I can’t believe it, but Judah will be three next week! We are planning a big party for later on with all of our friends and family, but since there has been a lot of new things going on in his life lately I decided that he needed a pre-3 party in celebration of becoming a “big boy” with just the four of us to show him how awesome we think he is. He loves Mater from Disney’s Cars movies so with that in mind I headed to Walmart to check out their party supplies. Read on to see how I seamlessly blended pre-made party decor with simple DIY accents with the help of Hallmark’s new #DreamParty line for the ultimate toddler party!
Even though I love crafting and being creative, parties are not my strong suit. Sure, I spend hours upon hours (upon hours) pinning ah-mazing party and decor photos, but seriously? I have nowhere near the time or money needed to create that kind of awesomeness for a three hour shindig. My parties are usually limited to a few streamers, a cute cake and some finger sandwiches but this time I wanted more. Since the cake is the centerpiece of any birthday party, I started there. I wanted something simple, small (because there are only 3 eating) and delicious. I had never tried one before, but the Deco Pac birthday cakes at Walmart are super cute so I ordered one the day before the party. I also picked up some adorable Hallmark Dream Party kits to decorate the room with.
On the day of the party I sent my husband out with the kids for an hour so I could get to work setting up. Check out the party kits, aren’t they adorable?! They really took all of the guess work out of trying to coordinate a great scene and it cut my planning time in half. There was over a dozen kits to choose from and each one I picked up cost $6 or less!
After the decorations were finished I started setting up my food. Even though it was a birthday party, I still wanted to keep the menu somewhat healthy (and not worry about the eventual sugar crash and burn) so I opted for something light and easy. I made fresh strawberry and pineapple skewers along with yummy mini grilled cheese sandwiches out of ciabatta bread and Muenster cheese that the kids LOVED!
I also picked up some single serving chocolate milk jugs and replaced the wrappers with some that I made in Photoshop. If you don’t have Photoshop, you can use Picmonkey or even cut out some and let your kids decorate their own.
Judah was so surprised when he walked in and saw his party! He went straight for the grilled cheeses and devoured a few of them, then moved on to the cake.
Kaia’s favorite part was the fruit skewers. She put down two of them!
I had a remote control Mater sitting on the table as his “Big Boy” gift, so after he ate we set it up for him. I didn’t think that he could get any more excited than he already was with the party, but once he saw his new toy he was on could nine and STILL won’t let that thing out of his sight!
As if all that wasn’t enough, we had one more surprise waiting outside for the kids. My husband and I had stayed up the night before cutting, painting and hot gluing kid sized cardboard cars together for them to play with!
Can you say awesome?!! The kids loved running around the yard chasing each other (and us) in their cars, and even stopped for a photo-op in the Winner’s Circle for us.
I’d say this party is going to be hard for me to top thanks to Disney & Hallmark. I can’t believe how easy, inexpensive and amazing it was with as little effort as I put into it!
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