The Little Gardener Party

This post is sponsored by World Market.

Last month my littlest one, Søren, turned 5. I can’t believe all this time has gone by since he was born, it seems like it was just yesterday! He loves the book, The Little Gardener, and helping me in the garden so for his birthday we had a garden themed birthday party. For this post, and quite a few party details I partnered with World Market to help bring his garden party to life.

Above: Food table, hat & florals, party favors, table and benches from World Market’s Praiano Collection.

Decor
Since we completely redid most of our yard this Spring, and since it was a garden party I decided to have it outside. I tried to keep it simple, with a light focus on the garden theme. I drew colors from the books illustrations, and tried to keep the florals similar.  I purchased them from Whole Foods (love their selection!) and arranged myself into galvanized pails. The balloons and paper party-ware I bought from the Oh Happy Day Party Shop. It took around 125 balloons in 4 different colors, both 5″ and 11″ sizes to make the garland. I simply blew them up, tied them together, and kept adding them to a clear fishing line to create a 25ft long balloon garland. My original plan was to add in some greenery from around my yard, but we didn’t quite have time, oops. On the food table, I stapled long pieces of asparagus fern to the fence and added the gold “5” balloon on top.

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Above: Søren enjoying cake, Miss Jones Bundt Cakes, cheese and baguette assortment, Belvoir Fruit Farms lemonade, the whole food table.

Food
I wanted to keep the food for the party easy for me, so I did some simple peanut butter and honey ‘tea’ sandwiches for the kids, and some easy sides like berry salad, colorful chips, cheeses, an antipasti and crudite platter. Since both Søren and I can’t have dairy, I baked the cakes from my favorite baking mixes, Miss Jones. To give them the rough shape you see here, I baked a double batch in a bundt pan although they could look cute in a mini bundt pan too.

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Above: Seed planting table, color a wildflower page, garden snake favors, Søren planting his seedlings.

Activities & Favors
Since the party was garden-themed, I tried to limit activities to that sort of theme. Between potting their own seedlings, coloring wildflower prints (These beauties can be framed! I’m addicted to the coloring book.), reading The Little Gardener, exploring my garden and yard, wearing a sun hat, playing in the sandbox, and getting temporary gold floral tattoos, the kids had plenty to do. Although the kids had lots of activities to do and take home, but the official party favor were these adorable wooden ‘garden’ snakes. I tied a small bow around their neck with a tag that reads, “Thank You!”, to make it a little more official.

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Søren blowing out his candles, The Little Gardener, opening his birthday gift (gift bag, rose gold letters), Small Albino Octopus from BigStuffed Paris, Floral details, giving Mama kisses. I’m wearing my favorite black jumpsuit, and Søren is wearing the Nico Nico Maui Romper with black Saltwaters.

With Søren turning 5, this year’s party was more about making our yard a safe space for him to enjoy with his friends and less about physically having to keep him safe. He is by no exaggeration, an adventurous child, often letting his curiosity get the best of him. It was nice this year to be able to relax and let the party go on without intervention.

Tips for throwing a Fifth Birthday:

1. Keep the guest list small. I usually advise this every year, but as kids get older and interact with their friends more, it helps them to feel less overwhelmed if they are able to devote time to each friend. This year I let him invite a few friends from school (I think there were 6 total), and we invited some grandparents. That’s it! In other years I’ve had huge parties for him, but having one this intimate just felt right.
2. Keep it simple! I can’t stress this enough. You don’t need to go all out and do a whole down-to-ever-detail themed party. The kids will only slightly remember it more than if you hadn’t. They will remember spending time with people they care about more (see above!).
3. Easy food is the best food. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a sit-down meal for any of the parties I’ve thrown. Keeping food simple helps keep me less stressed, and more importantly my guests happy. I try to schedule the party just after lunch (1PM) so the kids had an opportunity to eat beforehand if they wanted to.
4. Don’t let the party drag on. While it’s nice to mingle with guests, your job as the hostess is also to make sure the party progresses how it should. I keep ours to around 2 hours max. to keep guests from feeling bored or overwhelmed for a long period of time.
5. Don’t tell them to be thankful, show them. This is a little bit of an off-shoot from party advice, but the best way to teach your little ones to be thankful is by modeling it for them. It’s okay to remind them every now and then to thank someone, but by showing them that you are, they will learn the right time for them to be as well.

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Do you have little ones? Do you love planning their party?

This post was sponsored by World Market, a place I’ve loved and shopped at for years. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much for helping to support the sponsors that make life here a little sweeter.

Photos by Sarah Hettervik & Kate Skogen for Hej Doll.