Little Blue Truck 3rd Birthday Party

Ry's favorite book is Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. He has it memorized and loves all the sounds the truck and farm animals make. To celebrate his 3rd birthday, we got down on the farm.

I wasn't as on the ball with this party as I usually am, but we had fun anyway!

Riding his new 'tractor' with some help from Dad. (Can't quite reach the pedals yet!)

Invitation
I found this free printable. It was easy to download the graphic, and add it to a Word document. I added the "Moo Cluck Peep..." etc. animal sounds and the wording.

I downloaded P.T. Barnum font (free download here) and used it for the wording. It's very similar to the font used in the book.

Let's talk decorations!
I had wanted to make a photo prop, and I remembered that our Library had had one at a storytime about a year and a half ago. So I e-mailed the children's librarian to see where they had gotten theirs or if she had a pattern or tutorial to use. Perfect timing, I guess, because she was just cleaning out the storage closet and was going to throw it away, so she GAVE it to me. SWEET! Free decor!

I looked all over and couldn't find animal mylar balloons [bummer!!!], so we just did blue and yellow balloons instead.

I kept the rest of the decor pretty simple, just a can of yellow flowers, a wooden crate, and some galvanized tin trays. And the Little Blue Truck book, of course!

I stuffed bandannas into jelly jars and added utensils. The adults used the jelly jars for drinking glasses and I got a few take and toss cups for the kiddos. We used the bandannas as cloth napkins. I lined plastic diner baskets with parchment paper to use instead of plates. Cute and less waste than disposables!

I found some super cute Little Blue Truck graphics on the publisher's website. Couple clicks later and I have cute food tags.

Menu
We did a farm theme lunch menu. I wanted it to be yummy, but kid friendly. Seemed to go over well!

• Grilled Chicken Tenders (no breading, just threw some chicken pieces on the grill)
• BBQ Sauce
• Deviled Eggs
• Biscuits
• Blueberry Jam
• Fresh Veggies
• Fresh Berries
• Ranch Dip
• Dill Pickles
• Watermelon
• Potato Chips (Cape Cod and Kettle brand plain chips are gluten free!)
• Apple Pies in Jars w/ Vanilla Ice Cream
• Sunflower Cookies
• Lemonade
• Iced Tea

Activities
The Pigs Are Loose!!
This was a simple activity, basically we blew up a bunch of pink balloons and the kids rounded them up and put them in the 'corral' [a laundry hamper].

Storytime
We gathered on a comfy blanket and read The Little Blue Truck book aloud, complete with ALL the animal sound effects. :)

Duck Pond
I filled up Ry's kiddie pool and we floated frogs and ducks in the 'pond'. It was a hot day, so it was nice to have a place for the kids to splash and cool down.

Free Play
I put out a few of Ry's toys - balls, Tonka dump trucks, tractor toys, etc. In between running around the yard in circles, the kids played with the toys.

It was fun to see the Ry playing with the other kids. He's finally at a developmental stage where he's playing interactively with other children and he was definitely having a good time!

I had a few other activities planned in case of rain. (I really thought it was going to rain, but surprise! It ended up HOT and sunny!) Check out my Pinterest idea board here.

Happy Birthday, my big boy!!!