Our sweet boy turned two in May. He adores being outside everyday so we decided to celebrate with a Woodland theme birthday party for him and all of his little guests. The weather is very unpredictable in Calgary. However, we decided to take a gamble and host the party outside at a local park with a large BBQ shelter you can rent out and an outdoor park for the kids to run around at.
INVITATIONS
When mailing out the birthday invitations I did put a warning out to parents on the back of the invite that we were going to be doing a messy craft at the party and to come prepared. The birthday invitations were designed on Vistaprint. They were easy to make, shipping was free and the quality of the invites was fantastic in my books.
TREAT BAGS
I am not a big fan of your typical birthday treat bags. I find they are usually filled with little items that kids typically lose pretty quick so instead we decided to set up an outdoor paint station at the woodland theme party. Each of our little guests got to paint a wooden birdhouse and take it home for their own backyard bird friends.
You can purchase larger wooden birdhouses at Michaels Canada for roughly $8 each however some Dollarama stores carry them too for only $3 each in their craft section. A huge savings! We had lots of paint brushes, markers and washable paints on hand along with a box of wipes for easy clean up afterwards. I also covered the two picnic tables with a large roll of simple gift-wrapping paper. This way when the children were all done painting I could literally roll up the paper and have a mess-free clean up once the party was complete.
Each of the birdhouse gift bags also contained a bottle of bubbles for the guests to enjoy at the park. The bubbles are also a great idea I would highly recommend doing because it keeps the bags on the picnic table in place. We had the wind pick up in the midst of the party and everything stayed in place.
FOOD
We kept the food at the birthday party simple yet delicious. My husband prepared smoked sausages on the BBQ from our favorite deli in town, Polcan Meat. I highly recommend trying their sausages at your next summer BBQ! So good. We had lots of guests inquiring into where we purchased the smokies as they are not your average hot dog. We also served a selection of salads to go along with them.
My incredible mom also assisted with the Woodland theme by creating a frog fruit salad bowl and an owl vegetable plate. Don’t they look adorable?!
DESERT TABLE
The kid’s favorite part was definitely the Woodland desert table. The incredible birthday cake that looked like a piece of birch tree was made by the very talented baker Tamara who owns Bake My Day Calgary. The cake flavor was London fog. One of our all time favorites! She also created the mini mushroom cupcakes, which were marble cake flavor.
Other items on the dessert table included Birch Tree twigs. Which my toddler and I made from pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate and then drizzled in milk chocolate. We also had “Catch of the Day” which was a bucket of every toddler’s favorite snack, assorted colors of goldfish crackers and also a bucket of candy berries for the bears in the woodland forest. I also created Smores kits to go. Each of the bags contained Golden Graham cereal, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. The tag on them read “It was Smores fun with you here”. We also had birch looking straws on hand for the kids drinks.
To complete the woodland dessert table look, I arranged some simple white florals with lots of greenery in a mason jar. The extra branches I cut into sections and layered on the table. The flowers were purchased at Amborella Floral in Calgary.
To create a similar woodland dessert table I recommend having two black or white fabric tablecloths on hand. I like black because it stays cleaner longer. To create a two levels on the dessert table I simply put one table cloth on the table first and then put two diaper boxes towards the back of the table and covered them with the second black table cloth. This allows you more room to play with your dessert items. I use diaper boxes because I find them more durable then regular boxes and then use them at the end of the party to store all my decorations to take home in.
FINAL TIPS
If you are looking for bargain “Woodland” type decorations for the party, I highly recommend looking on Kijiji. Look under the weddings section. I was able to find the large wood slices which were already stained with a gloss for a fraction of the price that you would find at the store. Brides are usually just trying to get rid of the stuff leftover once their wedding is complete.
I also created a sign using some left over wood from our recent laundry room renovation for the party. I love how it turned out. The wood was stained and then I used white vinyl to create the lettering and pictures for the sign. We also had a giant acorn piñata made by Picture Perfect Party Piñatas. They are fun to work with and can literally make any type of piñata for your upcoming party.
We really lucked out with the weather for the party. The food was delicious, the birdhouses were painted and our little guy blew out the candles for his second birthday. We loved celebrating the Woodland theme with our family and friends. I highly recommend this birthday theme for your next birthday celebration. It is easy to set up, budget friendly and lots of fun for all the guests. Happy party planning!
Venue: Park 96 Calgary
Birthday Invitations: Vistaprint
Woodland Cake & Cupcakes: Bake My Day Calgary
Florals: Amborella Floral
Acorn Piñata: Picture Perfect Party Piñatas
