading out to the playground we sang Happy Birthday to Savannah, ate cupcakes and I passed out all the favors. The favors consisted of rainbow colored bubble wands I found at Walmart on clearance ($3 for a pack of 6), candy from the candy bar and a Rainbow Dash paper craft (that I found for free on Pinterest).
After this we headed outside to the playground. The children played until our party time was up. It was great. I could not have asked for a better day for my little girl. She was so happy with her party and talked about it for the next couple days.
It was so nice to see all of her friends and get to know some of their parents a bit better. Her party was held at the youth center on the base where we live. There is no cost for renting the facility on a Saturday, winning.
If you're planning a party for your little one I highly suggest searching Pinterest for freebies and etsy for affordable printouts and invitations. Of course if you can make things yourself that's always great too.
How do you think we did? If you came to Sav's party thank you for prancing over and spending the afternoon with us! :-)
