the first of many

Isla’s first two birthday parties were fairly quiet and intimate. This time I knew I wanted to do a bit more.

It’s hard to believe she was born three whole years ago but her snappy whit and sparkling, sweet personality made it painful apparent of late. Her favorite color right now is yellow, her favorite way to exercise this summer has been jumping, and her favorite sweet treat is Mexican candy. Naturally, a fiesta was the way to go.

Being in Hawaii, I wasn’t sure how difficult the theme would be. A whole lot of help from my besties in Cali made this vision much easier than expected.

I had a few Mexican blankets I was able to pull out, and plenty of sweet chili candies on hand. I found somebody selling two piñatas for $10 on Facebook Marketplace, so I picked those up immediately. (I couldn't bring myself to fill a 3-year old’s piñata with candy so I got little packs of play-doh and other small sensory toys to stuff it with.) To set the mood I used some papel picados, lots of colorful baskets, fresh fruits and veggies, and balloons.

Although I prefer a neutral color palette for most everything, I had to punch it up with lots of color for this party, and I loved how it came together.

Isla gave each of her friends a cute little basket (found here) with her party favor inside. Since all of her attendees were also three-year old girls I thought it would be fun to give them each a scrunchie. I found an Etsy shop that made them with beautiful serape fabrics and popped one into each basket. They were beautiful and very well made.

Thank you cards found here and I made the invitations myself.

Entertainment was the one thing I felt a bit wary of. I wasn’t sure how to keep a handful of toddlers occupied so I arranged a bunch of options.

We used our outdoor ring toss and left the frisbees outside next to our bubble machine. We were expecting two smaller babies so I also set out our kiddie pool and filled it with ball pit balls. And of course, we had our first bounce house.

We played pin the tail on the pinata and I printed out a few themed coloring pages for the girls to have a little something to do at their little picnic table. A pack of crayons and some fuzzy pens was all they needed.

as long as she’s smiling

Someone told me recently that in order to keep my eye on the prize when planning a kid’s party, I need to remember one thing: your child’s happiness should be the gauge. If they’re loving their special day, nothing else matters. Many, many things will go wrong, but in the end, the things your little one notices and enjoys, are really all that should be significant. This totally worked.

Related Post: Isla’s Birth Story and Setting Up a Recipe Book (Step One)

on the menu

I had planned to give the children chicken nuggets and tator tots as a backup plan but was pleasantly surprised to find that we didn't need them.

We had a taco bar with two types of chicken, and shrimp. We also served taquitos in case anybody sort of wanted to eat as they moved about.

For dessert the big thing was actually the candy! Most of the big kids and grown ups hadn’t tried many of the options so that was fun to expose them to something new. I had churros available but from what I heard, the cake was tastier. I used this recipe and plan to keep it in our family’s recipe book since it received so many rave reviews (we’re still talking about it now). It was a little intimidating at first but the recipe was easy enough to follow and all ages enjoyed the “churro cake”.

So anyway, I think kid’s parties might be my new favorite thing to do. It felt like an dreadful thing to do, and very adult, but I ended up loving the planning process. Pulling it all together and seeing it come to life was a bunch of fun too, so I will definitely be doing this again. I’ll be trying to set up a better budget for myself so will share those tips as they come, but I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse.

Love, V.

Special thanks to Danielle Kym Photography.