Ian's (early) 3rd birthday party

We decided to celebrate Ian's birthday a few weeks early ... well in advance of littlest Schleicher's arrival. :) While brainstorming party themes, the one we were most excited about was Goldilocks and the Three Bears -- since Ian is turning three AND because he loves stories!

Right away, I emailed my creative cousins that live in Illinois and Wisconsin, and they replied with a list of more than a dozen possible ideas that I could incorporate. (Thanks, Marcie and Becky!!)

We chose Saturday, 4/14 as our party date, and for weeks beforehand, we worked at getting all of the details figured out. Here's what we came up with ...

The INVITATIONS were story books that were personalized for each child or invitee. Here's a copy of what we sent out (with our personal info scratched out). You may have to click on the pictures to make them large enough to read the details, if you're curious.

We were very happy to hear that all of the children we invited except one was able to attend! :) We had 11 of Ian's friends and at least one parent join us to celebrate Ian's special day.

The past two years, we've been blessed to have family here for Ian's birthday parties. This year, all of our family (understandably) wants to wait until after the baby is born to come to Texas! Instead, we relied on some of our "Texas family," the Oblinger family to help us with last-minute details as well as behind-the-scenes details during the party.  Friends Tanya (owner of Tanya Alexandra Photography) and Martha took pictures for us!

Eric helped to blow up balloons and hide some of the teddy bears for a game (along with Matt, Ian, and Melissa).

 Ian and Melissa supervised the set-up of the cupcake table.

Carrie had some great decorating ideas!

DECORATIONS
We kept the decorations pretty simple. Kim and Ian had used the die cut machine at our church's early childhood center to cut out lots of teddy bears. We placed some of these teddy bears on the table, hung some in our doorways, and made some "chains" out of teddy bears, too.

 Of course, we used balloons to decorate, too.

 On our mantle, we placed four pictures of Ian (age 0, 1, 2, and almost-3). In between the pictures, we placed three teddy bears of varying sizes. We had helium-inflated some gold balloons the night before and had planned to have bunches of helium-filled balloons decorated like bears that we could hand out at the end of the party. Unfortunately, the balloons weren't floating by morning. Nevertheless, we decorated six of them like bears and hung three above the mantle and placed three on our mailbox outside. :)

We placed an easel and sign out front, welcome people to Ian's "cottage in the woods."

THE PARTY
The party started at 10:00. Our first activity was a craft that we did outside in the driveway.

THE CRAFT
We had ordered some ceramic teddy bear piggy banks from Oriental Trading Company. Kim painted them all brown, and then we purchased decorations that the kids could glue on the banks with tacky glue. We used ribbon, jingle bells (that could hang from the ribbon), foam stickers, pom poms, sequins, and googly eyes. The parents had to help, but the kids had some great decorating ideas! 

Kristy and boys, Eli and Micah. Kyle with Caleb.

 The whole group hard at work ...

Melissa shows off her teddy bear bank -- complete with ear muffs!

Here are some other completed teddy bear banks, in front of the favor bags. (Design copied from this website) Inside the treat bags, we placed Teddy Grahams, gummy bears, a Berenstein bear book, and a teddy bear (from Oriental Trading Company) that we personalized with fabric paint.

AFTER THE CRAFT

 

We copied Goldilocks and the Three Bears coloring books/story books for the kids to color while they were waiting for their friends to be done with decorating the teddy bear banks.

 Other kids chose to just play outside! (Christopher, Ian, and Brooke)

(Caleb B.)

(Zane)

GAME

In typical toddler fashion, only about half of the kids were interested in the "Hot Bear" game. But the ones that played loved it! We passed a teddy bear around the circle. Whoever was holding the bear when the music stopped got to growl like a bear, and everyone clapped for him/her.

STORY TIME

Melissa read a Jesse Bear story to the children.

(Ian and Christopher)


Then, Kim read the book "Going on a Bear Hunt." The kids loved doing some made-up actions along with the story.

 BEAR HUNT ACTIVITY
After hearing the story, the kids were excited to go on a bear hunt of their own! First, we handed out bear "hats" to everyone (posterboard circles with construction paper bear ears). We attempted to take a group picture and ended up with a great shot of 8 of the 12 kids there. (Maddi, Melissa, Christopher, Brooke, Caleb B., Ian, Carson, and Caleb L.)

We gave the directions for the bear hunt after the photo-attempt. Each child was given a specific color and had to find three bears of that color hidden in the backyard and/or garage. Children then exchanged the three bears for three pennies that they placed right into their teddy bears banks! This bear-hunt was probably the overall favorite activity of the party, perhaps because it reminded kids of the Easter egg hunts they had probably done only the weekend before!

(Zane)

(Maddi)

 (Caleb L.)

The Oblingers handed out the pennies.


DRAMA TIME
Then, we came inside! First, we did the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" rhyme together.

Then, some dear friends (Daree, Julie, and Melissa) helped us act out the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

  

We had set up some basic props prior to the party (bowls, spoons, chairs, and blankets which served as beds).

 

Matt played the part of Papa Bear, Kim was Mama Bear, Julie was Baby Bear, Daree was the narrator, 

 and Melissa played Goldilocks.

 Thanks, actresses, for helping us out! :)

THE FOOD
We served brunch food -- yogurt, fruit, blueberry muffins, sausage balls (thanks, Sarah, for making them!), mini-quiches, and mini-pigs-in-a-blanket. 

 We also had a "porridge bar" -- oatmeal with toppings like sprinkles, cinnamon, brown sugar, blueberries, Craisins, raisins, and banana slices. YUM!
 

 THE CUPCAKES


Instead of a cake, Ian asked for bear cupcakes. 

Surprisingly, we couldn't find ANY good bear cupcake patterns on line or in cupcake idea books from the library. So, we created our own by combining some various ideas we found and some of our own. We used M&Ms for the nose and eyes, Nilla wafers for the mouth area (and chocolate icing for the mouth), Grasshopper (or Oreo) cookies for the ears, and Starbursts cut into fourths for Mama Bear's bow. They were simple and tasted yummy!

 Happy third birthday to our sweet boy!! :)

PRESENTS
Then we gathered to watch Ian open presents. (Bonus points if you noticed the new area rug in our living room!)

 Following the tradition a friend started, the child that brought the gift was able to help Ian open the present. What a fabulous idea!

Thanks, friends, for helping us make Ian's birthday so special! We had a fantastic time at the party!

 We love our almost-three-year-old! :)

It's hard work to celebrate ... even our non-napper fell asleep on the couch right by Daddy!