Erik's 3rd Birthday

This post is a couple weeks overdue, but part of the problem is that most of the photography is not my own. For all my kids birthday parties I ask my sister-in-law to take the pictures. It gives her something to do at the party and it gives me a break and a chance to socialize with my guests instead of taking pictures. So disclaimer about my pictures.

I love throwing parties. Over the years my parties have changed a lot. I use to throw all night drinking get togethers with friends because driving to bars are not practical, to wine tasting parties which have now evolved to kids birthday parties. Yes my social highlights lately have been my kids parties, but they are fun to plan.

With a kids parties there is so much you can do visually for the adults and for the kids so it is the best of both worlds. Right now since Erik is only 3 years old the parties are just as much for the kids as it is for the adults and there usually is a lot of beer consumed. So I keep that in mind when planning.

Erik's birthday is at the end of the August when it is really hot, but I knew my backyard was actually coolest at the end of the day and I think having his birthday at travel town, where I really wanted it, was not a good plan this late in the summer. So in the end with naps, and schedules, a backyard afternoon bash was the best for us. Since its late August one though went through my mind, water party.

I wish I took the pictures myself for visualization they way I knew I would write it, but I have to describe instead. Basically I made water stations through the yard. There were two pools, a splash pad and a car water play area. That is all I needed and the kids had fun. I had no games, or complicated activities. I just tried to keep it simple and the kids rotated from there to our playroom inside.

The two pools

The car splash table

Our jungle gym that got turned into a water slide

The playroom for a dry alternative or a rest from all the outside wet activities

I also tried to keep the food simple. We had sliders, brats, pasta salad and fruit. I bought more than I put out and we kept running out, but that is probably a good thing. There was very few leftover when we were done.

Then for decorations it was kind of a mix of things. Erik said he wanted "Cars" movie stuff for his birthday so I incorporated that into the decorating. All the decor was in red, blue or yellow to match the movies colors. The cake was actual "Cars" cake which he picked out himself, and his balloons were character themed.

My favors were water bottles because it was a water party and I like to include favors that parents will find useful but the kids would really like.

Then there is my photo wall. I actually had two. One included a large picture of Erik with the number 3 and a happy birthday banner I made myself. The other are just pictures from his second year of life taped onto the wall. I used blue and red backing for the pictures and just double sided tape to make them stick. It worked incredibly well on the wood wall.

In the end I think I did a good job of balancing needs of adults, providing them places to "look" if they got bored and I know the kids had a lot of fun with all the water activities. One of the nice things about this age is you just throw a few toys out there and the kids are sure to have fun.