Owen’s Whimsical Neon Outside Play Third Birthday Party

Owen is three! And to celebrate his big day, we threw him a party inspired by playtime outdoors. Owen loves playing outside, so this was the perfect theme for our little man — dirt, wagons, water guns, balls, bikes, worms, jump ropes and bugs galore! The theme was brought together with the colors, which were neon and bright to match Owen’s personality.

Although it makes sense to have an outside-themed party outside, we kept the decorations inside because O’s birthday inevitably falls on the hottest day of the year smack in the middle of July. We did set up a bunch of toys and games outside and Owen was finally able to go outside to play around 7 in the evening when the heat became slightly more bearable. Gotta love these dog days of summer.

I might have gone overboard with the decorations (and all the pictures I took of them and Owen). So this post is going to be a looong album of photos. Let’s get to it. –>

I’ll start with the invitation. The outside of the invitation had a quote from a Bubble Guppies tune (which is a Nick Jr. cartoon, if you’re not educated in children’s television). I glued a strip of paper “grass” to the inside of the card to give it a little 3-D effect. And I made “muddy” envelope liners with coffee grounds and glue wash.

The invitations set the stage for the decorations. What do you think of the number three art display on our mantle? I used stretched canvas, frames from around our house, and an old piece of barn wood to create a bunch of threes out of tennis balls, plastic bugs, worms, rocks and sticks, floral moss, a jump rope, and coffee ground mud art.

I hung neon garland underneath the mantle display, made out of neon tennis balls and wiffle balls, pom poms, neon triangles, and paper bicycles that I designed with number three’s in the wheels.

In an open doorway, we hung jump ropes and water guns. From the water guns, I attached blue glass beads on fishing line to look like drops of water coming out.

I love bunting garland, so I hung neon triangles on parachute cord all over the place. 🙂

My favorite part of the party decorations was probably the giant number three that I made out of paper butterflies. I made Richard hang a net, suspending it from a corner so that it looked like it was swooping down to catch the butterflies.

On the food table, we used a mini wagon as the centerpiece filled with a variety of toy balls. I also clustered jars with dragonflies, bees, butterflies and pinwheels on sticks. A toy rubber frog and snake finished off the tablescape.

I even decorated the jars with bugs, worms, felt grass, and muddy paper.

Owen loves playing with a water hose (which makes gardening with him around quite difficult). So I put a wire inside a hose and shaped it to “stand up” and appear to be spraying water with blue paper drops and glass beads on wires. Crafty, right? The hard part was keeping Owen from touching it.

I also made the “water” coming out of watering cans too.

These grape worms on sticks with candy bug eyes were a huge hit.

Everyone liked the dragonfly lollipops too, which were easily made with pipe cleaners in neon colors.

I might have taken things too far when I made felt grass to go around each plastic cup. Crazy but cute. 🙂 I think it was worth the hot glue burns that I sustained.

I also made some “butterflies” on celery sticks with pretzels and peanut butter.

A party with bugs in the theme must have dirt pudding. Especially since Owen loves chocolate.

I created this wall art with Owen’s name with small chalkboards and a large metal letter O.

I found these cute square boxes of plastic grass at Michael’s for a ridiculously cheap price. I painted the wood boxes neon yellow to fit in with the party colors. I loved them on the dessert and treat table.

How about these crazy butterfly party hats? Paper, staples and a pack of solid green party hats was all it took to make.

I loved our favor bags, especially Richard’s handwritten names of each child.

We filled the bags with toy plastic bugs, worms, bubbles, and a silicone worm straw.

How sweet does Owen look blowing out the candles on the homemade ice cream cake that I made for him?

And here are some adorable photos of Owen at his birthday bash. My goodness. I can’t get over how handsome and grown he looks.

His smiling face just makes my heart feel like bursting. Happy Birthday, Owen!