Party Like A Preschooler!!! Part 1

My little 2 yr old turned 3 this week and of course we HAD to party! I feel that it is my parental right to enjoy the process of planning this party as much as it is the childs right to ENJOY the party.
Seeing that little Miss is just 2, going on 3, we didn't want to take away from the experience with too much hoopla. When I say that, I mean that sometimes we as parents want ALL of our childrens friends and our friends at the party, but it takes away from the enjoyment factor and the "Invite everybody!" attitude of it makes it stressful and no fun. Not to say that a big party isn't all right, but look at a childs age and gage if you really want 12 three year olds running around your house?

We have a couple of traditions in our house.
The Birthday Person gets to pick the meals for the day.
No chores that day.
They pick the party theme (with a bit of creative coercion at times).
They get a new outfit for the occasion.
And they get to choose their own cake.
Everything else has to be approved by the parents.(Boo hoo)

Now for Little Miss' party the theme was Nursery Rhymes. I found this lovely fabric that had "Humpty Dumpty" on it and "The Cow Jumping Over The Moon". At first I wanted to do a "Goodnight Moon" theme, but it was too hard to find anything pertaining to that classic book. I did end up buying her a new one since the old one was in a sad state.

Our party activities were:

First and foremost,
Party Bags!!!- The little people got to use rubber stamps and had a blast using some stickers to decorate their own paper lunch sacks.



Old King Cole's Crowne Shoppe- Each child got to decorate their own crown with lots of foam stickers. (Nearly had to drag some of them away from this activity! It proves that the simple things are still fun.)


Gina makes her crown with mommy's help.



Help Little Bo Peep Find her sheep- We had a small swimming pool full of balls with stuffed animals mixed in.

Magical Nursery Rhyme Painting- Crayon paint resist. My older children used white crayons and copied some simple nursery rhyme pictures. The children would use watercolor paints and when they painted over the pictures, the crayon parts would show up. They always look so surprised to see this. It's lots of fun!

More pictures on Part 2!