"Time Flies" 3rd Birthday Party

Our little blonde haired boy turned three and we decided on an airplane birthday party theme as he loves airplanes so much. I tried to create an airport feel with an entrance to 'Cronjé International Airport' with a few  balloons and shiny Christmas lights. The photo doesn't justify the actual look and feel of the shiny entrance.
For the occasion, I made a blue shirt (thanks Dino Dilly Kids) with our little boy's name inside a cloud and a red airplane with the number 3 cut out, all made with iron-on vinyl. 

Once the guests entered 'Cronjé International Airport' they walked into the luggage station (Bagasie Stasie indicated in blue) with a picture of our little boy as the pilot. Here the kids picked up their party boxes, decorated with airplanes and clouds - more on this below. I also decorated the space with white clouds and red and blue airplanes hanging from the roof. On the wall I added balloons and a name banner with my son's name and age, with shiny blue glitter cardstock. It looked really pretty, but took some time to make.

As mentioned, each child received a party box as they entered through the doors. The boxes were light blue decorated with airplanes cut out in blue and red felt material, as well as white glitter foam used to cut out clouds. Each child's party box was marked with a name tag and each received two tickets for activities throughout the day - details below. Within the party box was chips, smarties, marshmallow ice creams, sour sticks, a lollipop, and a colddrink.

I also made three snacks to add to the party boxes. The first was cloud meringues, some came out nicely and others looked a bit misformed, but nonetheless delicious. I also attempted marshmallow propellers which comprised blue marshmallows dipped in red chocolate. For the propellers I used yellow banana sweets and topped off with a small black piece of licorice. Lastly, I made airplanes with finger biscuits and wafer cookies, decorated with smarties which made it extra delicious.

Within each party box I also placed partyblowers with a self-made airplane theme, a set of six airplane stickers which I printed and I got these cute airplane toys which I added to the party boxes.

Let's talk about the tickets mentioned earlier. For the party, I attempted paint-your-own (PYO) royal icing cookies. To bake is easy and came out perfect, but the decorating skills weren't on my side. I covered the cookies with white royal icing frosting and painted an outline of an airplane with a stencil I made. I also added a pallet with four colours for the painting. I hindsight, I would use smarties or a different way for the pallet as the icing dried and didn't work well for painting, but the kids still enjoyed it.

The tickets came into play when I called all the kids to bring their royal icing cookie admission tickets to receive the cookie with a small paint brush and a cup with water to work on their masterpieces, and enjoy the cookie afterwards. Some attempted to paint but others went straight to eating. The second tickets came into play when it was time to get their bubbles with a self-made airplane theme.

​Even though my artistic skills still need a bit of work, it was really fun to do the ticket activities. We also hired a red and blue jumping castle to fit the theme and keep the kids busy. Some swimming was also done on the hot summary day.

Now the snack table for the adults (and most kids). I decorated the wall with the 'Aidan Airways' sign I made and decorated the table with a light blue table cloth and white clouds. I decided to place plain red and white paper plates and cups with striped napkins on the table. The drinks comprised blue, red and white soft drinks, as well as fruit juice and ice tea. I served a plate with potato chips and another with mini pizzas, cocktail viennas and a variety of cocktail pies. For a fresh element, I served red and white grapes. Finally, I added pretzels, which is such a pilot snack, peanuts and raisins, and a combination of caramel and rainbow coloured popcorn - combining sweet and savoury really is the best.

For lunch we served hamburgers. Again the snacks were a bit too much (and I should've informed the guests that there will be actual food served), so not many ate lunch, but now we have lots of leftovers to freeze and easily take out on lazy evenings. I also ended off the afternoon with ice cream in a cone with delicious strawberry and bubblegum sauce.

Finally, the cake! I decided to make an airplane cake but built it from pieces of cake as I couldn't find an airplane cake tin in time. This was so easy and fun, I would do it this way again. The cake was a plan vanilla cake and I baked a rectangle cake as well as a round one. The cake was put together with caramel - something a cake cannot go without! Finally, I created a banner to fit the theme and added on top of the cake. 

For my son's school birthday party, I decided to bake cupcakes only. Again plane vanilla cupcakes, which I decorated with white icing sugar with a blue icing edge, topped with blue and red sprinkles and finished off with different coloured airplanes which I bought. 

This was such a fun theme to plan, and I really enjoyed making most of the decorations myself, even though it took quite some time. The perfect theme for our in-charge eldest son!

The Invitation