Flowers and Fairies 3rd Birthday Party: Entertainment and Party Favours

This is the second in a two-part post on the flowers and fairies birthday party theme. You can find the first part here.

The concept for the party started with wands and pink fairy wings as party favours. I had ideas of the wings hung off the back of chairs at the table. They're so girly (exactly what Holly wanted) and I knew the girls would actually use them. I loved the idea that the girls would all leave the party wearing and holding their party favours rather than using party bags full of items that would be thrown away before the weekend was over. I bulk bought the party wings from Amazon (they worked out at just over £4 each) and the quality is really good.

Jo from Sweet Enchanted designed and made the most amazing cookie wands for the girls to take home and they were all eyeing them up as soon as they saw them! No sooner had we handed them out to each girl as they left, than the wrappers were lifted off and they were swiftly gobbled! Seriously, they were delicious and looked absolutely stunning too. Jo designed them so well that they stayed firmly on the stick until the last mouthful and she had packaged them so carefully that they arrived in perfect condition. I've followed Jo for ages - her designs are stunning and her instagram feed is full of colour.

I wasn't too sure where to go with the wands but knew they had to be involved somehow. I really wanted to avoid too much plastic so spent ages searching on Pinterest for ways to make them at home, or better still, get the girls involved in making them. Eventually, I decided to forage for suitable twigs from our garden and my sister (a Forest School leader) gave me some amazing tips for whittling them down (we used a potato peeler to remove the bark and sanded the ends to make them smooth). I bought lengths of ribbon in 10 different colours and cut them to 40cm each, printed off 2 dozen blank stars on card, bought Scola chubby paint markers and glue dots and put them all in our GLTC caddy. I used our waxed table cloth to set it up on the floor and packed all of our Babyjörn long-sleeved bibs to protect their party dresses. I was really nervous about how this part would go or whether any of the mums would think we odd for choosing such an activity but they loved it! The girls make a bee-line for the creative table at nursery and they made the wings as enthusiastically.

In terms of entertainment, I wanted to have lots of options that allowed them to be little and have fun. I bought a bubble machine (mains and battery operated) that we've used lots of times since, made a pass the parcel (always a good back-up), put together a playlist (a mix of nursery rhymes and soundtracks) and we hired a face painter who was just brilliant (we've used her a few times before and she's always been a hit).

For the playlist I really wanted to find songs that the girls would jump up to but it was surprisingly difficult! They're only 3 so I was really keen for it to be age appropriate. Thankfully, they loved it and jumped up at the first song so I thought I'd share a few of the favouites: Sleeping Bunnies, When Will My Life Begin (Tangled), Baby Shark, Let It Go, Do You Want to Build a Snowman, For the First Time in Forever (all Frozen, obviously!), Be Our Guest, Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Where You Are, You're Welcome (Moana), Hakuna Matata (Lion King), The Bare Necessities (Jungle Book), Welcome to New York ( Secret Life of Pets), We're All in This Together (High School Musical), Happy (Despicable Me 2), Faith and Don't You Worry'Bout a Thing (Sing)..

Foodwise, I tried to avoid too much sugar, so it was ham or jam sandwiches, a huge bowl of berries to go with the theme (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries), little boxes of raisins, carrot sticks  and pom bears with a few naughty treats thrown in (party rings, pink wafers and jelly pots). I wish I'd taken some pictures of the food before we served it but it was too busy so you''ll have to trust me that very little went to waste.

I wanted to make sure that I put on some special treats for the mums too. I tried to think along the lines of afternoon tea, so bought lots of sweet cakes from M&S, vegetable crisps for the savoury option and packed all our Cath Kidston mugs for tea (although I needn't have as the venue had quite a few), used Happy Confetti's gorgeous water urn and set it up with some of our picnic glasses.

I was so lucky to have been gifted the cookie wands, but the praise for them and Jo's (from Sweet Enchanted) skill is entirely genuine. I appreciate how fortunate I am to be in the position to have anything like this and fully understand that I wouldn't be if it weren't for your readership so I would never dream of abusing that by writing about anything insincerely or inaccurately. I hope that, and the fact that I wouldn't take a chance with my daughter's birthday party, reassures any of you jaded by gifted items to us bloggers. I definitely don't take that for granted.