Ideas required for 3 year old's birthday party

Mermaid

Hi there,

My little girl is 3 in a couple of weeks and I'm throwing a birthday party for her and 24 friends at a local sports centre (mostly girls, but about 5 or 6 boys), so I'm looking for some ideas for party bag contents.

Rather than give out a plastic bag full of bits of plastic tat and some squashed up cake, I thought I'd get one slightly nicer present per child and wrap it up and let them choose it out of a box, lucky dip style. My budget is £1 per child. Obviously I'll remove any packaging which states in big letters that it came from 'Poundland'!

I found some craft kits in Poundland at the weekend, but would like some other gift ideas too. I also bought a small fabric kite in Tesco's for 99p earlier this year, and will try to get more if they still do them. I don't mind buying a set and splitting it between two or more children, e.g. metal cars etc.

Does anyone else have any bright ideas? I've got access to 'The Range', most supermarkets, the Co-op, Woolies and a Makro.

Also any thoughts on how I could do a birthday cake with a 'Fairy' decoration would be appreciated, I'd prefer to make my own to avoid additives if possible.

Thanks,

Mermaid

kittiwoz

You could bake the cake in a metal bowl so it is dome shaped, cover it with royal icing or white marzipan, decorate by painting with food colouring and then push a Sindy doll or similar into the middle so she is wearing it as a skirt. You could make wings for the doll by using wire to make the shape and covering with sheer pink or white tights which you can draw onto with felt tips and glitter glue to decorate. You could also make a wand by cutting the powder off a matchstick, sandwiching the end between two small card stars, and painting it silver.

Edit: Actually don't think you can give royal icing to such young kids because it is made with raw egg. If you have any kids coming with nut allergies you could use fondant icing (personally I've always hated the stuff but your daughter might like it) or white melted white chocolate mixed with butter or whipped cream.

Gingham_Ribbon

I bought some cars in Tesco a while back that worked out to about 50p each. They were in a pack of about 10.

Dumyat

bottles of bubbles? not expensive and kids love them.

dlb

I made a fairy castle last year for my daughters 3rd birthday,

Just make a square cake ( will filling of your choice eg fruit/sponge)
Then place 4 ice cream cornets unpside down at each corner.
Ice over the cake and cornets, it looks just like a castle with 4 turets.
I then added ribbens on sticks at the top of each turet, and had lots of fun decorating with sweets and goodies!

Madmel

DD2's birthday was just before Easter this year, so we went to Lidl and bought 36 chcoclate rabbits. They were about 20cm tall, so looked impressive and were 99p each. The kids loved them! They all got a balloon in an animal shape from the entertainer, a piece of cake and this rabbit, and amazingly, their eyes lit up (the kids!!)

CLARABEL

hiya

I went to woolies yesterday and they've recued loads of their 'summer' range to £!, including paint your own models of bill and ben and little gardening sets with aprons gloves and a kneeler. stocked up for pressies cos they were such a bargain...get down there!!

clara:p

Mermaid

Hi all,

Making good progress - I made a return trip to Poundland yesterday and bought a load more toys. Poundland's really good for cars, trucks etc, I normally have to whizz through on a Saturday and hadn't ever explored properly, also bought cups, plates etc. Will check out Tesco and Woolies this afternoon. Also found some balls in Asda for about a pound which flash when bounced.

Like the ideas for a fairy castle cake and the fairy doll cake, will ask two-year old bundle of mischief which she'd prefer. If we do the castle one, perhaps she can 'help'. I think that the ready made royal icing you can buy uses pasturised egg white, also I think you can buy pasturised egg white if you want to make your own - will look into this. I guess that you need to ice the castle cake fairly soon before you want to eat it otherwise the turrets would go soggy - perhaps using mini-swiss rolls with a paper cone for the roof would be better idea? They would look nice covered in glitter.

Incidentally, I made her party invites in a DTP package using a nice photo of her, exported as JPG and then had them printed 50 for £5 at my local ASDA. Printed off more details (4 onto a sheet of A4 paper), trimmed and stuck to back of the photo - personalised invites for less than 11p each! I do my Christmas cards the same way (but stuck onto folded card with message printed inside). Not time saving, but people love them.

Any thoughts on which generates less waste at party - individually boxed food or just chuck it all onto large plates and let them dig in?

Love,

Mermaid