Forest's Art Party

Forest turned 3 exactly a month ago today and I am just now posting about his birthday party! Three-years ago Laine is rolling in her grave right now. One excuse is that we've just been so busy I haven't had the time and the second reason is that my mom was the official photographer and I forgot to download the pictures onto my computer. I took a few myself so that will have to do for blog purposes! 

I wanted to do an art themed birthday party for his second birthday but we ended up having so much going on that we opted for a low key celebration with his very best buds instead. When we moved to The Woodlands we went to a playdate held at Paint and Bubbles Studio which is an art studio for littles (and grown ups too). Forest was obsessed with all the different art stations there and when I found out they did birthday parties I immediately asked if his birthday was available. *Spoiler Alert* It was!!!

Forest is the artist of the family. Momma tried.

The flat fee covered up to 12 participating guests and I figured we’d come in way under that number since we’d just moved here. However, Forest had a great turn out from his preschool buddies, plus a few friends we've met from around town who came to celebrate with us. We ended up with exactly 12 kiddos and they all seemed to have a blast. It warmed my heart to see Forest thriving with all of his buddies around. 

The studio definitely catered it to a 3 year old boy and many of the art stations featured dinosaurs and trucks. They’ll happily do a theme if you have one in mind but since our “theme” was art itself, I told them just to feature various “boy” things and they delivered! They had a station where the kids could dip the wheels of a truck into metallic paint and then drive it over black construction paper and all the kiddos were so enamored with this that they hardly could hardly be enticed to do anything else! 

They also had a dinosaur/fossil station where they had a special kind of play doh made with coffee grounds that looked and felt exactly like mud. 

Once he was convinced to leave behind the trucks, this is where Forest spent the most time. He liked it so much that the owner gave me the recipe and we’ve since made it at home. It’s a great ‘sick day’ project.

There was also a giant coloring sheet which all the kiddos colored on and we got to take home as a keepsake, a handprint stegosaurus craft, a monster craft, pumpkin masks, foam pumpkins with letter stickers for kids to decorate with their names, and  a ‘make a truck’ glue and construction paper project. 

Plenty of activities to keep twelve 2-5 year olds busy for 2 hours. 

Since the shin-dig was from 3-5 PM, we kept the party food simple with fruit, veggie, and sandwich trays and we had a cookie cake from Nestle Tollhouse. 

Forest racked up on gifts too. 

My strategy is to give him one new toy a week which should last him at least until Christmas and then we’ll start the process all over again. 

Spoiled rotten.

But y'all, the party was such a success and I plan on holding all future birthday parties there. Or at least I've resolved to never have another one at home. It was so nice to show up with food and just leave the mess behind 2 hours later. Thanks Paint and Bubbles and everyone who came to celebrate the birthday boy!