Forty Five Kids - a Frugal Birthday Party!

There were forty five kids at my daughters birthday party yesterday. Forty five! It was fun and wild at the same time! I threw a Teddy Bear's Picnic for my beary special 3 year old. I feel incredibly blessed to know so many families with children, and the fact that they will celebrate with us! Parties can be very expensive, especially if you try to provide healthy food and drinks.

I will share with you my attempt at throwing a fun, frugal and somewhat healthy birthday party. :)

{fun}

There is only so much you can do with forty five kids running around, so we tried our best! I wanted to keep it as simple and frugal as possible while still being fun for all of the kids.

The first thing I did was watch this in order to go on a bear hunt with all the kids:

It was a big hit, they loved it! I had them repeat the song phrases after me and they all participated!

 Then we read a few bear books, talked about our bear's names and what bears like to do for fun. Of course we had to read the well known, Teddy Bear's Picnic.

All I had to bring for this part was: a few picnic blankets, three books about bears and a few extra teddies in case someone forgot theirs. We got the books from the library so we didn't spend a dime on this part of the picnic!

{frugal}

My goal was to make this a frugal party - while still being fun. There are many ways to do this but let me show you how what we did.

I took a large cardboard box and cut the top to look like waves and spray painted it blue. I then made fishing poles out of sticks, string and clothespins. This was by far the kid's favorite. I enlisted help from my nephews to sit behind the box and help the children fish! As long as they threw their fish back in, they could fish as many times as the wanted!

{somewhat healthy}

Food can be the most expensive thing about a large birthday party. To keep it simple and frugal I had everyone bring an item to share for a "trail mix bar." That way, depending on a child's allergy restrictions or sugar limitations, everyone's needs were met! My sister in-law was so gracious and brought coconut water for everyone, what a treat! I also made and brought sweetened black tea.

The whole day before my daughter and I baked and baked cupcakes. It was really fun! We made a few batches of gluten free, honey sweetened chocolate cupcakes, and even more wheat flour cupcakes. A few mom's attending were either paleo, on the GAPS diet or had allergies. It was nice to have something for everyone. (well, almost everyone! I still can't figure out how to make cupcakes without eggs!)

I made cream cheese frosting and honey sweetened buttercream frosting, both of them to die for. At least that is how I feel about icing! (recipes to follow).

I did not ice the cupcakes beforehand, I brought it in bowls and let the children ice their own. It was really fun for the kids to get to do the icing on their own!

The party favors were the little fish  they caught. We cut the fish out of felt and I attached a honey stick to each one. I haven't met a kid who doesn't love honey sticks! After filling our bellies with chocolate we went down to the river front to have a swim. All in all, I would say it was great fun! Happy Birthday, my dear sweet Gianna!

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile."

- Blessed Mother Teresa


Linking up to Simple Lives Thursday, Fat Tuesday and Pennywise Platter