It is unbelievable, but Ethan is actually five years old and has started school. Because his birthday is in early October we decided that the best plan would be to invite his entire class, because we wouldn't yet know who he would end up being close friends with. And of course because it was the first birthday party of the year, most of the children came to celebrate with us and get to know their new classmates as well.
I always let the kids choose their own party theme, so this year Ethan decided that because he wants to be a deep sea diver when he grows up that would be the perfect theme for his party. We decided to host the party at a local sports centre, which meant that the children would have time to jump and slide on a big bouncy castle and inflatable slide before coming into the party room, which we would have decorated, for lunch and birthday cake.
Because the party was on a larger scale than I'm used to (with other friends included we had over 30 children at the party) we really had to do everything in a simplified way. I couldn't go over the top with decorations so kept things very basic with:
- tablecloths (we needed loads to cover all the tables so I ordered very plain colourful ones to brighten up the room)
- plates and napkins
- Happy Birthday banner (my one extravagance as I love a big personalised banner)
- hanging fish decorations
- streamers
- water bottle labels
- door signs and food signs
- party bag boxes
I was also overwhelmed with the idea of making that many sandwiches and cupcakes myself on the day, so for the first time I actually ordered a lot of the food. Of course this did add to the costs, but it made my stress levels a lot lower on the day and I know it's just for this year and I'll go back to making my own little shaped sandwiches next year. Our party food was:
- jigsaw puzzle ham and cheese sandwiches (from Marks & Spencer)
- vegetarian rolls (from Marks & Spencer)
- veggie and hummus platter (from Marks & Spencer)
- apples and grapes
- Babybel cheeses and raisins
- Goldfish crackers
- Kiddylicious Super Snacks
- Organix fruit bars
- Cupcakes (from Waitrose)
- water bottles
The children all devoured the food, I was so glad that they had all built up and appetite from playing and happily filled their plates with healthy food. No one questioned why there wasn't any other sweets and happily ate everything on the table. Of course they all ate their cupcakes after their healthy lunches too!
The only elements of the party that we made ourselves were the invitations, door signs, food signs and water bottle labels that were all simply designed on the computer using PicMonkey and the same little diver clipart. We also decorated the boxes that we stored the party bags in to have an undersea theme. The kids painted the boxes with blue sparkly paint, they made paper plate fish to stick on them and covered them with fish stickers.
The party bags are always my favourite part! Again I couldn't go over the top because we had so many of them to make, but they included:
- Activity books (I ordered big packs of Julia Donaldson activity books from The Book People)
- fish party bags
- Aquabeads
- magic bubbles
- growing fish
- pencil
- bouncy ball
- Kiddylicious fruit wriggles snacks
Ethan had a fantastic time celebrating his birthday with all of his friends, old and new! I hope that all of the other children had fun too. If you want a peek at Ethan's other parties we have previously had a Firefighter Party, Octonauts Party, Winnie the Pooh Party and Very Hungry Caterpillar Party.
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* This post contains review items as we were sent healthy snacks from Kiddylicious and Organix for the children at the party. All opinions are our own.*
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