Has anyone done a mixed theme or no-theme b-day party??

[annasmom]

This might sound like a strange (And slightly stupid) question, but I am just beginning to wonder if I am making things harder on myself by not picking a birthday party theme for Anna's birthday.

When I started planning, I wanted to do a gender neutral farm animal party. I got the invitations, reserved the pony, etc. Well, then I had to return the invites because I needed more than the store had, so we went with a very pink invite (Anna's choice). Anna has since expressed the fact that she wants a pink Dora cake, pink balloons, and pink just about everything. Which is all fine.

I guess my question is, do I cave in just do a really girly party, or go ahead with the farm animals too. I was thinking about amending my original plan, but just not having a real *theme,* iykwim?? I told you, weird question.

BTW, I know Anna will just love the animals too. She isn't all *that* girly, she is currently just in a EXTREMELY pink phase!!

[Jenn98]

We aren't planning any kind of theme either. It's DD's first birthday, so we have planned two get togethers. The first is on a Sunday afternoon and is for family and childless friends (we are the first of our generation in the family to have kids). It'll just be a nice family gathering with lots of food, cake and gift-opening, maybe we'll fire up the grill. The second party is on a Monday afternoon and is for our play group and any friends who have little ones. It's going to be just like a regular play group where all the kids come and play, but there will be cupcakes mixed in with the regular snacks and then we'll open gifts.

I decided to not do a theme because it seemed to really complicate things. But that's just what works for me. HTH

Jenn

[aliceinwonderland]

Yeah, we don't do themes. For anything :)

[AmyZ]

My neighbor did a "purple" theme b'day... so you could certainly do "pink". I think they let the kids put purple streaks in their hair and had purple balloons etc...

You could call the theme "pink and ponies" if it makes you feel better! :-)

Amy Z

"Ma!" to Eliana 2/04 - She's 2!
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[mamicka]

I don't think it will really matter at all if you mix themes. Pink Ponies, Pink at the Zoo, whatever you call it, it'll be fine.

Have a great time!
Allison

[KBecks]

Alek's first birthday had balloons on the invitation, and so I did some light decorations in the same colors as the invite and had the same colors on the cake (gave a copy of the invite to the bakery). That's as theme-y as we got, and it worked out fine. Had the matching thank you notes.

If she's loving pink and you're not invested in the farm theme, then go ahead and give her a pink pink party, you can keep the pony, as ponies are always, always popular!!

[miki]

No theme is perfectly fine and just as much fun for the kids. Plus, since Anna is turning 3 and knows what a party is and is expressing her preference for perfectly reasonable party things, why not let her take part in the planning? It would be one thing if she was asking for a herd of sheep at the party but there's nothing wrong with pink cake with pink balloons. The way I look at it, the first birthday party was for me, the rest are DD's.

[annasmom]

I completely agree and definitely plan on having lots of pink, a Dora thing or two, and anything else that floats her boat! She just isn't really ready to help me plan though, Anna is sometimes a tad fickle, lol! My dh suggested that I let her decide on the invitations when we were at the card store, one minute she wanted pink invites, the next minute she wanted pirates, the next it was boats, iykwim!

I want to thank everyone for your responses. This is a pretty obvious question and answer - do what makes her happy. This is our first big birthday party, and for other reasons it has become unnecessarily complicated so my head is spinning a bit! I just had lunch with my dh and we agreed to downplay everything a bit.

[Ceepa]

Soon before DS's birthday he was into Elmo, fire trucks and barns with farm animals so .... the answer was obvious for me: A red birthday party.

Although there seemd to be no theme at first we kind of shoehorned everything together and it worked beautifully.

It's like decorating a house. Even if nothing seems to match but you love each piece, it will all work together!

-Ceepa

[trentsmom]

DS's first birthday party didn't have a theme. My best friend asked me what the theme was, and I said, "Birthday." She said that she should have known since his nursery didn't have a theme either!

I love the idea of having a color as a theme. I hope I remember that when birthday party time rolls around again!

[punkrockmama]

Hugs, I know how it is to start overthinking and make things harder on yourself than they really have to be.

Themes, no themes, 10 different themes. It dosen't matter. I know you know it's just all about the kids having a good time. Which they'll do no matter what. You have fun too. Use the pink invites, the Dora cake, etc...Keep the pony. Maybe you could even find pink cowboy hats for the rides? Throw in whatever else you have already for the farm animal part.

For Peyton's 1st bday I got a cake shaped like one of those ABC wooden blocks with his initals. Just because that looked the coolest when I went to the bakers to order,lol. It was done in bright colors so I went out and bought red, blue, yellow, green balloons. Did the same for the plates, cups, etc...That was it. Cute, and I wasn't running around looking for things in order to matchy matchy.

Just throw it together and enjoy her birthday. Congrats! :)

[aguinn]

For BB's party tomorrow we have pizza and ice cream cone cakes with frosting on Zoo Pals plates and fruit in Mickey Mouse bowls. I'm making the kids some flubber to play with and they are going to run through the sprinkler on our new lawn to keep cool and stay out of the house. Oh, and we have multiple sheets of various kinds of stickers, and I bought Dora, Backyardigans and Spiderman bandaids to give out as prizes - lame, yes, I know, but if you've ever seen my BB go through bandaids you'd understand.

You can't get any less of a theme than that!

;)amy
momma to DS#1 "Big Brother" (BB) and, finally, DS#2 "Little Brother" (LB)

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"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." ~ Neil Postman

[niccig]

I think trying to stick to a certain theme can sometimes be over the top for a birthday party. It can be difficult to get everything to match, and then you worry about it not matching and will people notice. And really, in the end, it doesn't matter to your DC or the other kids. They just want to have fun, so plan things that will allow them to do that. If you have a few themed things, work with that, rather than trying to get everything to be the same.

So what did we do. DS loves his radio flyer wagon, so for the invites we took a photo of him in the wagon, the wagon was at the park for kids to ride in, and I decorated a cake to look like a wagon - the cake is in a recipe book of mine and that's what sparked the idea. The decorations were bright, bold, colours and the party favours were art supplies I picked up at Michaels. Much easier than searching high and low for wagon decorations and wagon favours, if they even exist. It was at the park, and we brought an Ikea tunnel and several balls in addition to the play equipment. It was a great party. I'll do the same for future parties, get DS's input, have a few things around that theme and the rest will be whatever works.

Nicci