Score Points with the Ultimate Game Day Party

guiltless game day recipes & DIY decor

This shop, Throw the Ultimate Game Day Party, has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and the Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #ReadyForKickoff #CollectiveBias

It’s the start of the new year and the excitement of the holidays is behind us. So naturally, this party planning junkie has turned my sights on gearing up for the upcoming  big game!Score Points with the Ultimate Game Day Party - Guiltless Game Day Recipes and DIY Decor #ReadyForKickoff #ad

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Peppa Pig Picnic Birthday Party

Peppa Pig Birthday Party Ideas

Plan the ultimate Peppa Pig picnic party with these Peppa Pig birthday party ideas.

When planning my youngest’s 3rd birthday, it was a no-brainer to choose a Peppa Pig theme. She loves the show and her favorite outfit has Peppa on it.

After researching lots of Peppa Pig birthday party ideas, I came up with a picnic theme. Since her birthday is in March, we brought the outdoors indoors for the celebration!

When guests entered our home for the party, they were invited to try on a pair of rain boots for size to jump in muddy puddles.

I used inexpensive craft paper for the puddles and wrote, “We LOVE jumping in muddy puddles! Try on a pair for size and play with me!”DIY Peppa Pig Birthday Party | Five Marigolds

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Pinwheel Party Favors + Peppa Pig Printables

Peppa Pig Birthday Party Ideas

Peppa Pig printables, favors, and inexpensive birthday party ideas.

Looking for a super easy, inexpensive birthday party favor that kids will actually use? Look no further than these “It’s Pinwheelie Fun” Peppa Pig party favors.

I’m planning my daughter’s upcoming birthday party, and since she’s a huge Peppa Pig fan, it was easy choosing a theme. I had so much fun researching Peppa Pig party ideas, and came up with a Peppa Pig picnic party theme.

To go with the bright, cheerful theme, I decided on combining two kid obsessions for our Peppa Pig party favors:  bubbles and pinwheels.It's Pinwheelie Fun Birthday Favors + Peppa Pig Free Printables | Five Marigolds

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Candy Necklace Valentine’s Printable

Remember the Princess Candy Necklace favors i made for my daughter’s birthday? Well, I’m all about upcycling my work, so I made a few modifications so we can use them for EClaire’s classroom Valentines. The party favors have been such a hit among all my readers, so I’ve decided to offer these up as a free Candy Necklace Valentine printable, as well.

Princess Candy Necklace Party Favors | Five Marigolds

Just print these out, two-sided, on some card stock, cut a slit on either side of the card and finish with a candy bracelet!

Candy Necklace Valentine Printable | Five Marigolds

>>Download your free

Candy Necklace Valentine Printable here<<

Candy Necklace Valentine Printable | Five Marigolds

Click here to get the princess version, perfect for birthday party favors!

If you love these and plan to use them for your Valentines, please take a moment to tell me about it in the comments!

get more free valentine’s day printables!

Looking for more great Valentine’s Day printables like this? Try my other popular free options:

          

 

Candy Necklace Valentine's Day Printables

These are so adorable! Printable candy necklace birthday party favor cards.

Star Wars Birthday Party – Invites And Thank You Postcards

My final post in the Star Wars birthday party series is to share the custom invitations and thank you cards I designed.

Each year, I’ve been lucky that my children have chosen Halloween costumes that match their birthday party themes for the following year. Dub chose to be Darth Vader, so I used his Halloween costume for the front of the invitation. I created a simple background in PhotoShop, and used the free Star Jedi font.

Custom Star Wars Birthday Party Darth Vader Invitation | www.fivemarigolds.com

I used the same background on the back, added the party details, and created a Darth Vader silhouette.

Custom Star Wars Birthday Party Custom Thank You Postcard | www.fivemarigolds.com

During the birthday party, I made sure to get one shot of all of the kids in the photo booth, wearing their jedi robes and using photo booth props. I used this image for a custom thank you postcard. On the back, I created a simple template that Dub could fill in himself. I love the idea of the postcard because it helps him learn the proper etiquette of showing thankfulness.  Sincere, personal, and to the point! And, it’s a little less expensive to mail 🙂

Finally, just to prove how much I utilize those Halloween photos, I also used it for Dub’s Valentine’s card. I wonder if he’ll be sick of Darth Vader by this Halloween?

Star Wars Darth Vader Valentine | www.fivemarigolds.com

Star Wars Darth Vader Valentine | Five Marigolds

See also:

R2D2 Star Wars Cake | Five Marigolds

Star Wars Birthday Party, Part I

Star Wars Storm Trooper Favor Bags | Five Marigolds

Star Wars Birthday Party, Part I

When Dub predictably requested a Star Wars theme for his 6th birthday, I’ll admit I was a little excited. I’d already been brimming with fun ideas for his party, but when he insisted on his first “friends” party, I was stumped. Our home just isn’t big enough for entertaining larger crowds, and I didn’t really want to do a Chuck E Cheese type of party. So, we decided to hold it at his dad’s industrial garage. I’ll share the details of this party in a series of posts. This post will focus on the Boba Fett Buffet. First, I started with the settings. I bought inexpensive tablecloths from the Dollar Store and I bought a starry sky backdrop that I used behind the buffet and for a photo booth.

Star Wars Birthday Party Photo Booth | www.fivemarigolds.com

Star Wars Birthday Party Boba Fett Buffet | www.fivemarigolds.com

 

I downloaded a light saber paper craft from starwars.com (the handle for Yoda’s light saber) and used it to roll up the plastic tableware in red and blue napkins. I got the kids involved here, assembling the proper tableware and rolling it up, and I finished it off with the handle.

Star Wars Birthday Party Boba Fett Buffet Light Saber Napkin Rings | www.fivemarigolds.com

Star Wars Birthday Party Boba Fett Buffet Light Saber Napkin Rings | www.fivemarigolds.com

 

Next, I designed some creative table tents in PhotoShop to label the food: Yoda Soda, Death Star Salad, Hunger Destroyer, Vader Veggies, DroidDrink, and more. For the Droid Drink, I bought the mini water bottles from Costco. I used this free download to wrap each bottle with an R2D2 label.Star Wars Boba Fett Buffet R2D2 Water Bottles Droid Drink | www.fivemarigolds.com

Since my husband’s business is a limousine company, we decided to leave in their limo party bus and play Star Wars on the sound system. On the outside, we set up a little table with popcorn in festive containers to create a movie theater experience, which the kids loved. The bus has a music synchronized laser show that really added a little something to the Star Wars experience.Star Wars Birthday Party Dark Side Movie Theater | www.fivemarigolds.com

Star Wars Birthday Party Dark Side Movie Theater Party Bus | www.fivemarigolds.com

Star Wars Birthday Party Dark Side Movie Theater Party Bus | www.fivemarigolds.com

While I admit, leaving the bus in the garage was mostly practical and was helpful for setting the theme, I didn’t have high hopes that among all the activities that 15 6 year old boys would sit down and watch a movie. I was so wrong! They loved this feature and spent a surprising amount of time watching the movie. Finally, the creme de la creme: the R2D2 cake. A very talented friend (who just opened her own restaurant!) made this for us, and it was as delicious as it was spectacular to look at. The kids waited for me to cut it up, as they all had very specific parts of R2D2 that they wanted to eat.

 

Star Wars Birthday Party Custom R2D2 Fondant Cake | www.fivemarigolds.comThat concludes the food portion of our Star Wars birthday party. Stay tuned for more on our photo booth and Jedi Training activitites! Looking for more Star Wars birthday party ideas? Find my Pinterest inspiration board here.

See Also:

Star Wars Storm Trooper Favor Bags | Five Marigolds

Star Wars Birthday Party, Part II Favor Bags

Star Wars Darth Vader Invitation | Five Marigolds

Star Wars Part III: Custom Invitations and Thank You Postcards

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo! Our Little Boy Turned Two

It was really clear that for Dub’s second birthday it needed to be all about trains.  So off we went – chugga, chugga choo choo! Dub was about to be two!

I searched the internet for train birthday cakes I thought I could pull off. I didn’t find anything especially helpful in terms of tutorials, so I had to eyeball it using carved pound cake (slightly frozen works best) and various garnishments to make it look like a train. We used my favorite almond-flavored pound cake from Tastefully simple since we’re not otherwise big pound cake fans. Frosting this sucker was the worst part – I found the cake to be crumbly, even when slightly frozen, so we had to cake the frosting on to disguise them.cake

Notice the chair cover in the background. I had my mother make covers like this for each of our kids to use on special days: birthdays, first days of school and other celebrations. Since all of our family lives out of state, this travels with us for out-of-town celebrations, and the kids know that when they wake up and see this on their chair in the morning – that we’ll be celebrating them that day. It’s become such a fun tradition for all of us!

2nd birthday cake