Birthday Party Prep

For Adley's 3rd birthday party this year, I decided to plan it around an ice cream theme. Our little girl is a somewhat picky eater and is surprisingly even choosy about her desserts. The only cookie Adley will eat is an Oreo, she only eats the frosting off cakes and cupcakes, and she doesn't even like brownies. Whose daughter is this anyway?!? The one dessert that Adley will never turn down, however, is ice cream! This girl adores any flavor of ice cream and often happily giggles as she's eating it. An ice cream birthday party definitely seemed fitting for our ice-cream-loving girl!

As soon as I got this idea, my sister suggested that I email Blue Bell (our favorite Texas-based ice cream company) to ask for some donations for Adley's party. Most especially, I hoped to receive paper ice cream hats that the kids could decorate at the party and some ice cream cups we could eat from. Well, after emailing the company, I was contacted by the sweetest employee, a gal named Shelby. Shelby not only agreed to give our family the items I requested, she also happily said she'd throw in a few other Blue Bell items. And get this-- Shelby even said she would personally deliver the items to our home!!

We were so honored that this Blue Bell employee took time out of her day to stop by our house, meet Adley, and gift us with some wonderful party items. What a wonderful company!

In addition to the ice cream cups and hats, Shelby also gave Adley this gift, "wrapped" in a pink gallon ice cream container. We had Adley wait until her party to open the gift (as that's what Shelby requested). The gift was a stuffed cow with a Blue Bell shirt, a Blue Bell magnet, another smaller ice cream container (that Adley loves playing pretend with in her kitchen), a plastic ice cream bowl and spoon, and two coupons for free gallons of ice cream. Woo-hoo! What a kind gesture!

A couple weeks before the party, Adley and I spent an afternoon over at Grammy and Papa's house since Grammy had graciously offered to help with party preparations. I had ordered a set of plastic ice cream bowls and spoons from Amazon that we could use as party favors. Adley and Grammy readied the favors by packing them with candy.

Then, Grammy helped me prep a few more items (an ice cream cone banner and some tissue paper ice cream cones). Papa was happy to entertain Adley while Grammy and I worked!

A couple nights before the party, Grammy and Aunt Kim came over to help with the cake and some other final details. Grammy and Adley worked on assembling and gluing clip art pictures for a scavenger hunt.

Kim put up lots of decorations--balloon bunches and streamers.

Mom took over with spreading the icing on the cake--a job that I always get nervous about!

Mom and Kim then guided me through the decorating process for this cute ice cream themed cake. I love how it turned out!

Yay!! What a blessing to have this generous gift of time from family. It always makes party prep so much more fun to have company! Thanks a million, Mom and Kim!

Here are some other photos of party decor on the morning of the party--

Here's the ice cream cone banner that Mom made. So lovely!

I made my own tassels for this garland. It took some time, but I loved being able to choose exactly the colors I wanted. The pastels were perfect for our ice cream theme.

I made these tissue paper pom poms, Mom cut construction paper cones, and... Voila! A perfect ice cream cone!

Here are the final party favors that Adley and Grammy assembled. The tag says, "You're So Sweet!"

Mo Willem's book, "Should I Share My Ice Cream?" was an easy pick for Adley's birthday book this year. She absolutely loves the Elephant and Piggie series. When our family arrived at the party, we had everyone sign this book so it would be a special memory book for years to come, always reminding Adley of this party day! :)

On the day of the party, Grammy and Papa came over an hour early to help with dinner preparations. These two always jump right in and know just what to do to make parties go smoothly! Love you, Mom and Dad! Jason, also, is a faithful husband whose first question is often, "How can I help?" His assistance gearing up for these days is also a constant! Thanks to you too, love!

And just like that-- the party was ready to go. We were set to celebrate our special 3 year old!