Budget 3rd vintage toy birthday party

We got home from our summer road trip on Saturday afternoon and after some unpacking, thought we should probably get ready for our little Miss 3's birthday party on Sunday.

I had picked up a few vintage toys from Kmart on the way home for only $5 and some $1 lollipops, and had already sent out invites with a cute vintage paper doll on the front. With limited time we thought we would theme it loosely around old school/retro/vintage toys/games/food and use what we had on hand in the house. It was our easiest, simplest party yet, and very low budget. All the details below...

Party: 3rd birthday party
Organised by: me! (Steph Bond-Hutkin and Mr Bondville too)
Location: Sydney
Theme: loosely based around vintage toys and games

Invitation: Made by me. I had received a very cute vintage paper doll sticky memo booklet in an abcd meet-up goodie bag from Vesna (My Little Jedi). I cut and layered white and cream card, added the doll on one side and the kitten on the other. I then stamped a 3 on the front, and an M on the back, and hand wrote all the party details on the back.

Cake: Thinking old school, I made a layered sponge cake with jam and cream. I topped it with some sugar flowers that I happened to have in the cupboard, and added the vintage doll from the invite as a topper and a glitter M from my sister-in-law's Christmas gift tag.

Party food: Mr Bondville made pigs-in-a-blanket and chicken wings for the adults, as well as rice crispy treats and a fantastic watermelon ball basket for the kids. We also served homemade popcorn, Cheezels, caramels (from Down That Little Lane in an abcd meet-up bag), and sugar hearts (from Sweet Style in an abcd meet-up bag), and I made raspberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and strawberry butterflies on top. We offered real lemonade to everyone, and Mr Bondville made the kids orange ice cream floats (spiders).

Decorations: I already had a stash of vintage childrens' hankies which I made into bunting with some bias binding I had on hand and washi tape, also on hand. I picked up huge old-school swirl lollipops from Kmart for $1 each which looked fun on display and they doubled as a take-home gift. The game packaging also looked great. I already had mini Italian juice bottles from other parties and Kikkerland striped straws from Lark which I have used for the last few years. I added cute vintage-style stickers (from Lilypad Designs in the abcd meet-up goodie bag) to the lolly jars and juice bottles. The Talking Tables cupcake stand and paper plates were a gift from my friend Amanda.The table cloth is from Dandi.

Birthday Girl Wears: Tinkerbell costume from her Aunty and big sister wears the eeni meeni miini moh combo dress.

Games/activities: Tiddly winks, marbles, pin the tail on the donkey, and the kids went to town in the toy room. (note: the pin the tail on the donkey game was missing the tails so I made my own).

Tips: It was a very hot day so although we have a great space outdoors for entertaining, we brought the party inside so that everyone would be comfortable. This time I set up the table the night before and put together all the decorations first, and made the food last. I thought that if I didn't get all the food finished, it wouldn't matter as there was already so much. I'm usually rushing around last minute trying to decorate to my vision and not finishing, so this was a much better strategy. We kept things really simple and focussed on the games for the kids and it really was my favourite party to put together - easy, no stress, and fun for the kids. And it was really low-budget, which is a bonus!

Something special: It was so great to have the birthday table set up the night before so that when our little one got up in the morning she had a huge surprise to see her party all ready for her.

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin and Carmen Lee Platt