14019

Book Party -3yr- Story Teller

July 2006

Diana in Rocky Ridge, Maryland, USA

Honorable Mention

Book Party for 3 year old  My daughter loves books so we thought we would have a book party for her 3rd birthday.  We used books that my daughter really likes as part of the party theme.   We made the invitations from free clip art we found on the internet. It was a picture of a girl reading books under a tent. We really felt this would set the theme. We put "you're Invited" at the bottom in purple which is my daughter's favorite color. Inside the invitation we put "won't you come and read with me I'm having a birthday book bash because I am turning 3! The information about the party and directions to the local park were the party was held was also included.

We used the story character stamps now available at the post office to mail the invites.  We made name labels for each party guest and their parent. We used a dancing book at the bottom of the name label(which was also clip art we used throughout the rest of the party so it all tied together) and identified each person as they related to one of the children. For example, Michael and Maddie's Daddy.  We typed these up before the party and used the same purple color that was used on the invitations.    

I had a bubble machine running as the children arrived. We also had pre-coated bubble wands and small dixie cups with characters from the Lion King on them filled with water so the children could blow bubbles. This was something they did as they waited for the other party guest to arrive.    We laid a blanket under a shade tree and had a basket of books there for the children to look at. The great thing is I found my daughter and her uncle laying on the blanket while he read a book to her during one of the quiet moments during the party!    We had a children's story teller come and entertain the children.. The program lasted about 1/2 hour. She really got the children involved with stories and sing a longs.  

We had 2 craft projects. I found a Curious George pin the tail type game. We changed it some. In the picture George is holding an ice cream cone. We had the children make their own ice cream cones to use in the pin the cone game. I cut ice cream scoops from different colored paper so the children had their choice of colors and could put as many scoops on their cone as they wanted. The cones were cut out of tan colored paper. We even had paper punched sprinkles and cherries for the kids. They loved this project.

While the ice cream cones were drying the kids listened to the story teller.   The other project we had was having the kids make their own book marks that they could also take with them as part of their favor. I used precut plain white bookmarks from the craft store and had a selection of stickers, ink pads and stamps, crayons, etc for the children to use. We paper punched a small hole at the top and the children could pick what color ribbon they wanted at the top of their bookmark. 

We had 2 other games in addition to the Curious George pin the cone came. We called the 1st one Pooh's Honey pot. We took a small plastic round planter and I attached some cut out honey bees to the side. The kids dropped clothes pins, which were stamped with bees into the honey pot. The kids kneeled on a sturdy chair and try to drop the clothes pins in the pot. Its much harder then it seems and the kids had a lot of fun trying.   

The other game was a monkey ring toss made from foam that I found at a local discount store. Again the kids had a lot of fun with this game as well.  The winner of each game received a cd and following along story book that I found at the local dollar story.  My daughter has a collection of these cds and follow along story books and really enjoys listening to them and I thought it also kept with our book theme.  As for decorations we kept things simple. Streamers in vivid green, lilac and pink which coordinated with the napkins, plates, table clothes and balloons.  I found some free clip art on the internet of a girl with several books with a book worm and one of 3 books dancing. I had them blown up to posterboard size and mounted on foam board. We tied these to the trees near our pavillion.

The dancing books held balloons and we had one placed right as you walk into the park to greet the birthday guests. It made for a nice presentation and added some fun humor to the party area.  We made labels for the food the veggie tray was Rabbit's garden, the cheese tray was label with a catipillar going through the holes in swiss cheese from the Hungry Catipillar book, the bananas were labeled with Curious George swinging from a vine eating a banana, the strawberries were labeled with a home made ladybug with "ladybug, ladybug fly away home" on it.

We made each label by hand and mounted it to a small wooden rod that was put in a piece of styro foam so the label would stand up right next to the food it was identifing. We served party mix out of a large plastic planter with a "Hunney" label attached to it. We also served teddy grahams from a container shapped like a bumble bee. Again it added to the theme and was very colorful on our food table.  We served cupcakes with curious george rings for decorations instead of cake.   

The party favors were white lunch bags filled with a few items, nemo fruit snacks, m&ms, pooh pencil, pooh stickers, small bottle of bubbles, blow pops, and a suggested reading list for this age group which I picked up at our local library. We folded down the top of the bag and then punched 2 holes at the top and then tied a winner gold medal through the holes to seal the bags. This way everyone was really a winner for participating in the games.   

We also gave out a small thank you favor I found some Beatrix Potter books at a local discount store. I made book labels using my computer that said "this book belongs to" and used either the dancing book at the bottom or the girl reading in the tent from the party invitations at the bottom. I glued these book labels to a mailing label to that way all the guest had to do was fill in the child's name and attach to the inside of their books. I made paper envelops out of vivid green or lilac paper to hold the book labels. Then I tied the labels and the Beatrix Potter book together with a note I made on the computer which said "thank you for celebrating my 3rd birthday with me" and used the girl reading in the tent at the bottom of the little card.  It was a great 2 hours which the children really seemed to enjoy!

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