Tutti Frutti Party

My daughter recently turned four and we threw her a Tutti-Frutti party. I originally chose the theme, bought a cute shirt that reads "Cutest of the Bunch" and made the invitation at the end of summer so when the time came, all I really needed to get together was the food and being that the theme is Tutti-Frutti, all you technically need is a bunch of fruit and fruit like foods. Who would of thought that throwing a fruit party in December would of been as easy as it was! Check out what I did below.

Food Table:

I arranged the food along with a few signs I designed on the kitchen bar. I tried not to go over board with the party since it was just close family but I did end up going a little overboard with the food table... opps... but at least the majority of the food was fruit so it made for healthy leftovers and a handful of the snacks such as the gummies and Nutri-Grain bars were snacks we already had.

The food table consisted of:

• A Fruit Tray (Strawberries, Pineapple, Cantaloupe, Grapes, Oranges)- My MIL bought the fruit from Kroger
• Bananas
• Halo Oranges
• Blackberries & Blueberries
• Watermelon Fries - Yes we were able to find a watermelon in the middle of winter in the north at Meijer. It was a small watermelon but it got the job done. My husband cut the watermelon to look like fries so it was easier to pick up.
• Fruit Dip for all the fruit
• Motts Fruit Shape Gummies
• Yogurt Covered Raisins
• Peach Rings, Watermelon Bites & Orange Slice Gummies
• Trail Mix with nuts & dried fruit in it
• Nutri-Grain Bars
• Tutti-Frutti Cookie Clusters - I found the recipe from The Domestic Rebel HERE. The cookie clusters aren't the most appealing to look at but they taste pretty good especially right after you mix everything together and they are still warm.
• Strawberry Jelly Donut Oreo Balls - a twist on regular Oreo balls, recipe tutorial hopefully coming soon.
• PB&J Sandwiches
• Sprite Chicken Sliders *see below

Sprite Chicken Sliders are easy to make because you can throw everything in a crock pot and let it cook while you decorate for the party. I found the Sprite Chicken recipe from the Cha Ching Queen HERE. The Sprite Chicken Sliders were a big hit with the guest and go with the party theme perfect because the Sprite gives the chicken a mild citrus flavor. 

If you are making the sliders for a party I recommend cutting the chicken breast in half so they fit better on the Hawaiian rolls or shredding the chicken up. I personally like to top mine with cheese, ketchup, mayo and pickles but you can top it with whatever you'd like or eat it plain. We let the guest serve themselves since everybody likes different toppings.

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Beverages

• Sweet Tea
• Juice
• Cherry Pepsi
• Mist Twist Cranberry
• Cranberry Punch

                   

The Cranberry Punch recipe used is:

 - 3 cups of Cranberry Juice

 - 3 cups of Pineapple Juice

 - 3 cups of Ginger Ale

Mix all ingredients together and chill on ice. You can add frozen fruit to the punch to make it taste fruitier. Make sure not to buy diet cranberry juice because my husband made that mistake so it didn't taste as good. Almost all punch is fruity so you can make any kind you want!

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Watermelon Cake

My daughter picked out a Strawberry cake so I made it, but I made it look like a watermelon. I added chocolate chips to the cake mix to make it look like watermelon seeds once it was cut but they all sunk to the bottom and stuck to the pan so I probably shouldn't of done that but the chocolate chips enhanced the strawberry cake flavor. 

I decorated the cake with pink and green frosting then personalized it and added chocolate chips to look like seeds.

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Decorations

Invitation:

I created my daughter's birthday invitation from scratch. I made the background, found some free fruit clipart and typed up the invitation. If you have been following my blog you know I love designing things. I used Illustrator but there are several free programs out there that allow you to design simple invitations for personal use.

I sent the invitation via e-mail and messenger to our family to save on postage plus everybody ends up throwing invitations away so why waste paper? If you are inviting guests that live close to you, you can print off the invitations and give them to your guest in person. 

Food Table Signs:

I found some cute fruit sayings, designed some fruit in Illustrator, added a background and wha-la, I had my signs. I had them printed and framed them in 8x10 picture frames I already had minus the glass incase they were knocked over. I then set them up along with the food to add an easy, cute and cheap decoration.

You can print the three signs I made for FREE HERE!

I found the backgrounds for the "you're berry special" and "life is sweeter with you!" signs for FREE from Free Pretty Things for You. The site has several free digital paper designs you can use. I used the same background I made for the invitation for the "you're one in a melon" sign. 

Fruit Bunting/Garland:

I found this super cute fruit bunting from Party Delights HERE. They have a free printable you can download along with some other Tutti-Frutti party ideas. All you have to do is download it, print out several copies of it, hole punch it and thread a string or yarn through it so you can hang it. 

I hung the bunting on the window to act as a back drop for when m daughter blew out her birthday candles. I also added it above the gift table and taped some of the fruit triangles on the kitchen cabinets above the food.

Party Colors & Other Decorations:

As far as colors go for the plates, napkins, table cloths and streamers, you can pick any color you want because fruit comes in all different colors. I chose pink, yellow and orange because that is what I had leftover from my daughter's Pink Elephant Birthday Party and my son's Construction Birthday Party thus saving me from buying new ones. 

I repurposed some formula containers to hold the utensils. Formula containers are perfect for holding utensils and storing other things. 

My husband hung streamers over our hallway doorway to surprise our daughter when she woke up. The kids loved running back and forth under it and watching the streamers fly up. Streamers are a cheap and easy way to decorate for any party.

Since my daughter's birthday is in December, our elf, Luna, couldn't help but decorate as well. Luna used Expo markers to write all over the kid's bathroom mirror.

Overall, my daughter's fourth birthday was a success. I think everything turned out super cute and the party was pretty easy to plan! My daughter was blessed with several princess dolls, games and a bike. As far as cost goes, we had to buy ingredients to make the cake and the food because I used leftover party decorations and supplies. There are tons of other decorations and party ideas out there for a Tutti-Frutti party; just search Google or Pinterest (follow me if you'd like) for more ideas.

I saw tons of cute ones, I just tried to keep it simple since it was just family. Your best bet for finding fruit decorations is in the summer or end of summer clearance sales so if you are planning a winter Tutti-Frutti party make sure to plan ahead. I was just at Hobby Lobby yesterday and they had a ton of super cute fruit decor and party decorations from pineapple table cloths to a food tray and party plates all 40% off since it is still winter. It's crazy how stores start releasing their summer decor in January so you can always check Hobby Lobby or your local party store for some decoration ideas!

If your daughter is turning two this would be a great party theme because you can use a play on words and have a "TWO-tti Frutti" party. I tried to use a play on words using four but the only thing I could come up with was "Tutti FOUR-ty" party which made it sound like my daughter was turning forty instead of four so decided it best to stick with "Tutti-Frutti".  I hope you enjoyed this post and it inspires your own Tutti-Frutti party. Feel free to drop a comment below!

Check out my daughter's "Cutest of the Bunch" fruit shirt I got on sale at JCPennny!

Although I did not use them, I figured I would share incase you wanted more options; I found another FREE printable fruit garland from the blog, The Crafting Chicks and watermelon printable from the blog, Hey Lets Make Stuff.