Ok...her birthday is the 9th but I'll probably have her party on the 13th. I hope to give out invitations tomorrow.

She has mentioned several themes she'd like to have. I know she's just turning 3 and she'd be pleased with anything Mommy coordinates (isn't that the beauty of them still being so little!!??) One was Dora, one was Barbie and one was princesses. I'm really pretty tired of Dora and it would be expensive to try and theme it around Dora and make people know it's Dora. I think Barbie is great and I make a great Barbie cake, but is 3 too young for a Barbie themed party? Princess theme is good...but another little girl at church just had her party this past Saturday and it was Disney Princess themed. Abby's wouldn't be Disney Princesses...just maybe crowns and jewels and girly pink and purple stuff. It should also be easy to decorate a cake with a crown on it or something. Would that be too copy-cattish??

Food...I feel obligated to feed these people something besides cake and ice cream if they're taking time from their busy Saturday to come to a party for my child. I'm thinking of just putting out some of Abby's favorite snacks and letting it go at that. She loves cocktail smokies in the crockpot with the sauce, chips and salsa, cheese cubes, carrots and veggie dip, etc. (And yes! I know it's weird for 3 y/o's to like that stuff!) Adequate enough?

Goodie bags...are they really necessary? We're on a really tight budget and Christmas just came and went. Will their parents be disappointed if they go home without some other trinket to land in the bottom of their toy box? Besides that, how do you cater to little boys at a girly themed party? I don't want to send them home with nothing, but what do I give them to show them I appreciate them coming to celebrate with us without putting us out too much? If it were all going to be girls, I'd simply pass out cheap $1 princess crowns from the $ store and be done with it...but I just somehow don't think little boys would appreciate that very much! I also don't want to hand out a bunch of candy because some parents don't allow their children to have candy.

Games....I could skip a game AND a goody bag and just do some type of craft with them instead that they could take home...but what?

Barbie is fine- she is not to young. Princess is also good. Girls this age like princesses- so she will be going to lots of princess parties- so not to worry if others have the same theme.
Not every person who went to the other girls party will be at yours (I am guesing).

Food is fine- though maybe put cake and ice cream will be served on the invite- so people are not expecting more- also ? what time the party is. If around lunch people will except lunch.

Goody bags (we have had this topic on the board before) though IMO kids want goody bags. I know the stuff is junk- though the kids like it and it is about the kids. MAybe get bubbles, crayons something along this so that boys and girls get the same thing. You are pretty creative- maybe you could make something like feather swords for the boys and crowns for the girls that would be cute and cheap.

sounds like you have it all figured out. I like the princess theme myself. and I was going to suggest (until I saw that you had boys coming) that they could play dress up. I did this with my oldest dd one year. I got cute little dresses from the Target clearance rack (instead of decorations and stuff) and they all got dressed up and my sister and I painted their nails and put makeup on them and fixed their hair. they all had a blast. and then I made ice cream cup - cakes. they are really cool and it saves from having to have both things. but I am not sure it goes with your theme. I do have the recipe if you want it.

the goodie bags...I dont like them...I would get coloring books and crayans at the dollar store. or something like that.

I guess I wasn't much help...sorry.

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“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. ~ Eddie Cantor

I wouldn't worry about the theme, just let your DD pick...it's really not a big deal if others had a similar theme.

Food is fine but I agree with BlueJay, that if you want, put on the invite "Cake & Ice Cream will be served" if you feel like you want to be clear that that's the only food that will be served. I guess I'm not fully understanding your commment about why you think food must be served because people are taking time out of their day for the party...but I guess I don't look at things that way.

I've never really served food for school parties for my kids, just cake and ice cream and then maybe baskets of chips and pretzels around. If you're having the party near lunchtime, maybe pizza or something like that but you can easily tailor the time of the party to your needs. IMO I would do goody bags before I'd spend a lot on more food than cake at the party but that's me.

I always do Goody Bags (even now and my kids will be 12 and 9 in the spring) and I love making them up, there are lots of places to get fun things. It's just up to you (or your DD)...

I like the princess themed your food sounds great.

For goodie bags...I normally do a prepacked food item ..like rice krispy treat or m&ms or something like that.
Maybe princess gummies would be good to give them as they leave along with a balloon.

3 isn't too young for Barbie. And if you can do the Barbie cake, even better.

Personally I'd skip the goody bags....To involve both boys and girls and keep the cost down, how about a craft? For DS 1st birthday I bought a bunch of paints, sponge brushes and letthe girls paint little wood jewlery boxes and the boys painted little wood cars. The paints are usually on sale for 2/$1.00 at Michael's or AC Moore (even off sale I think they're only .69 or so each) You don't need that much, a few colors on a paper plate for each kid, the sponge brushes are less the .25 each and the wood pieces can also be found pretty cheap.
That way they create something AND get to take it home!
For food, I wouldn't feel obligated (especially if you put 'cake and ice cream will be served' on the invite), but if you do all that you listed sounds great.

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As much as I like the princess theme, she really likes Barbie better...which is fine because I already have the doll body to do a doll cake and Barbie cupcake papers left over from an older dd's party to make cupcakes too (since the doll cakes are too small to serve very many people).
I feel the need to serve other food because in our area and among our friends and family, several adults usually attend the parties as well as kids because of the kids' ages -- I prefer parents stay at the party and not leave me with a bunch of three year olds for one, and for another, I combine friends and family at our parties instead of celebrating with friends at one time and family at another. It won't be lunch time...it'll be more around 2 in the afternoon because dh doesn't get off work on Saturdays until 1 p.m. That's why I'm going to go with snacks rather than hot dogs or pizza or some type of lunch item. I make my own cakes rather than purchasing them which saves me anywhere form $10-$15, so I can spend that on the snacks or goody bags/prizes or whatever else I need to get.

This is exactly what I was talking about...it takes the place of a game because it's an activity and it takes the place of a prize or a goody bag because they still get to take something home. Now I just need to find something suitable for three year olds!! LOL

I think the Barbie party sounds like fun and I don't think she would be too young for it. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, it's seem like 3 is the age where little girls start getting into Barbie.

As a parent who hates clutter, I would be THRILLED if parents would stop handing out goody bags at parties! I never heard of those silly things until I started taking my dd to birthday parties. We never had those back in the 70's and I don't feel like my childhood was damaged by never receiving one. If you really feel like you should hand out goody bags, perhaps (as rpmom suggested) you could hand out some prepackaged food items. I also like the kids' craft idea. You're a crafty woman -- I know you can come up with something cool! My dd went to a pirate party when she was 5. The mom painted shoe boxes to look like treasure chests and she wrote each guests' name on the box. Then the kids decorated them with beads, stickers, and colorful pasta. My dd loved that thing. In fact, we still have it.

my dollar tree has packs of 6 bottles of bubbles for 1.00 - that would be a good idea

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