When I originally asked Ridge what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he wanted a big snake party. Lots of big snakes. Um, nope. Sorry, dude, that’s not happening. 😉 So we settled on all kinds of animals and a jungle themed party! We did buy him a giant stuffed snake, though, and it is pretty cute (for a snake). Celebrating his 3rd birthday was so fun, and I truly loved putting this shindig together! I am sharing the party details with you all today, including the decorations, favors, activity, music, and birthday gift ideas for 3 year old boys. Later this week I will share all of the gluten free, dairy free food details!
Opening his gifts before church that morning. The faces he made were the best!
You’ve gotta get all the chocolate off the candles and the animals! 😉
Most of the crew having some snacks and cake!
Invitations
The first step was finding the invitations, and thankfully Paperless Post had reached out about working together again. Their cards are always so cute, convenient, and easy to use. Plus they’re much more affordable than sending printed invites. I liked to do that for the boys’ first couple of birthdays, then I switched to online. Here is the one that we used for Ridge’s jungle party. This picture set the tone for all of the decor!
You can click here to see the exact one we used, but there are so many fun ones! We have used Paperless Post for baby showers, and I’m even using them for our Halloween trick-or-treating gathering this year.
I always like to print out the invitation to put in a frame as a part of the decor.
Decorations
We kept the decor relatively simple this year. We used houseplants, balloons, animals, and my mom made tiny party hats for the animals. She also brought over fern leaves and another type of leaf (no clue what it’s called) from her yard. The vases are from her business. She put together the greenery arrangements for me, and brought over a few of her houseplants. All of the details are listed below the pictures.
Happy Birthday banner | Animal Figurines | Polka Dot Balloons | Leaf Print Napkins |
Stuffed Snake (on the chandelier) | Plastic Gold Flatware |
My mom always helps me take a party to the next level. And yes, she and I both wore animal print to match the theme, obviously!
How cute are these teeny tiny party hats that my mom made?! I found paper to coordinate with the invitation and overall look at Hobby Lobby. The tiniest felt pom balls are from Hobby Lobby as well. She attached the hats to the animals with glue dots.
This one was my favorite! Here’s the link to the set of animal figurines again. I checked a few stores and these were the most economical. They stood up on their own really well, too. Ridge will continue to play with them, so we’re keeping them in the playroom.
Favors
I love using gifts as party favors. We gave one of these Cat in the Hat Safari books to each family. I used ribbon that I had on hand. Why I had giraffe print ribbon? Who knows. But it worked!
Activity
We really wanted to have a bounce house that would accommodate ages 2-8. I found Now It’s a Party through a suggestion on instagram, and we were really happy with them. This is one of their combo bouncers. I checked a couple of companies, but this was the best deal, and the kids LOVED it! (Not sponsored).
Todd handled the kids inside the bounce house while we chatted outside. Kidding – he was the bounce house referee, but the whole thing was a little wild, so all of the parents were “on” during the party. So thankful that none of the kids got hurt in the bounce house, because they were playing hard! We invited our families, some neighbors, and our close group of friends. These girlfriends of mine are the biggest blessing!
Music
Whenever Todd and I throw a party, he always puts together a playlist. He wanted the music for this party to have a jungle theme. Some of the songs he found were not appropriate, so we decided to leave those off. Haha! Here are the songs we used this time.
Gift Ideas for a 3 Year Old Boy
Our friends and family gave Ridge some of the coolest gifts this year! Todd and I bought him a few things as well, and he has been having a blast playing with all of the new toys and reading new books this week. There are several that I couldn’t find the source for, but it was a little bit crazy while Ridge was opening gifts. He pretty much loves anything that you can build with, anything dinosaur, anything Mickey, books with fun flaps you can lift, outside toys, painting things, play dough, puzzles, and trucks. My cousin gave him some fun dinosaur slippers, which was great, because both of our boys love to be cozy and stay in pajamas when we have slow mornings.
This is why I couldn’t see the details of his gifts while he was opening them. 🙂
Vehicle Book Set. We have another book by this author from my brother-in-law and sis-in-law, and the boys love it. So I thought Ridge would like this set, and he really loves it! And he’s been wearing the box on his het, so there’s that, too.
Dinosaur Water Wow book. The best car activity. And Ridge loves these.
My friend gave Ridge this dinosaur track, and it’s been a hit!!
These Picasso magnet shapes are the Amazon version of Magna Tiles, and both of our boys have played with them every single day for a few months straight! Ridge received a lot more for his birthday, and they’ve been loving them.
Razor scooter. Davis was really into his balance bike when he was 3, but Ridge isn’t into it yet, so Todd thought he’d enjoy a real scooter. Hoping he gets the hang of it! It’s definitely very affordable for an outside toy!
This book is a fun shape, has a ton of different dinosaurs, and lots of flaps to open.
I’m a weird mom that actually doesn’t mind PlayDoh at all. And this set is really fun.
Birthday party planning is something I genuinely enjoy, and I’m so happy that we were able to celebrate Christopher Ridge with all of our people. The jungle theme was easy to put together thanks to Paperless Post, Amazon, Target, my mom, and houseplants! A special note of appreciation to Paperless Post for the invitations and inspiration!
The party hats on the animals was such a cute idea