The Peach’s Balloon Birthday Party

Hoo boy!  I’m exhausted just remembering this party.

Since we invested most of the Peach’s birthday funds into a new play house, we were determined not to spend a lot of money on her party.  I set the budget at $50, so the mantra for the party was Cheap and Cheerful!  We ditched the idea of having helium balloons since that was too spendy for us.  Instead Eric and I watched a few YouTube videos and learned how to make balloon dogs, swords and flowers.  Perfect! Manned with only $20 I headed to the party store and left with cheap plain party hats, some kinda weird ruffly edging stuff and bag of biodegradable balloons.

I used water balloons at $1.39 for a pack of 60 to make a balloon banner which was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest.

I loved the idea of kids running around in fun and fancy party hats! So I jazzed up these plain jane hats with some white sticker dots I picked up from an office supply store and some leftover washi tape I bought last year from Paper Source. And I used that super cheap paper mache rainbow stuff to edge the bottoms of the hats. I did it in less than an hour, while watching Parks & Recreation and 30 Rock.

I gotta say the kids loved ’em and wore the heck out of ’em!

And the last balloon accent to this party was this nutty idea I had to create little balloon doggie stuffed animals.  After two weeks of trial, I made some cute little friends as giveaways for the kiddos.  I made them out of lycra scraps which cost no more than $15 all together.

And the kids loved ’em! AS you can imagine, Molly here took the yellow one…

I must admit, the Peach was tickled pink with her little play house. And a lot of the party action happened outside in the play house.  Please note–Miss Peach picked out her entire outfit herself including her boots!

And everyone loved the balloons!

The Peach had a very specific menu she wanted: lemonade, pizza and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles. DONE! In fact, she was so tickled pink with her cupcakes that she just grabbed one and started eating it without a candle so we had to start singing “Happy Birthday” as she nommed away.

But what the Peach really enjoyed more than anything else was playing with her friends!

You always worry a bit about how your little kiddo will respond to hanging with a bunch of kids. Some she knew well and some were children of my friends that she sees maybe every six months. And I must say there were several times I beamed with pride over my little girl’s inherent goodness.  Miss Peach was drinking her lemonade when another little girl came up to her and said she was thirsty.  Miss Peach immediately took her little tea cup of lemonade from her own lips and raised the cup up to the little girl’s lips to drink.  Outside, some of the older girls had commandeered the playhouse and wouldn’t let little Finn in. He came crying over to the Peach, who immediately took his hand and marched over to the playhouse, knocked on the door and demanded those big girls play with Finn. Attagirl!  No “How not to be a mean girl” classes for you!

As you can imagine we tucked in be a very happy albeit very tired little three year old into her bed last night.

“Cheap and Cheerful” can still produce some pretty priceless memories!

20 thoughts on “The Peach’s Balloon Birthday Party

  1. First of all, I cannot believe what a little lady she is here!!!!! I love her birthday outfit (excellent choice, oh stylie one!) and what a sweet little love bug she is! Sharing the lemonade like that, I DIE!

    The playhouse is AH-DORBS!!!! (now all you guys need is a little hen house back there!)

    Lady, you outdid yourself with those balloons!!! Cheap + Cheerful RULES.
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE SWEET PEACH!!!!!!!! xoxo

  2. Oh! Those were the balloons the kids were talking about. They clearly made an impression. Speaking of, Zelda only cried half the way home from her mini-playdate with Peach and friends. Good-byes are so hard.

  3. Oh, it was SUCH a nice party. I had no idea it was so cheap! Crafting really does lower the budget significantly. The playhouse was a hit, for sure. We had to put the real balloon dog to sleep after Molly peed on it (?!?), but the yellow Lycra doggie is currently perched on Molly’s bench. Thanks so much, lady. I love your little girl!

  4. YOU are AMAZING, Miss Dottie! No one throws a party on that kind of budget these days. Kudos! Everything looked festive and perfect for your little Peach. I see she and Stella have the same taste in boots, by the way.

    The stuffed balloon animals blew me away! There is something about those shapes I just love, and to do them in fabric is a brilliant idea! I just saw a bunch of balloon animal dog toys at a pet store recently that I had to talk myself out of buying (for one, we don’t have a dog). But they are so iconic.

    Wonderful job, and happy birthday to your little lady!

  5. Home parties are always my favorites. It’s the personal touches that make it magical! I am sure your Peach will never forget her special day! Can’t wait to see the tutorial on those adorable balloon doggies. Brilliant!

  6. that party hats are gorgeous and all the balloons too. i love so much that all the kids are having a ball without a costly big production type party. and the stuffed balloon dog giveaways are genius and so Koons! well done to you!

  7. What an awesome party! We opted out of the overpriced, party event center style party this year. Just had an old school, at home, complete with party hats and party games party too. It was refreshly simple. I take that back, that word and an abundance of children don’t go together 🙂 You know what I mean…Your peach is a sweet peach, and you and her daddy indeed should beam with pride! You need to beam a little bit over them Lycra doggies aussi!!!

  8. Holy Moly- which lucky kid got the gold metallic spandex balloon dog? How I envy that child with my heavy heavy Solid Gold loving heart! Amazeballs as always, Miss D. I can’t wait for the tutorial. where’s the playhouse from? Love it.

  9. I just LOVE those stuffed “balloon” animals you made! Do you happen to remember how you made these, or how wide you sewed the tube before stuffing? I realize your post is a few years old, so if you’re like me, life keeps you busy, and the tutorial just never happened 🙂

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