How To Throw An Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party!
My daughter turned three & we threw her an ice cream themed birthday party! I broke it all down for you below incase you want to throw one too! We’ve been doing backyard birthday parties for her for three years now & I love taking a theme & putting together a party! Last year we did a fruit themed party & I’ll link all details here.
Invitations: I bought & downloaded this template off of Etsy & then sent it out via paperless post! It feels like no one is mailing paper invitations these days (although I love a paper invite), so this just made the most sense!
Party decor: I wanted to have some decor, but not a ton. I wanted to make it doable since I had a 9 week old at home & knew the amount of time I would have to decorate would be limited. We had these confetti balloons, hanging ice cream decor, tablecloths, plates & napkins, & the cutest birthday sign I got off Etsy.
Food: We threw this party at 11am so we ordered lunch food from a local restaurant. Again, keeping things simple is key here. We stuck with ordering sandwiches, bagels, mac & cheese, & chicken tenders. For dessert, since this was an ice cream themed party we HAD to have an ice cream sundae bar. We had ALL the toppings you could think of (see above photo) with both cups & cones for serving. We also ordered an ice cream cake from Honeycone Craft Ice Cream in Chester, CT (they make an incredible ice cream cake). I put this awesome candle from Etsy in it so we could sing Happy Birthday to Mackenzie!
Party favors: I love a good party favor, something you can actually use over and over again. That’s why I ordered these adorable ice cream themed sensory jars from Etsy. I made my own label & put them on the top! I think they came out so cute & I got messages from parents afterwards that their kid loved it!
Outfits: I ordered the cutest dress for Mackenzie (that she really only wore for a short time since she was in a bathing suit most of the party). I ordered these ice cream bows off Etsy & got this crown for her to wear! And for Miles I had him in Little Sleepies pjs that were ice cream themed. He also had another ice cream themed outfit for later in the day that was an adorable romper!
Activities: Having activities that actually kept kids engaged was key for me since we were going to have a ton of kids here. We set up our blow up kiddie pool, water table, bounce house, & soccer net. I also had Mackenzie’s sensory table outside with ice cream themed bins. For the bins I used kinetic sand & these ice cream cones on one side & this pre-made ice cream sensory bin on the other. The sensory table was a HUGE hit. We also tied a white sheet up & had water colors in spray bottles for the kids to decorate the sheet with (another big hit)! At the picnic table I set up a tattoo station. And we had Mackenzie’s Aunt do face painting for the kids!
I had so much fun putting this party together & I know Mackenzie had the best time! I can’t wait to plan next years birthday party for her 🙂