Wednesday, March 14, 2012

And yet another frugal birthday party success...




In addition to my collection of parties I have planned in the past, I have to say this one was my favorite! It was the party that  was planned carefully and followed to the dot. From favors to its theme. It took a good month to plan it, and by God's grace it turned out successful. It was successful not only because of how it was all nicely set up, but because everyone who came truly enjoyed being there. 
Here is a quick summary of how frugal this party was. This was my son's 3rd birthday party. The total cost for this party was under $300, that's including location, favors, food and activities. Continue reading under the pictures to tell what I did to keep the cost as little as possible. You can do it too!


PARTY THEME: Breakfast Party with balloons.

Balloons are one of my son's favorite things. And it was great to make that as the theme of the party. And instead of adding to the expense buying helium balloons I hung them upside down above the gift table. It was a blast for the kids. The balloons were part of the party favors. Inside the balloons are handmade pad of paper for the stamps & stickers that I bagged together and stuffed inside the balloon. 
FAVORS:  It's the best thing in life for him right now. So with the air blown balloons I stuffed it with the rest of his favorite things: stamps; stickers; lollipops. I just added the little handmade booklet I stapled together and added a thank you label. These things had to be made small enough to fit inside the deflated balloon. So as each child brings them home they had to pop it to get the bag of goodies inside the balloon.

Decorations were easy and simple! T.H.O.P. sign is made out of contact paper. Easy to adhere and take off the wall. 99 cents store had black, green, and yellow plain colors. So I took all the colors.

This the before setting. The buffet table is wrapped with brown packaging paper instead of the usual plastic table covers.  It was cheaper and easy to toss away after. I only used 1 roll for eight 6 feet tables. On this setting. I tried to keep it as orderly as possible. Since it was a breakfast food theme, I also added a very favorite time of dish for many of my guests, the filipino breakfast, Fried rice, eggs, and Tocino. But my favorite part of the buffet was the PANCAKE area. I put out the skillet for the guests to make their special pancakes. I used a lazy susan server for the chopped fruits and chocolate chips. the pancake mix was in separate pitchers for easy pour, and three different types of syrup was in its jar with a spout for easy pour.
THE AFTER setting. I was very thankful for the outcome.

In addition to the setting was the ready to eat fruit cereal on clear cups with spoons attached to it. This is was one of the favorites from the kids.  

Next to the cereal bar, cold milk was served on ice inside a dispense along with the soymilk from kirkland kept cold inside  the bucket with ice. 
In addition to the fruit cereals, I added a jar of chex cereals just in case the adults felt eating healthy that morning.
Right next to the pancake bar was the fruit skewers. My favorite part of the buffet! 
To encourage the guests to eat pancakes I had to add the whip cream in the ice bucket. 
And of course, you can't forget the syrup. Maple syrup, chocolate syrup, and my very own homemade strawberry pancake syrup. I'll write a recipe blog about soon!
Pancake mix was read to go before the party started. So it was self serve, where the guest can pour however big of a pancake they wanted to make, and add their fresh fruits on top. 
Yogurt parfaits with my very own berry syrup, plain yogurt, and fresh blueberries. And on the side of the trays were the granola for the guests to get on their own.
So in conclusion, let me just say give thanks to those who help me make my plan happen. From decoration to food preparation, all my family, friends and my church family was there for us.  I'm very blessed! All the labels and paper crafting was done by my friend. Without her cricut we wouldn't have any decorations!

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