POOHresley is THREE

I've said it before but I'll say it again, I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS THREE! Geez where does the time go. It's been a little over a year now since her Winnie the Pooh obsession began so I thought it'd be the perfect theme for her birthday this year. Plus there's so much material so I thought it'd be really fun to plan/craft for.

Come join us in the Hundred Acre Wood to celebrate POOHresley’s third birthday! We will have some smackerels to eat plus a few good friends and a stick or two. It will be as sweet as a pot of hunny. We hope you can join us!

I wrote most of this blog post in October before baby Leo got here because I'm crazy. OR am I actually smart?? Eh? A good portion of my pre-baby to-do list included all of the things I wanted to make for Presley's birthday party. I knew I wouldn't be up to going all-out with a 3 year old and 2 month old so I wanted to get the majority of the crafting done while I had the time/energy. I love little details and wanted to spend the time I could making this party just POOHfect for my POOHresley.

I did my typical buy one thing at a time at Hobby Lobby method because it works for me. Here's how that works: I sat down one night and researched and planned the whole party like 6 months in advance. I wrote a list of everything I wanted to make and everything I needed to do so. I put it on my phone and every time I went to Hobby Lobby I bought one thing for the party with my 40% off coupon. OR if something I needed was already on sale I'd just buy it then. HL is 2 minutes from me and I go like 3 times a week and I realize that this is a weird thing to do so this method isn't realistic for most people. BUT for me it works and in the end the whole party (sans the food) ends up being 40-50% off! It really does add up and I usually end up saving $50-100 doing it this way. I'm a psycho planner so doing it this way just comes unusually natural for me. 

Here are the things I made:

Hunny pots

"Happy Birthday" banner

"Pres" banner for mantle wreath
Paper leaves for the big paper tree
Tree made from brown wrapping paper (2 rolls)

Bees+bee hives to hang from the ceiling

Misc paper signs 'TTFN", "For the rumbly in your tumbly", etc

Cardboard signs for the door "Mr Sanderz" and "Rnig Also"

Little honey jars w/ bee fabric + Pooh quote (party favors)

Rabbit's garden wood signs

"Pooh and Presley corner" wood sign

Wood slice chalkboard with Pooh quote

Pin the tail on Eeyore
Wood slice food labels

Things I bought/already had/borrowed:

Little woodland creatures

Acorns 

Burlap table runners

Little straw hat for Rabbit's garden

Little watering can for Rabbit's garden

Little wooden food signs

Big balloon + Pooh
Lots of Command hooks and stickers to attach things to the wall/ceiling
Fresh flowers (got mine at Kroger)

Food:

Beehive cake + cupcakes

Rotini pasta salad (Tigger tails) [from Tazikis]

Vegi tray with ranch (Vegetables from Rabbit's Garden) [Costco]

Applesauce pouches (Kanga's pouch) [GoGo Squeeze from Costco]
Hot ham sandwiches (Hunny Ham Sandwiches)
Pigs in a blanket (Pig(let)s in a Blanket) [frozen from Costco]

Pink punch (Piglet's Pink Lemonade)
Sweet Tea (Tigger Tea) [Milo's sweet tea]
Honey for party favor honey jars

I think that a great themed party is all in the little details. I like for it to be an immersive experience from the second you walk in. I decorated the front door like Pooh's house, complete with Rabbit's garden.

I downloaded  a few songs to have playing in the main room that you could hear when you opened the door. The playlist included the Winnie the Pooh theme song, A Few Good Friends (from Piglet's Big Movie), Little Black Rain Cloud, Rumbly in my Tumbly, etc). Along with this TRULY MASSIVE BALLOON HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SUCH A THING??? I bought it at Hobby Lobby thinking it was going to be a little bigger than a regular balloon. I sent Matt with it when he went to go pickup the balloons the day of the party. Then he came home with THIS and I couldn't stop LOLing. They charged him $10 to blow it up because it was so huge. So the entry hall was the only place it'd fit and not be in the way. And it legit took up the whole room. This pleased me.

"For the Rumbly in your Tumbly"

And the main room! And duh the best one because it had all of the food.

For the beehives I just got a 3-pack of yellow paper lanterns at Hobby Lobby and made some little bees and glued them on. I made the bees out of tiny wooden pots from Joanne (lol that they make these), paint, little black pom poms, iridescent translucent white paper for the wings, and skinny black beads for the stinger. I hung them to the ceiling with Command hooks that don't hurt the paint.

For the tree I legit had no idea what I was doing and really can't really tell you exactly what I did because I don't really know. It's made of 1.5 rolls of brown wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby. I just crumpled it up and attached to the wall with Command strips. I got 10ish sheets of green paper in different tones and cut leaves out. After I got the tree up I hot glued them on. I got the little squirrel at Michaels.

I got the big wood slice above from Hobby Lobby painted it with chalkboard paint and wrote a cute Pooh quote:

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart"

I also liked using some of the 80 Pooh books we had in my decor. I used the little wood slices to write the names of food on in a big bag for $4 at Hobby Lobby as well.

This table had plates, napkins, forks, Presley's special cupcake, party favors and the guest book (a Pooh book that I had everyone sign).

I made these little jars and filled them with honey for party favors.

I had some simple decor on the kitchen table:

And here's the living room! I got this cute window at a garage sale across the street a year ago for ONE DOLLAR! I hung a cheap grapevine wreath from it with a little banner I made with Presley's nickname on it. The shutters always live on my mantle so I just used little clothespins to hang my favorite Pres pics up. I made the "Happy Birthday" banner with cute paper I cut out and glued to twine.

But my favorite part is my floating Pooh. It's just clear thread that I sewed through the top of Pooh's head and hung with a Command hook. I also sewed his hands together then I just tied a balloon to him. Matt and I got Presley this Pooh in the Magic Kingdom when we went to Disney World a few years ago. This was a good year before the Pooh obsession began. Nailed it.

We served drinks at our bar (as you do at a bar). We had water, cucumber water, a pink punch (Piglet's Pink Punch), sweet tea (Tigger Tea), Coke and Diet Coke. I got the cute red fan things at Hobby Lobby. It was like $6 for 6 of them (and of course I used my coupon so they were super cheap).

We also had pin the tail on Eeyore but totes forgot to play. 

But I can't forget my very favorite part, my very own little Christopher Robin. I got the shirt/pants on Kohls.com then got white fabric paint and painted the shirt to look like Christopher. I got the red mocassins on Ebay for $5 and just cut the fringe off.

Here are a few more pics!

LOL at our family pic.

That's about it! Thanks so much for reading.

TTFN! TaTa for Now!!