3 is 5! Doc McStuffins Party on a Budget

Our third child recently turned five.  With four kiddos, we decided early on to only have big parties when the kids turn 1, 5, 10 and other significant dates to be determined.  Maybe 13 or 16?  We haven't gotten that far yet!

A Doc McStuffins party seemed perfect for the five year old.  She loves the character as do many other little ones her age.  We allowed her to invite 5 children, and along with her own siblings and a few other siblings who tagged along with invited guests.  In all we had 13 kids in our home on a cold winter day!  Here are some photos...

The invitation was made to look like a lab coat.  I cut an 8.5 x 11 sheet of white cardstock in half  down to 8.5 x 5.5.  I scored each end at 2 and 1/8 and folded them in to meet at the center.  I then folded the top corners down just a bit to make a lapel.  I used a small button punch to make the purple buttons from textured cardstock and the Wild Cards cartridge to cut the pink stethescope with a Cricut.  I cut the stethescope in half and glued each end down under the lapel. 

  

Inside I adhered purple and white striped paper to the center panel to resemble Doc McStuffins' shirt. I printed the important party info on pink cardstock and matted it to patterned paper.  I printed "5th Birthday" and cut it and a larger purple piece out with Nestibilities scalloped circle dies using a Big Shot.

We had quite a few treats including cake pops, chocolate covered pretzels made to look like thermometers, cupcakes, and a huge bandaid cookie.

I made the bandaid cookie in a large casserole dish and a smaller 8x8 dish, with icing for the heart in the center.  It doesn't really look like a bandaid but the kids ate it anyway!

The personalized cake pops were purchased from Do Me a Favor by Mijah. Each child and a few lucky adults were given a cake pop to take home.

We had healthy food too!  Apples and oranges, fruit salad, a green salad, a veggie platter and pizza of course.

I planned several activites, with much of the inspiration coming from Pinterest.  Each invited guest was given a doctor coat made from a small man's t-shirt cut up the middle (7 shirts for $12 at Walmart). I purchased clear plastic badge holders and cut cardstock to fit inside. Each guest wrote their name and inserted it into the holder. I attached these to the doctor coats with cute round paperclips from Walmart. 

Each kid decorated a purple "doctor bag" with foam stickers and markers.  The bags come in packages of 3 at DollarTree.  At the end of the party I stuffed the bags with a Big Book of Boo Boos (dollar section at Target), coloring pages, a travel pack of tissues (packs of 8 at DollarTree) and an assortment of bandaids, including Doc McStuffins themed bandaids.

The kids then made a stethescope from a headband (packs of 7 at DollarTree), ribbon and foam circles and hearts punched out with paper punches.  After making these, each invited guest received a clipboard (dollar section of Target) and a Doc McStuffins pencil (packs of 4 from DollarTree) with a healthy check up list.  I also had several coloring pages on hand.  All of the printables were free from the DisneyJr. website.

We also prepared a "the doctor is in/out" craft for the kids to make with popsicle sticks, but that proved to be a bit too ambitous for 5 year olds.  My almost 10 year old made one, but the younger kids glued about 3 popsicle sticks together (out of the 27 they needed) and quickly lost interest.

In the end, a fun time was had by all, especially the birthday girl!

Think Spring!

I can't believe our firstborn will be five years old soon! In honor of this milestone, we are throwing her a spring/garden party! We initially wanted to have an easy, all inclusive party at a restaurant, kids museum or some other place, but realized we have too many friends to keep within the 10 kid max, and we certainly weren't paying $10 for each additional kid! Sooo...we are having a house full of kids here in less than two weeks! I decided to go with a spring theme. Lil' Miss likes flowers and boys like bugs - everyone will feel included and have a great time.

Of course the invitations are handmade because I wouldn't have anything less mailed from this postal address! They are very detailed and still in the process of being made. I used my Cricut (my absolute favorite scrapbooking tool and the best Christmas present EVER from Hubby) to cut out all of the little letters and the grass. Lil' Miss herself punched out all of the hearts to make the flowers and petals. The number fives were created with my Quikutz. The tags were made with the Creative Memories tag maker. They are not attached to the card, but just slipped in behind the grass. The tag in the picture above is blank, but on the others I have written the party details - "Lil' Miss' Birthday" on the front, and the date, time, address and phone number on the back. I'll top each tag off with a little ribbon tied through the hole.

For activities, I am planning on having the kids paint tiny terra cotta pots. They will then fill them with soil and transfer a small flower or plant to their pot. I purchased the pots in packs of 3 from the dollar store. I'll get the flowers/plants in a tray from one of the local home improvement stores. At the dollar store I was also able to find hanging laterns for decorations and craft sticks that we'll use to make markers so the kids know what they're growing. The store also had packs of seeds at 10 for $1! I'm hoping to get back over there to get some tissue paper to make huge tissue paper flowers to put around as decorations, and maybe lots of green construction paper to make "grass" to put around the bottom of the walls.

Finally, my neighbor is making a big flower cake. She bakes the best cakes I've ever tasted! I'll have ice cream with lots of sundae toppings. And for food we'll have pizza for the kids and provide wings and appetizer trays (fruit, veggie, cheese n crackers) for the adults.

Sounds like fun? Spring on over then!!!