NO THEME Birthday Party (on a budget)

Decorations: plastic container full of foam colorful letters and numbers w/ balloons, and colorful b'day paper on sides...
b'day banner made w/ colorful felt scraps and white bias tape (this was fun to do and you could do it w/ all kinds of differernt fabrics and shapes too-fun way to decorate for celebrations)
Colorful "age-appropriate" favors: colored marshmellows, raisins, Tootsie pop, jelly bellies, pretzels, Smarties, Gummy Sharks, Hershey's kisses, -basically colorful yummy stuff...

ACTIVITY STATIONS: cars with car rug

All the tables were covered in white paper with cans of crayons for this kids to color

Below: puppet show theater w/ puppets

Another station not pictured: dinosaurs

I had lots of other ideas for stations but had to limit them to just a few. It worked great because the kids actually played with all these things instead of every toy we own. I should do stations w/ my children everyday!- It eliminates the problem of pulling- all -the- toys -off -the -shelves -and -not -being -able -to- see -the -floor- so -therefore -we- have- nothing- to- play -with-mom-- anyone else have that problem with the toys at their house?

I really did not have a "theme" for my 3-year-olds birthday party this year- except to keep it simple and age appropriate. All my son wanted was "cake, ice cream, decorations, balloons, hats, and presents" -that is what he told me. So I really tried to do just that. We invited 6 friends (his age times two- which I won't do every year-) and I did not spend much money- because I mostly used things we had, and kept the food very very simple- just cake and ice cream and favors. I guess we sort of had a theme of "colors". I guess... (and Disney's Cars-ok the cake and invites were CARS)...he was turning 3 and all he wanted was a basic party. It was really fun and I think the kiddos had a great time.