For some time now my three year old has been asking to have her friends over to the house and you know how three year olds are, they don’t give up! After seeing the awesome graphic set “Banner Day” from Lettering Delights (click the link on the right side bar to get the graphics for yourself for free when you start an account) and the inspiring April Showers birthday party thrown over at Crossing the Bugger-Dixon Line I decided to go with the theme “April Showers have brought May Flowers.” It helped that it had been raining seemingly non-stop at the time I was planning the play date! So I started by designing the invitation even though we were only inviting 4 friends to the house (I have issues, I know).
Then, I had to come up with the crafts and decor and menu. It is really hard not to get carried away and remember that this is just a play date and not a birthday party. I think I did pretty good job at keeping it simple but making it fun and still pretty.
I set everything up on the plain side of our train table using Ikea stools. Each child got a flower pot with their name on it ($1 ea. from Walmart) that contained a foam visor for boys or sparkly crown for girls, a flower on a stick for decorating, and a mason jar with all the essentials to make a beaded name bracelet! I also got each kid (rectangle for boys, tulip for girl) a small personal chalkboard to take home that I personalized with their names (I picked them up for $0.79 each on clearance at my Michael’s!).
The kiddies also enjoyed playing with play-doh that I had picked up on clearance at Target for $0.48 each!
The menu was very simple – sandwiches cut out like birdies (or duck sandwiches as my daughter called them), some pre-cut apples and grapes, a couple chips, and some apple juice that allowed everyone to use the crazy straws I had put in the flower pots!
I made some sugar cookie truffles that I had seen on Pintrest and used the colorful sprinkles I bought for our decorate your own cupcake activity to tie them into the theme. I had a little extra melted white chocolate and couldn’t let it go to waste so I had to dip some oreos in it, for good measure.
After eating I treated the kids to making their own cupcakes, mini or regular sized! I set out gummy worms, dirt (crushed oreos) and some flower candies I found in the bridal shower section from Wiltons. I used metal gardening containers from Ikea lined in wax paper to hold everything. I also used a little ribbon to decorate the handle b/c it was looking a little plain for my taste. I used a coordinating ribbon to wrap around the sprinkles, which were a lot of fun to shake all over the cupcakes.
They were very into decorating their cupcakes and less interested in actually eating the cupcakes – I don’t think a single one of them ate a cupcake. Their loss because I used the Best Chocolate Cake recipe to make them and they were darn-tootin-good!!
When placing them one at a time takes too long, get yourself a shovel!! The more flower candies the better!!
For decor I made a couple pinwheels that I attached to wooden dowels and stuck into a large jar I had prepped with Styrofoam and Easter grass. When I couldn’t get the Easter grass to totally cover up the Styrofoam I took out a piece of scrapbook paper and some ribbon and wrapped the bottom of the jar so no one could see in! In the entrance way from our hallway to the kitchen/living room I hung 2 paper umbrellas and several strings of rain. The kids had a grand time running under the rain pretending to get wet. The rain strands are just lengths of fishing line and 1″ circles I punched out of card stock I glued together while sandwiching the fishing line.
So that’s about it. The kids also got some good time outside playing with the water table and pretty much every other toy in the play area. I think it was a fun and successful play date (if a good amount of bickering over sharing and several tears are what make a good play date) although we might wait a several more months before I throw one again!! 🙂
this could be the most amazing playdate I have ever seen! Seriously, you are one incredible Mama! I am lucky if I even keep a playdate – I have had to cancel the last 4 in a row because my kids keep getting sick!
The kids must have had so much fun! this is awesome!
you are out of control 🙂 so cute!! your girls are going to be so bored going to other playdates —
This is adorable. That invitation is out of control cute! Loving all the details and am SO happy to see you loving the April Showers theme as much as I did!
So fun!!!
I usually just double check to make sure I have Capri Sun (or something other than wine) and that there are no sewing pins or dress shears on the floor. And I put on a bra.
Love this idea. Saw the other one at crossing the bugger dixson line and flagged I. Love the raindrops and red umbrella.
Wow, I kept scrolling up to see if this was a birthday party. You are one cool mama! I find the same thing, that kids are more interested in decorating cupcakes than eating them. The less sugar in them, the better…
Thanks for sharing!
The colors are incredible! They make the party just pop! Great job!
suuuper cute lady, love it!
Such a cute party! I thought about that theme for a Baby shower last year. Thanks for sharing and linking up to our blog!! You’re more than Kinda Crafty!! 🙂 ~Abbey @ DimplePrints