Saturday was Annie's 3rd birthday party!! Her actual birthday is today! I initially thought I would do a very easy, morning birthday theme party at the Tot Lot with just donuts. I even sent out park invitations to all of our friends and family.
But, just after sending out those invitations, Annie's love and enthusiasm for Mary Poppins came back in full force! It had waned so I didn't want to force a Mary Poppins theme party onto her if she wasn't that into it anymore. But, since she was back into Mary Poppins, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to do a Mary Poppins party at the park and celebrate the sweetness of what Annie loves! I love her love for Mary Poppins! She is such a magical and lovable character! And, Annie is 100% committed to her love of Mary Poppins. She calls herself Mary Poppins, Brad - Mr. Banks, Emmie - the housekeeper, me - Katienana, her friend Grayson - "Burt-Grayson," friend Jane Darby - "Jane," and another friend at school - "Michael." She is obsessed with lipstick because Mary Poppins wears it. She uses one of my purses as her carpet bag and an umbrella to float with. She wears her plastic "high shoes" as she calls them because Mary Poppins wears high heels. She wants to wear dresses almost daily because Mary Poppins wears a dress. She snaps up and likes to clean because Mary Poppins does! And, we watch some or all of the movie almost daily and listen to the music every single day! It is so much fun and thankfully a movie that we also love and don't get bored watching over and over again!
So, I designed a Mary Poppins invitation with a girl on Etsy and emailed it out!
It love how it turned out! As you can tell, I chose the colors red, yellow, and aqua for the party.
The Tot Lot is a beautiful little park in Crestline Village. It is surrounded by a sweet, low fence and lots of pretty landscaping, has a covered pavilion with a large 9' picnic table, and lots of big trees for some shade! It also has the best slides in town that are super fast! Annie is the perfect age to enjoy a park. She can do just about everything on her own and without fear of getting hurt.
The Tot Lot has baby swings but unfortunately the tire swing is the only big kid swing. The kids loved the tire swing but regular swings would be a good addition.
I did a ton of shopping and crafting for the party ahead of time. As always, it is so much work and takes so much time, but it was mostly fun! I love putting my time and energy into something so special for Annie! Brad also helped me a lot! He braved Hobby Lobby once for me and also helped me pick things out, make decisions here and there, went to Sam's for our groceries, and kept Annie entertained when I was busy trying to check off all my to-do's!
Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early at 6:15 to get showered, dressed, and out the door. I picked up Annie's cake on the way to the Tot Lot, got coffee, and went to set-up. The Tot Lot is free to use for parties but you cannot reserve it so I just had to take my chances that no one else was planning a party for the same morning. Thankfully, when I arrived at 7:45, I was the only one there! Whew! I got started right away and Emily joined me about 8:30. She helped me so much and then took pictures of all of my decor before everyone arrived.
Setting up the food table. We had popcorn, goldfish, watermelon, donuts, and cake!
The cake could not have turned out better! Savage's Bakery made the cake and the cake decorator, Code got my vision instantly! Annie decided to take on the character of Bert rather than Mary Poppins the week of her party. When she and I met with the cake decorator and I asked her what she wanted her cake to say - Mary Poppins, Bert, or Annie. She adamantly asked for Bert and never wavered! I love her character commitment and also love that we will always remember her Bert cake!!
I saw a similar penguin on Pinterest and decided to make him for our party. He is so cute and happy and a perfect "Welcome" to the party! He was right outside the gate to the Tot Lot. Annie LOVES the penguin and played with him at home once I had him made. She requested that I take her picture with him, she gave him kisses, and she told me thank you for making him! She was so sweet about everything that I did / made for her party. She really loved it all and has such a thankful heart about her!
I also made this Mary Poppins and Bert face cut-out board. I had a coloring sheet enlarged to 42" x 36" and mounted on foam core board at FedEx. Then, I painted it. It was tedious and detailed and the lines were not very clear at all, but it was also fun and relaxing to paint! I love to color so this was like a giant coloring project! If I had started earlier on it, then I could have worked at a more reasonable pace. Overall, I was very excited with how it turned out! It was a big hit for Annie and for the party!
I set up black paper along the fence for the kids to draw with chalk like Bert!
The Tot Lot has an adorable play house so I made a "17 Cherry Tree Lane" address sign to hang on it!
I also made an over sized Mary Poppins measuring tape. Then Emily had the idea to use phrases from the different songs to be the descriptions at varying heights.
Annie's height was "Mary Poppins - Practically Perfect in Every Way" of course!
She is somewhere between 38" and 40!"
Once Brad and Annie arrived, he hung the "Happy Birthday" banner! It looked so cheerful!
The party favors were chalk! The boxes just happened to match the colors of the party perfectly :)
And finally, as the guests arrived, they brought in lots of beautifully wrapped presents!
Annie and Brad arrived around 9:00 so that she could sleep as long as she wanted but also get to the party before all the guests arrived! She had a fun time taking in all the decorations and getting a little private play time in!
Our beautiful birthday girl checking out her cake for the first time!
We were all set for the guests to arrive!!
