I did ds's beach party for under $100!

[jabberwocky]

I have to brag a little bit. I was determined not to spend an insane amount of money for a 3 year old's birthday party.
Here's what we did:
Homemade "beach cake"
fresh fruit
cupcakes
juice boxes
water

For the adults:
iced tea
non-alcoholic pina coladas

Party Bags:
a plastic lei
pair of "party favor" sunglasses, i.e. very, very cheap
ice cream cone-shaped bubble blower

For fun and games:
ds's own pool
slip-n-slide
a friend brought an inflatable water slide - I had planned to just have an extra sprinkler going, which would have been fine, I'm sure
sand art craft with baby food jars

It was a huge success, ds had a wonderful time and so did the other kids. We had 8 kids total along with parents.

Sound lovely, much better than the two hour sheer hell and torture party that I had to endure at a soft play centre this weekend

I'm sure my day will come on that one, twinsetandpearls! At 5 months pg I tried to keep it simple. The only snag we had actually was the water slide. Friend offered to bring it (her little boy was at party too) then didn't come early to set up as planned. With the set-up time the party ran a little longer than I would have liked, but the kids were having fun, so...what do you do?

I am the local party queen.

This year we are havng a jungle party, have got a creepy crawky experience coming from the zoo, fancy dress competition, treasure hunt - am still planning.

Found a great pary book with jungle themed decorations and food.

Sounds cool! I am much better at planning adult theme parties but trying to get better with kids. Am hoping ds gets into pirates in the next year as I would love to do a pirate party. I already have the treasure chest ready to bury so the area won't look "fresh" at party time IYKWIM.

lol now that is organised

Johnny Depp is a wonderful motivator

Although I have always had a thing for pirates...

Twinset... can you name the 'great party book'?? I love planning parties too