Birthday Party themed birthday party

We are knee deep into planning Henry's 4th, which was a good reminder that I never posted pics of his 3rd birthday.  It was photogenic, if I do say so myself.  And luckily, it was captured by Lumatic Imagery.  

I've been pushing this "birthday party" theme for a while--classic party, classic colors, no overt theme--like how a birthday party would look in an old picture book.  Now that I'm kinda into balloons, I had the idea to do a crazy balloon arch in the middle of a field.  I had this idea from a visit to our fav Indianapolis park, Holiday Park the preceding fall, so when it turned out we were moving across the country about a month after Henry's birthday....that only emphasized just how important it was to make this party happen.  We actually showed our house with all these balloons blown up and weighted down under tarps in the back yard.  

So we went with a chic picnic because of the location.  Obvs I had to have animals and dinosaurs with party hats on.  I think I got the idea for lots of animal walker balloons from an old Bailey Quinn pic, but I can't find it now.   Anyway--these walker balloons were loads of fun.  I love classic gold crowns and to make sure they weren't theme-y, we added capes (from eBay).   Black polka-dot balloons were added to keep the pallet from being too sweet.  I was trying to keep it picture perfectly un-perfect.

The picnic tables are sheets of MDF from Lowes (standard size...8ft I think) on top of milk crates.   The MDF is wrapped in a vinyl tablecloth.  The picnic blankets are large drop cloths from Lowes that we painted stripes onto.  The cake was served from a picnic table we had moved to the side.

I paid slightly too much for these wooden berry baskets that we tucked food into.  It got Chick-fil-A nuggets for kids, and packed it up with a juice box, grapes, and goldfish (I think...something to that effect).  I found the checked waxed paper on Amazon.  There were boxed lunches for adults, too.  The confetti is punched cardstock--doesn't blow away quite as much.  The cupcakes are from the grocery store, and I added the chocolate ganache drizzle and sprinkles and cherry.

Tablecloth from Amazon

We kept it simple on favors--Confetti Lollipops from Azalea Circle Sweets.  And the capes of course.

(Confetti Lollies are being reposted)

I actually rented a UHaul van for this party--we loaded up the van with everything except food, including extra large garbage bags full of inflated balloons.  A new level of crazy for me.  

These balloons were supported by PVC pipe in a 5 gallon bucket filled with a 40 lb bag of Quickcrete each.  That's a pool noodle arching between the PVC pipe.  And it fell over pre-party and post-party (my mom kept guard during the party).  On a day that I'm pretty sure no one thought was windy.  Now that I live by the water...this will never, ever happen again.  But my siblings and I can fondly remember the day they helped make a balloon arch under my super chill tutelage.

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