I mentioned last week how Peanut had her 3rd birthday party and shared with you a little about what all we did to make her party extra special. However, since her party didn’t exactly fall on her birth-DAY, we knew we still wanted to make her actual birthday special too…even though we wouldn’t be spending more money on another cake or presents and such. What we came up with ended up being so enjoyable that in the future we may even consider making more birthdays like this as it turned out to be so much more memorable and fun than presents could ever be.
Peanut woke up to quite a surprise on her birthday morning–a door covered in crepe paper. While she was a little scared of it at first, when I told her she had to run through it to begin her third birthday, she finally gave it all she got and ran through with a vengeance.
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| Crepe paper door. |
Once through, she began the day with a glass of milk and pancakes–no ordinary milk and pancakes mind you but BIRTHDAY milk and pancakes.
For the birthday milk, I dipped the glass in melted almond bark followed by sprinkles.
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| Milk glass dipped in melted almond bark and sprinkles |
As you can tell she loved eating the almond bark and sprinkles trim. By the end her face looked like she had Hello Kitty whiskers!
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| Peanut’s lovely milk glass sprinkles face. |
For the birthday pancakes I modified a homemade yellow cake mix recipe for the pancakes, topped it with a simple powdered sugar and milk icing and of course, more sprinkles.
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| Birthday Cake Pancakes |
Birthday Cake Pancake Recipe
2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/3 c. sprinkles
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. milk
3 eggs
Mix and prepare on griddle as you would regular pancake batter.
Note: To help prevent melting of the sprinkles, I would fold them in last. I didn’t do this and the pancakes turned purple. That’s one of Peanut’s favorite colors so she thought it was great, but if you would rather have a more traditional birthday pancake effect, you may want to gently fold them in last.
Icing Recipe
1 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix and pour over pancakes. Top with sprinkles.
Next Peanut was given 3 balloons for being 3 years old.
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| 3 activity balloons |
In each balloon was an activity for her to complete during the day.
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| The papers inside each balloon–1) Go to the zoo. 2) Popcorn and a Movie. 3) Take a bath. |
The first activity we completed was a trip to the zoo. Goose received a free zoo pass from his work so we got to go for free and we had a blast. Lesson learned: never be afraid to ask your company if they have any corporate passes or tickets for area attractions. Goose would have never known if someone hadn’t mentioned it to him one day at work.
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| Peanut posing on the biggest lion because “I’m bigger!” |
It just so happened that Clifford the Big Red Dog was at the zoo on the day we went so both girls got new books to read and fun dog ears in addition to seeing all the spectacular animals.
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| Teacup demonstrating her new dog ears. |
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| Peanut talking to the big black bear. |
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| Teacup hanging out in the stroller. Goose and I laughed because every time we’d turn to check on her she always had her foot propped up on the side of the stroller as if to say “this is the life.” |
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| Peanut playing in the zoo’s water fountains. Yes, that is a statue of an alligator behind her. No, it’s not real. 😉 |
On the way home, Peanut got to stop by Baskin Robbins to get her free birthday ice cream. Since they gave her such a big scoop we opted to just stick with the ice cream instead of have popcorn. However, we did still watch a movie per the instructions of balloon number two. Her selection–Thomas the Train’s Birthday Train. Thank you Netflix.
Lastly, for her third balloon, she had a fun sensory bath filled with balloons. Each balloon had several different kinds of sensory activities.
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| Peanut’s birthday sensory bath. |
Items in our balloons: Capsule creatures (zoo animal sponges that grow from small capsules in water), a bead necklace and bracelet, food colored water, and glow sticks.
She had so much fun watching the creatures grow and coloring the water different colors as she popped the water filled balloons. It was a perfect ending to a fun and eventful day.
So how much did this birthday fun cost?
Dollar Tree items:
Crepe Paper=$1
Package of balloons=$1
Capsule creatures=$1
Glow sticks=$1
Necklace and bracelet=$1
Zoo pass=Free through Goose’s work
Pancake ingredients=no extra cost as I already had the items in the pantry.
Birthday ice cream=Free (it pays to sign up for their birthday emails)
Movie=No extra cost.
Grand total for an unforgettable birthday=$5!
How’s that for a fun yet frugal day?!
Got any more fun and frugal birthday ideas? Do share. After this one I know I’ll be looking for more fun ideas for the future. This was a day I don’t think any of us will soon forget.
