Throwing a Stress Free and Dollar Tree Spring Birthday Party!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I like a simple kids birthday party. When they were little, I used to go nuts, stressing myself out…and WHY?! They can’t tell you one detail about their second birthday party, and I bet I spent hundreds of dollars and probably pulled out a few hairs in the process.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve grown wiser. The birthday parties I’m throwing these days are all about simple, easy, stress-free, and far from breaking the bank. Oh, and FUN! Yes, it is possible to accomplish all of those things. I promise.

My daughter’s seventh birthday was Friday. Being born on the first day of Spring, I thought it’d be fun to go all out with a Springtime theme. Flowers, butterflies, all that pretty stuff. I ran it by the birthday girl and she loved the idea. But how’s this for irony? Last year, we did a Frozen theme and it was a normal Springy day, and this year it SNOWED. ALL DAY. Ha! Got my years mixed up. Oh well, it could still be Spring INside, even if the Mother Nature was playing some crazy tricks on us.

First things first, we made the guest list and sent out evites. We went with my favorite thing: the Friday night 6-8pm drop-off party. Play, pizza, play, cake, presents, done. Whole weekend ahead of you. Huge fan. Then, I did what I always do when planning a party: hit the Dollar Tree! Since Spring is here, and Easter’s around the corner, there was TONS of pretty Springy flowery goodness everywhere I looked. I grabbed paper plates, napkins, and goodie bags. I picked up a yellow tablecloth and some pink utensils and that part was done, all for $5.

Spring Bday Party

Then, as I browsed the aisles, I was hoping inspiration would hit me as far as a craft idea. Something the girls could do/play that would go with the Spring theme.

An entire wall was devoted to gardening and it hit me! I’d buy those little clay pots – one for each girl – and they could paint them, then plant seeds. They’d have a cute little thing to take home too! As luck would have it, the Dollar Tree even sells big bags of soil and a nice size box of wildflower seeds. They didn’t have the pots, so I picked some up at Michaels – on clearance for 79 cents. I had paint and plenty of brushes at home, so everything was under $10.

I also grabbed a pack of pens, bunches of daisies, and green floral tape and made pens for the girls to take home. Stuck them in a cute mug I had and it doubled as decor until the party ended;)

Spring Birthday Party

To make these, you just cut off the flower, leaving a little bit of the stem, and wrap the tape around it and the pen. Super easy.

I set the table with a bunch of stuff I already had up, forsythias in a white pitcher, a colorful runner, and stuck some fake flowers and grass from my stash in pretty mugs.

Easy Spring Bday Party

Easy Spring bday party

Those little cutouts on the china cabinet were also from the Dollar Tree. Thought they were fun. I picked up a bunch of balloons there as well that aren’t in the photo, just to make it even more festive. They had butterflies and flower ones!

I decided to keep the dining room for eating, and we did our craft in the kitchen. I set up the island with a plastic tablecloth, and scattered the pots and paints (with paper cups filled with water to rinse brushes) all around. At the last minute, my mom gave me these huge pinwheels she had and I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put them but in a large glass vase, but it needed some filler. This was literally a couple hours before the party so I dumped plastic eggs in it because that was all I had that could possibly work, and it turned out pretty cute.

Easy Spring Bday Party

We did pizza and watermelon for dinner because my girl couldn’t love anything more than those two things. Seriously.

I used a flower cookie cutter (ok, to be honest, it was a snowflake, but no one noticed;) and cut out watermelon ‘flowers.’

easy spring bday party

Had I thought of this prior the day of the party, I would have bought skewers and stuck them in a vase, but this was still fun.

6:00 came, and the girls played for a bit as they waited for everyone to arrive. Once they were all there, they got to work!

Easy Spring bday party

I wanted them to get their pots painted first thing, so they’d have time to dry and plant their seeds.

Easy Spring bday party

After the painting was done, they ate their pizza and watermelon flowers in the dining room, and giggled endlessly around the table as only little girls can do…

They went downstairs and jammed to Kidz Bop and had an intense Dance Contest…

The pots had then dried and it was time to plant the seeds! As we did this, we had a little science lesson about sun and water and all that jazz. A teaching moment – gotta love that. 🙂

I failed at getting an action shot of this, but they turned out cute…

Easy Spring Bday party

And what other kind of cake could possibly be better for this party than Dirt Cake?!

NONE.

Easy Spring Bday Party

The girls got a kick out of this – especially the gummy worms! If you haven’t made Dirt Cake before, google it and MAKE IT. Like, yesterday. Oh my goodness. Pure deliciousness.

We then opened gifts, and had just a few more minutes to play and dance and run around until their parents picked them up.

It was a fun night and the birthday girl had an absolute blast. Sure, the low-cost, low-stress, easy part of it all is great, but this is all I really wanted to accomplish:

Easy Spring bday party

Truth be told, I’d spend every penny to my name for that face;)

 

 

 

More of my Thrifty and Simple Party Posts:

Arts and Crafts Birthday Party

Lego Summer Fun Birthday Party

Frozen Birthday Party

Comments

  1. kate LEMPKE says:

    love this! Beautiful! Where’d you get your metal eat sign?

  2. So cute!

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