Young, Wild & Three Birthday Party

My son turned three in March and for his birthday we decided to throw him a Young, Wild & Three Birthday Party which turned out to be more of a bear party but hey bears are wild animals so it works right? If you know my son, you know that he is very wild so the theme was perfect. 

You can do a lot of things with the theme Young, Wild & Three. You can even change it to Young, Wild & Free if you'd like. I tried to focus more on the woodland, camping aspect of the theme but you can also go full tribal or woodland animals if you'd like. 

Since we kept the party small, I tried not to go all out and keep it to the basics - cake and food but I can't help myself and always end up making some sort of decoration. Lucky for you I am sharing some of the decorations with you so keep reading!

The Invitation

To have a party you must first have an invitation. I designed my invitation in Illustrator. I made a plaid background, some arrows and tried my best to design the bear on my son's shirt - close enough!

I then invited our family and some close friends via messenger/e-mail. Save on postage and send e-vites!

The Birthday Outfit

I found a bear shirt in the clearance aisle at Khols for around $2 and was super excited. They had bear shirts in both my boy's sizes so they wore matching shirts. I put my daughter in a shirt that said something about adventure on it. 

I was on the lookout for months for a shirt I liked but everything was 18m or smaller. I almost looked into getting a shirt made that said "Young, Wild & Three" on it so I was happen that I found the bear shirt which ended up inspiring the invitation as well!

The Cake

I decided to attempt to make a naked cake. This was my first time ever making a naked cake and I don't think it turned out to bad although my family's first take on the cake was "Did you run out of frosting?".

The naked cake was fairly easy to make and it was honestly one of the best tasting cakes I've made - chocolate cake and marshmallow fluff frosting.

For decoration, I bought a black bear from Micheals for $4 (that's after a coupon - crazy expensive for a tiny bear). I searched our house, my mom's house and Walmart with no luck. I also made a banner with my son's name on it last minute out of chopsticks and a brown wrapping paper roll. The cake need something besides the bear so I came up with the banner idea the night before the party.

The Food

I tend to go overboard with party food sometimes but it's okay when everybody eats it right? If not then you have leftovers. That is one thing I try to keep in mind - if I'm not going to eat it if it's leftover then don't buy it. 

I tried to keep the theme, Young, Wild & Three, in mind when coming up with food and this is what I came up with:

• Chicken Wings & Ranch 
• Trail Mix Bar
• S'more Krispie Treats - I found the recipe HERE
• Berry Gummies
• Mini Brownies*
• Marshmallow Cookies*
• Cake Balls*

*I got a little carried away my first time shopping at Aldi and bought the Mini Brownies and Marshmallow Cookies so threw them out for the party. Also the cake balls were not planned but I cut the top off the cake to make it flat and you can't let cake go to waste so my husband made cake balls while I decorated the cake.

The wings, trial mix bar and s'more bars were all a big hit. I think this is the most food eaten at one of my parties. 

The Trail Mix Bar - can act as Goodie Bags!

Did you say trail mix? Trail mix is a fun snack you can set out for your guest. Basically buy a bunch of random snacks or pull out some you already have, set it out and enjoy! 

I tried to make the trail mix bar match the theme. I used the wood from our wedding centerpieces to make a variation in height. I rolled brown paper bags and filled them with various snacks. I then wrote "Trail Mix Bar" on a chalk board I had sitting around. I put out some snack bags and a sharpie for guest to take home their own trail mix when the party was over.

The Trail Mix Bar consisted of:

• Peanuts
• M&M's
• Reese Pieces
• White Chocolate Chips
• Chocolate Chips
• Mini Marshmallows
• Teddy Grahams
• Honey Combs Cereal
• Cheerios
• Pretzels
• Gold Fish
• Animal Crackers
• Banana Chips
• Dried Cranberries Mix

Like I said before, I had a lot of the snacks used already at home. I mainly had to buy the peanuts, Honey Combs cereal and Reese Pieces.

You do not need a ton of snacks for a good trial mix - peanuts, something salty, something sweet and something fruity will do just fine.

The Beverages

I didn't do anything cute for the beverages as the only thing I could think of was setting out a pitcher of water and labeling it "Lake Water" or "Watering Hole" but I didn't do that. The beverages consisted of sweet tea, Hawaiian Punch, a few 2 Liters and water. 

The Decorations

I didn't really plan this party out as much as I should of besides the food but it all turned out pretty cute for a small party.

Table:
The night before the party I pulled out my party supplies tub and found both red and black table cloths. I put the black table cloth on the table and folded one of the red table cloths to make a table runner.

I displayed the cake on a wood slab in the middle of the table to act as the centerpiece.

Backdrop:
I also hung a red table cloth over the window to make for a backdrop for pictures. It was to plain for me and to much red.  My husband suggested to add a bear so I pulled out some leftover paper from from my son's second birthday party, sketched a bear and some arrows and wah-lah, we had a cute backdrop.

The night before the party I made this adorable black bear along with the cake topper so I was busy being crafty last minute and of coarse up late but I think the bear turned out pretty cute!

Signs:

The week of the party I decided to make some cute signs to go with the Young, Wild & Three theme. I went to print them off and ended up with black lines across the paper so luckily my mother-in-law was able to print them off and bring them down the day of the party.

I put the signs in some picture fames, glass free of coarse to avoid shattered glass all over the floor, and attempted to display them on the food table. I also hung them above the gift table. 

I designed five signs that read:

• "Young, Wild & Three"
• "Young, Wild & Free"
• "Be brave little bear"
• "Adventure awaits - Oh the places you'll go!" (Mountain and tree design)

I've decided to share the signs with you for personal use only. Click on the link to print out one or all five of the signs:

Click HERE for your FREE Young, Wild & Three signs

Gift Table:
I draped a plaid blanket we had over our coffee table, sat some stuffed bears I found around the house on top of the table and hung three signs above the table. This was an easy way to decorate using items I found around the house that matched the theme. 

You can print out the signs HERE!

He is young, he is wild and he is now three!

Overall my son had a really good third birthday. We celebrated with family, played games and talked. He got dinosaur puppets, a lightsaber, a movie, shoes and clothes. He was super excited for his gifts and cake, so much that he grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen to get his birthday cake rolling. He even tried to dig into the cake before it was cut - baby brother did at his first birthday so why can't I?  I hope you enjoyed the pictures from my son's Young, Wild & Three birthday party and hopefully they help inspire you when planning your child's birthday!

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