Monday, April 22, 2013

Sophie's 3rd Birthday Celebration: The Garden Party




We celebrated Sophie's 3rd birthday with a Garden Party this past Saturday! It was overcast and cooler than it  normally is this time of year but thank goodness the rain cleared up. Earlier in the week there was a 50% chance of rain at party time, but luckily the rain came overnight and moved off shore by mid-morning. What a relief! 

 
The highlight of the party was the dessert. Instead of doing traditional cake or cupcakes, we served dirt cake in tumblers that I painted to look like flower pots. Crunched up Oreos made the "dirt" which was topped with gummy worms. Then we put a colored daisy inside a green straw and stuck it in the middle to complete the flower pot. I absolutely LOVE how adorable they turned out! 



Here is the recipe for the dirt cake which was beyond yummy! I could eat a pound of this stuff!

2 packages Oreos, crunched
2 small packages vanilla instant pudding mix
3 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
16 oz. cool whip 
Gummy worms

Mix pudding and milk. Add butter and cream cheese. Fold in Cool Whip. Alternate layers of cookies and layers of mixture. Refrigerate overnight.


Sophie declared it was "Yummy Yum!" 


And I couldn't stop taking pictures of these adorable little pots!




Find out what else we did for the party after the break! 


We kept it simple with the other food this year - chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A (Sophie's favorite!), fresh fruit, Chex Mix and goldfish. 



Robbie talked me out of making flower shaped iced sugar cookies when I started pulling out the ingredients at 10pm the night before the party. I would've been up until at least 1am and it just wasn't worth it, especially knowing that Sophie would've taken one bite before announcing "I don't like this!" 


Another special treat we served at the party was snow cones! Sophie loves ice so we looked into renting a snow cone maker for the party but found we could actually buy one at Bed Bath & Beyond for cheaper than renting one. Plus, we can use it all summer and for future parties!

Our activity for the kids was potting their own flowers. Everybody loved doing this -- even the parents! We had a small pot for each child and they potted their own Vincas to take home after the party. 

Here was the table before we got started (with a couple pots blown over by the wind!) Robbie used four 1 gallon buckets and a piece of plywood to set up the potting station which was the perfect height for the kids.



And then the fun started! 
 





 Here are some of the party guests with their creations:



I found these cute little favor boxes at Dollar Tree which we filled with Snickers and Milky Way's. I made the favor tags in PicMonkey. 


I also made the invitations myself on PicMonkey. 


Sophie wore a dress I made which was featured on THIS post. She looked so cute in it and I found the most adorable silver shoes with a hot pink flower to complete the outfit.


I couldn't resist doing a couple tissue paper crafts. These pom poms are super easy to make using this Martha Stewart tutorial.



I also made tissue paper flowers to accent the food table using One Little Project's tutorial. I decided to cut the ends of the tissue paper in a round shape instead of pointed as shown in the tutorial. I wrapped a green pipe cleaner around the middle to make the stem and put them in striped tin cans (a Target dollar bin find!) stuffed with green Easter grass.  










Sophie was thrilled that her cousin Robert was able to come in from out of town to be at the party. These two are peas in a pod! I can't believe both of them didn't collapse after how many times they went down the sliding board together.


At the end of the day, Sophie said "Today was the best day ever!" As always, all the work was worth it! These smiles are the only payment I will ever need!





Linking to these parties!

37 comments:

  1. Happy birth day, sweat Sophi!!!Congrads for your mum!She made you amazing party!!!!

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  2. Beautiful party for your beautiful Birthday girl! Looks like she enjoyed it!! :)

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  3. Aww, this is just precious! Everything is so bright, colorful and pretty! It looks like your daughter had a wonderful time:) What great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
    Shannon@CozyCountryLiving

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  4. How darling is she!! And what cute pics of the little friend attendants at the party. Love it. :-)

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  5. Happy birthday to your little girl! You did a great job every thing looks amazing!

    http://crazylifewithmy3boys.blogspot.com

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  6. Oh this is fabulous!

    I would love for you to link up this - and your other party posts - at the party link up on Empty Your Archive, Alice @ Mums Make Lists x

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  7. Sophie is beautiful. This was a great party, loved all of it. Thank you for sharing.

    Consider yourself hugged,
    http://simpleesue.com/try-one-new-recipe-a-week-butterscotch-apple-fluff/

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  8. What a unique and pretty party! I would love for you to link it up at Party In Polka Dots! http://www.piggyinpolkadots.com/2013/04/party-in-polka-dots-link-party-19.html

    I am visiting you today from Wow Me Wednesday! Thanks for sharing your daughter's party!! Happy Birthday to your little girl!

    Shelley

    www.piggyinpolkadots.com

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  9. I LOVE the flower pot dessert! Great idea!

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  10. Yay! You linked up your party! Thank you so much! I am sharing it on the Piggy In Polka Dots Facebook page! It is so lovely!

    Shelley

    www.facebook.com/piggyinpolkadots
    Party Link: http://www.piggyinpolkadots.com/2013/04/party-in-polka-dots-link-party-19.html

    www.piggyinpolkadots.com

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  11. Absolutely beautiful....all the way around!!!

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  12. Love this party idea! So fun and colorful and it looks like everyone had a great time! Thanks so much for linking up with LWSL this week! Hope to see you back again next week!

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  13. Hi, Linda, I'm Linda also. This is so SWEET! I'd love to have you link this to What to do Weekends Party, also. Very fun and colorful. Following you. Linda

    http://www.craftsalamode.com/2013/04/what-to-do-weekends-17.html

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  14. Beautiful party! Beautiful Sophie! Beautiful blog! I love everything you made for this party. Sophie is one blessed little girl!

    Fun times!
    Kim

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  15. This is such an adorable party!! You did a fantastic job with it! The flower pot dessert and the flower favors are the cutest :) Pinned!

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  16. What a wonderful idea for a party. How lovely!

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  17. First of all, your daughter is adorable! I hope she had a great birthday! And I'm so glad my tutorial for the tissue paper flowers was helpful. They look so beautiful!!!

    Have a great weekend!
    Debbie @ onelittleproject.com

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  18. What a great party. You thought of everything. Sophie is a little doll. Happy BIrthday to her!
    I host the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop on Ducks n a Row and would love it if you'd stop by this week and add your links....this one included!

    Blessings,
    Sinea
    Ducks ‘n a Row

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  19. This is so fun! Who wouldn't love a party just like this! Seriously so cute!

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  20. Hi Linda, your garden party is so great!
    Baci Cristina

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  21. Aww. This is adorable. Great job with the party. She looks so happy :) Beautiful little girl too, by the way.

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  22. This is such a cute party for such a cute little girl! Thanks for sharing.

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  23. Such an adorable party.. Love the garden theme so much!

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  24. What a great party! Your daughter looked like she loved it!!
    Thank you so much for sharing on Much Ado About Monday at Huckleberry Love! We hope you come back next week to share what else you've been up to :)

    Karla
    www.huckleberrylove.com

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  25. What a cute birthday theme and an even cute birthday girl :)

    We'd love for you to share your posts with our readers at our weekly Finished Friday Link-Up.

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  26. I'd like to invite you to my Friday Flash Blog, where you can share your best blog entry of the week! The party goes on ALL weekend at thejennyevolution.com. And who knows, you may just get featured next week.

    Jennifer
    thejennyevolution.com

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  27. Oh, this is the perfect party! Everything is so beautiful, including the gorgeous birthday girl!! Just pinned and tweeted. Thank you so much for sharing with us at A Bouquet of Talent this week. So thrilled to have you share with us. Happy Friday!!
    Hugs
    Kathy

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  28. What an awesome party! My husband needs to call you for help when he throws my next milestone birthday party!

    I would love for you to share this and link up to my TGIF Link Party! Who knows, you just might be featured next week!

    http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-peek-into-my-paradise-tgif-link-party.html

    Cathy

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  29. This is fabulous. She is so cute and you did such a wonderful job even down to the dress. You are a rock star! Featuring you tomorrow. Have a super week!
    XO

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  30. So pretty and fun looking too. I know you already know, but since you've been featured - stop by to grab a Featured On button:) Thanks for sharing and linking to the Craftastic Monday party at Sew Can Do!

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  31. What kind of paint and tumblers cups did you use for the dirt cake?

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    1. I used plastic 9 oz cups that I bought at Party City and acrylic paint from AC Moore in the color terra cotta.

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  32. Love your ideas for this party! Your little girl is beautiful, and it looks like she had a wonderful time. Question for you - where did you find the pots for your planting activity? My daughter will also be having a garden birthday party, and I love this idea!

    Thanks so much!

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    1. I found the pots at Dollar Tree - 4 for $1! I think it is a seasonal item but you might still be able to find them. Good luck with your party!

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