Choosing a theme for my daughter's 3rd birthday was a more difficult task than I had anticipated. I personally had my heart set on a Minnie Mouse party and over the course of the year I had gathered several ideas and inspirations...but unfortunately Georgia's more recent interests with Paw Patrol and My Little Pony put any visions I had temporarily on hold. Until the final week that is...her and I spent several evenings lying in her bed after story time gathering ideas from several images on Pinterest. It was then I convinced her - a Pink Minnie theme was the way to go! I finally felt a sense of relief knowing I could make this party everything she wanted...to be honest I had no idea how I was going to make a Paw Patrol cake topper. Considering Minnie Mouse is a theme many little girls request, Pinterest offered so many great ideas and local dollar stores seemed to carry all the right party supplies in the perfect colours - pink, white, black and tons with bows and polka dots!
Miss Georgia's birthday weekend began on her Nana's birthday which is the day before hers. Nana and Opa took her and her big brother out for dinner to celebrate! The following morning we surprised her with pink polka dot balloons outside of her bedroom door and a gift bag full of goodies...a book, new shoes, a Minnie Mouse party dress and a new bathing suit. Her big gift was a new Princess bike which we had taken her out to purchase the weekend prior. That day I took her out to lunch at her favourite restaurant in town and they sang "Happy Birthday" to her. In the evening we gave her the option of a movie night, ice cream or going in the hot tub...our little swimmer chose the hot tub! It was a quiet day with just our family but the weekend was fast approaching and little did she know what exciting plans we had in store for her.
Saturday morning arrived and we woke up to wish Daddy "Happy Birthday!". June is a very busy birthday month in our family - but I love this time of year! So many celebrations to look forward to with family and friends. We had dinner plans that evening at a little restaurant in the country. We celebrated with only the immediate family and acknowledged Nana's, Georgia's and Daddy's birthdays. We exchanged gifts, sang "Happy Birthday", enjoyed some more cake and then headed home early to begin final preparations for Georgia's party the following afternoon! I was very lucky to have my girlfriend and her boyfriend arrive that evening to spend the night. Her and I worked into the early hours of the morning decorating the cake and cupcakes. On Sunday morning we were up and at it once again...prepping food, cleaning the house, adding the final decorations to the cake and trying to keep three kids entertained! Like I've said before, it's so great to have such wonderful friends and family who are willing the help when hosting a large function.
Here are some of the things we did to help make this party go smoothly:
- We pre-ordered 3 large food platters from Garden Foods (a local grocery store in our community). Vegetables, fruit, and cheese and crackers. We had 30 guests and plenty of food left over! We had premade snacks for the entire week!
- We used an online website to send the invitations free of charge. Here is the link: http://www.evite.com/
- I made Minnie Mouse sugar cookies and decorated them during the week. I wrapped them in little treat bags and attached a thank you tag. We opted to forgo the goody bags in order to save some money and instead we gave each child a cookie to say thank you.
- We started the party a little later in the day than we normally would but the extra time was just what we needed to assure everything was in place and ready to go!
- We did a bbq for this party (hamburgers, sausage and turkey burgers). Although it was a little more time consuming to prepare the meal, we were very grateful to my father-in-law as well as our neighbour who basically volunteered to do all the barbequing. It gave Jordan and I a little more time to socialize with our guests.
- We invited only our immediate family (grandparents, Jordan's brother and his wife), as well as a few close friends, which helped to keep our numbers down a little.
Overall the party was a success! Little Miss Georgia had the time of her life opening gifts, playing with her friends and basically being the center of attention for one final day! Here are some of the photos I took from the celebration.
Happy Father's Day Weekend!
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