Abigail's 3rd Birthday!

Thought I would share some photos from my daughters 3rd birthday, and pass on some fun ideas for simple and frugal party decor.  :) Afterwards, I took the paper lanterns and hung them up in the kids rooms for some fun bedroom decor! Didn't really feel like throwing them away. :o)

    I usually draw out the letters for a banner, but decided to print them out this year and then color them in with crayons. Here is the link to the large printable letters I used. I also did a wavy trim with some scissors around the letters to cut off some of the white paper. I printed out clusters of hearts and stars that I created in the Paint program on the computer and cut them into small groups to scatter around the banner and use as the exclamation mark.

    For decorating the dining area, I found this video tutorial on how to make paper chinese lanterns. I absolutely love chinese lanterns and wanted to try and make one myself. I like the more round ball like ones that you can put a (battery-powered) tea light candle in, but I wasn't able to make a trip to dollar tree. They have carried them before, but thats not to say they would for sure have them! :o) So this paper lantern worked just fine. They were so easy and only took like a few minutes to make! I like how the light shines through the slits in the paper.





    I then made the popular paper chain to hang them on. I also made some paper balloons that are hanging on the chandelier. I want to try and make a larger version of these and then put a tea light (battery-powered) inside. Maybe for the next b-day in our family I will give it a go. :o) Here is a video tutorial on how to make the paper balloon.

Jedidiah (being a boy) and Abigail
(admiring her cake.)

Little fingers had already begun to find this cake...

She says, "cheese"!!