How To Plan A “Butterfly-Themed” Birthday Party For Your Little Girl
One of most delightful aspects of being a hands-on parent is being a witness to your child’s firsts, and in my case, that includes planning parties and celebrating every aspect of her growth. I love planning surprises and birthday parties, and coming up with special ways of making each celebration memorable.
Our child’s third birthday party had the theme “BUTTERFLIES AND HER FAVORITE THINGS.” So I had to keep my eyes completely open for anything involving butterflies, and I made an intensive list of the things that my child enjoys, loves, and appreciates.
Here are some of my personal suggestions and tips for coming up with a BUTTERFLY-THEMED party that also includes ideas for music and other favorite things (in this case, things my child likes!)…You can plan according to your child’s interests and personal choices and faves, of course!
TIPS ON HOW TO PLAN A THEMED PARTY (in this case, one with a BUTTERFLY theme!):
- Choose an inspiration. Make sure that the theme for your child’s kiddie party would be something that would surely delight your kid, or at least, make him or her smile.
For a butterfly-themed party that I planned for my daughter’s third birthday, I incorporated a lot of colorful details. I actually chose the theme “Butterflies and Her Favorite Things,” so that if I wanted to include a specific item that wasn’t necessarily close to a butterfly but meant something to her, I could freely do so.
I’d like to share with you how I got the idea of a butterfly-theme. Drian was so busy watching and enjoying a Barney and Friends episode that included an appearance of a butterfly called “Hope,” that I found myself smiling whenever she would happily react to it.
When I saw how my child happily responded to this little character, I knew that a party with a butterfly theme would be just the ticket to keep her happy and entertained on her big day.
- Look around for fabrics or any item that can a basis for your color scheme.
In my case, I chanced upon a lovely paisley fabric when I was browsing around the department store of a nearby mall, and I saw the wonderful bright colors it had. Thinking that butterflies do have lovely bright colors, I happily picked out the fabric, and made sure I would incorporate it as part of the other party elements (used the fabric design for borders of my child’s invitation and party tags, and of course, the fabric itself as centerpieces on the adult tables, and for the dessert table.)
- Be Creative With the Birthday Cake!
I have been blessed with a husband who has a culinary background, and I knew that it would be really special if he would be the one to bake our daughter’s birthday cake. I feel that when it’s someone close to the celebrant who will be playing a role in her party, that person would really make sure everything would be extra-wonderful for her. And that’s how the idea of my hubby making our child’s cake came about. Thankfully he agreed and was quite enthusiastic and up to the task.
I picked out this wonderful butterfly-shaped Wilton cake pan from a home and decor shop in the mall, as well as this smaller cake-cutter shaped like a butterfly for our cake.
Buying this pan and this cutter gave us options (things like this can always be used for any occasion, not just a kiddie party), but in the end, what made our daughter’s birthday cake really special was that it was my husband who decided that he would bake the cake and do the butterfly shape on his own.
I requested for a sugar-free chocolate cake with buttercream icing, since I wanted everyone to be able to partake of the cake, especially those who were conscious about their dessert intake AND blood sugar, heehee.
My husband decided on white buttercream icing. He and I were able to purchase 2 huge bags of sunflower chocolate seeds/candy that had all the assorted colors we wanted for the cake’s decorative elements. The thing was, each of the colors didn’t come in separate bags, so as a labor of love, he and I spent a few hours picking out each color and separating them in different containers. This way we’d be able to utilize each color easily when we decorated the cake.
It wasn’t easy sorting, let me tell you! Haha! We had to use a small bowl where we poured the chocolate sunflower seeds into…It was quite fun talking and laughing while sorting chocolate candies, but I wouldn’t do this everyday! Hahaha! Talk about a labor of love, indeed!
Here’s the finished product, I am so proud to share that the birthday cake my husband baked for our daughter’s 3rd birthday party was a complete success, and such a pretty sight to behold!
It was so memorable to see our child’s reaction when she blew out the candle to her birthday cake!
- KEEP YOUR GUESTS HAPPY WITH EXCELLENT CHOICES OF YUMMY SWEETS OR DESSERTS
I have to say, I have a sweet tooth, and I know most of our guests, if not all, would truly appreciate a wonderful spread of mouthwatering desserts for the party. I commissioned one of my favorite cupcake makers LITTLE CAKES FACTORY (check out their website, www.littlecakesfactory.com ) to come up with personalized photo cupcakes for my dessert table. I chose to have my child’s face on an edible photo cupcake, and this was a big hit with the guests!
- Keep Your Eyes Open For New and Not Necessarily Expensive Items That Match Your Party’s Theme, to Add to Your Party Details
* GIVEAWAYS
Since I had a lot of time to prepare for the party, I enjoyed collecting little items that I could add to my child’s party details little by little. I was able to find some cute pocket shower gels shaped like butterflies, flowers, and ice cream cones, which fell right into place with our party theme (Butterflies and My Daughter’s Favorite Things). And they were on sale at the store I’d gone to, so I bought in bulk. These pocket shower gels, I thought, would be nice giveaways for the adult (female) guests. Even though it was obviously a kiddie party, I still felt like showing my appreciation to the older guests. More on thoughts on giveaways for the adult (male) guests later.
For the adult male guests, I thought that a few interesting game prizes would perk them up and also encourage them to join in the fun. So I contacted a friend who is a Filipino children’s book author and illustrator to autograph a few of his comic books and toy books, and told him I’d buy a few copies and make these special game prizes at my child’s party. My daughter Drian loves children’s books, and a big fan of ones by Filipino authors, and I felt we were doing two things: supporting a Filipino author and illustrator AND sharing the gift of reading with our guests. I thought these comic books and toy books would also suit the kiddie male guests.
* LOOT BAG CONTENTS
I wanted to make sure that even the contents of the kiddie guests’ loot bags would have something to do with my child’s party theme and interests. So I picked out these colorful bubble wands. I made sure I bought plenty of stickers (that had butterflies and even “Happy Birthday” words on them) and decorated the bubble wands. My daughter loves blowing bubbles and even just watching bubbles all around, and I knew that the kids would enjoy this too.
Loved that I was able to source bubble wands in the shape of ice cream cones, and scented ones too, like a banana-scented bubble wand, or a chocolate-scented bubble wand. Not only would these look lovely on a gift giveaway table but would be wonderful when in a child’s hands, happily being enjoyed!
* LOOT BAGS
Instead of purchasing really expensive loot bags or have lootboxes designed and printed, you can opt to buy these sturdy brown kraft paper mini paper-bags, and just buy a stamp pad and some stamp letters that can spell out your child’s name, and perhaps a butterfly stamp (since that’s the birthday party theme). You can decorate the plain kraft bag with stamped letters (you can choose the color of your stamp ink/pad) and then just attach a colored thank-you card. Simple yet sweet.
* DECORATIVE DETAILS
I was able to drop by one of my favorite stores, Papemelroti, where they sell unique decor, accessories, and paper products, and when I saw that they had these two lovely butterfly home decorations, I knew I had to get them. Sold at a very cheap price, these would look lovely on the dessert table or even beside my daughter’s birthday tarpaulin.
Since our theme had something to do with our child’s favorite things, I wanted to also make use of some of my resources at home…I found that we weren’t having much use for the colorful DVD covers of her favorite kiddie videos (we keep her DVDs in protected DVD cases that we can easily flip through for easy access. The clear DVD/CD envelopes make it easy for us to locate which video we want to watch for the day, instead of keeping too many DVD cases that take up so much shelf space). I decided to use these colorful DVD covers and make them into a collage…This collage would later be wrapped in plastic cover and be where we could place the platters of the desserts.
Look how colorful these DVD covers look! I even used a few of these to wrap the prizes for the games.
There are other ways of making use of these colorful DVD covers…You can make little banners out of them and string them across the room, or you can fashion them into centerpieces (check out orgami ideas or perhaps include them as recycled paper for paper mache decorations). The possibilities are endless!
- COME UP WITH COLORFUL HOMEMADE COLLAGES FILLED WITH PHOTOS OF YOUR CHILD AND YOUR FAMILY
These make GREAT decorative pieces for a kiddie party especially when you hang them on the wall or place them on an easel near the gift or dessert table, where guests can linger. They are great conversation pieces and they’re easy to make, just have your favorite photos of your family and your child printed (make sure you have other copies tucked away safely in photo albums!), use scrapbooking paper or other art materials like glue, a pair of scissors, tape, stickers, buttons or anything you fancy that can spice up the collage, maybe even magazine clippings with words like “Celebrate!” or “Party!” or even chipboard letters that can spell out your child’s name, etc. Be Creative!
Here are samples of the collages I made for my child’s party. A lot of the guests, if not all the guests, enjoyed looking at the pictures and they oohed and ahhed over Drian’s development (since I placed pictures of some of her little milestones, like one of her first art works, pictures of her baking, reading, playing the drums) and also some our travel photos as a family. The DVD covers came in handy since I made them into borders for the collages, and they looked so festive and colorful.
- WHAT’S A KIDDIE PARTY WITHOUT BALLOONS?
Although there are a lot of kiddie party decorators and planners that opt to have other elements like floral centerpieces and other paper products as decorations, I still think that balloons spruce up a kiddie party like nothing else. I chose a trusted relative to help me source great balloon designs that fell right into my butterfly theme…The balloons followed the colors I had for the birthday signboard, table runners, and even the colors of the birthday cake icing.
- CONSIDER THE PARTY MUSIC
Contrary to what a lot of parents think, I sincerely believe that selecting even the music for your child’s party is truly important. It shows that you really want it to follow your chosen theme, and it has to be something your child appreciates. I’ve attended many birthday parties that just had all this raucous and ear-splitting party music being played, and it even had inappropriate lyrics that kids in a party shouldn’t be allowed to hear!
I took the effort of researching songs that my daughter loves, and after observing keenly that she was drawn to the music from her Hi-Five kiddie videos, I started scouring YouTube for videos. Since I am totally against piracy, I made a list of the best songs from the Hi-Five videos my child would watch, and asked an aunt based in Australia, our dear Tita Len, if she could help us find original audio CDs. We offered to pay for the lot, but she refused and said these would be her gift for our child, if she would be able to find the ones I wanted.
After several weeks, we received a special package shipped to us, those rare and hard-to-find Hi-Five audio CDs we’d been praying for! What a blessing! I couldn’t thank Tita Len enough!
I do hope and pray that these tips were helpful to you as you plan your child’s party. Any celebration can be amazing, as long as there’s a whole lot of ingenuity, creativity, and of course, love poured into the efforts in making it happen! Enjoy making your child’s heartstrings flutter like a butterfly’s wings with these “butterfly-themed and favorite things” set of ideas!
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