As most mums know, since the day you bring your bundle of joy home from the hospital you will be in competition with other mums. It is the unspoken rule of parenthood -even if you don’t think you are in competition with other parents, you most likely will be.
Competition can range from who has the best pram, to who’s baby is wearing the most expensive clothes, or who is throwing the most lavish birthday parties.
For me, I was first introduced into the world of competitive mums when I took my little girl, Grace to her first baby group meeting when she was 6 weeks old. As a first time mum I was totally naive and clueless to what a baby club was (but was persuaded to go as a companion for a friend of a friend). At first I thought it would be a place where we would all sit in a circle and sing nursery rhymes and shake rattles and talk goo goo gaga to each other’s babies… I was soo wrong!!
When I first walked into baby group; I was like a gizel walking into a lions den. There were a dozen mums sitting in a circle – however nursery rhymes and pleasantries were swapped for bitching and moaning (I felt sorry for all the poor mother in laws who were usually the butt of cruel jokes and stories). As soon as I entered I was pinned into a corner (literally) whilst getting a hundred questions thrown at me. I was quizzed on everything. From ‘what kind if nappies I was using?’, ‘did I have a natural birth or a c-section?’ ‘What pain relief did you use?’, ‘was I breast feeding?’, ‘when was planning on starting weaning?’, ‘what type of pram did I have?’ ‘What make of clothes is your baby wearing’…The list was endless and I came out feeling like I was doing everything wrong. But the one question out of the many that were thrown at me that day that stuck into my mind was ‘have you booked Graces first birthday party yet?’.
Most of these babies hadn’t mastered holding their heads up on their own yet and their mothers were already planning their first birthday parties. However, competition over who was going to throw the best first party was rife, each mum was trying to outdo the other by ordering the biggest cake,buying the most expensive birthday presents, hiring the best venue, hiring bouncy castles and petting zoos. I couldn’t believe it!!
As a new mum, I hadn’t planned what me and my husband were having for dinner that night, far las planned a birthday party eleven months in advance.
When I did get round to thinking about planning Grace’s first birthday party (probably about 8 months later). I knew that we didn’t have a huge amount of money to spend on a birthday party and if I was going to throw Grace one it would have to be on an extremely tight budget. So I decided to throw her a small party with close family and friends (and a selected few friends from baby group) at our house. I decided to try and make most of the party food and decorations myself. I would like to note that I am not a crafty person whatsoever and have never made anything like this in my life, but after looking at a few tutorials it really was simple. Not only would this save us a lot of money but it was really fun to do and helped me relax after long stressful days of being a mum.
The firsts stage of planning was picking a theme for the birthday party and we chose Minnie Mouse. The reason I chose Minnie Mouse as I was in my supermarket one day and they were having a massive sale of Minnie Mouse party ware (cups, table cloths, plates etc.) all down to 10p so it was an easy choice for me – it did help grace did like Minnie Mouse too which was an added bonus. I stocked my trolley up with heaps of party ware and it only cost me a couple of pound. So it goes to show it does help to pop by the party section in shops and supermarkets a couple of months before the party to see if you can stick up on any deals or bargains.
The second stage of party planning was scouring Pinterest to find some ideas and tips on how to make your own party decorations and food. I found lots of good ideas and tutorials that I copied and adapted to suit our theme.
The ones I chosen are described below-
(See photos at bottom of page)
1. Minnie Mouse party invites – these were really simple to make. all you need is black card to make the invite, wrapping paper or patterned paper to cut the bows out of (I chose red polka dot wrapping paper to fit my theme) and an invite insert. I chose to print mine off on the computer using word processor but they would look just as good if you were to handwrite the invite. I printed out a ‘mickey mouse head’ template (don’t get a minnie template as you want to add the bow later) from google and used this as a stencil to cut the card out if. I then cut out the inserts in circle shapes and glued them down on the black card then added the bow shapes cut out from wrapping paper. This was a really cheap alternative to buying store bought invites or getting them made. I’m lucky if it cost me £3 for the card and wrapping paper and I made over 20 invites. Everyone who received one loved it and I was really pleased with them.
2.Minnie Mouse birthday banner-
I found that there was only two types of Minnie Mouse birthday banners on the market and thought most of the other mums would have probably already bought them so I decided to scour Pinterest for some ideas instead and came up with this. It was really simple and easy to do. All you need is black and white card (doesn’t have to be good quality- the cheap stuff will do), and another colour or style of card or paper to make the bows (I used red and white wrapping paper), a paper punch and string. I printed off a Mickey Mouse head template from the computer (you can also do this using the outline of 3 circular cups) and cut out the black card in that shape. I then cut out letters in white card and cut out bow shapes from the wrapping paper. I then used the paper punch and put two holes in each card and tied them together with string. The finished product looked amazing and hardly cost me a thing to make.
3. Minnie Mouse cake pops. I used a cake pop machine to make these cake pops (basic cake pop recipe can be found here) and used chocolate buttons to make the Minnie Mouse ears then covered them all in melted milk chocolate. I then used a bow cutter I bought from eBay and some red fondant to make the bows (you can also buy fondant bows from shops or eBay but this works out more expensive). These were a great centrepiece and I put one cake pop in each favour bag. These were a great success and you can’t buy anything like it from the shops. To display the cake pops I got a bit of polestirine (you could use – block of oasis instead) and covered it in wrapping paper to make the base to put the cake pops in. It made a beautiful centrepiece and they tasted so good!!
4. Party Favour boxes. I liked the idea of the boxes instead of the bags as I found you can for more in the boxes. I kept these simple and just printed a little label off with graces name on and a picture of Minnie Mouse and stuck them on the side of the boxes. I filled these with healthy snacks like fruit and raisins, some bubbles, a slice of birthday cake and a Minnie Mouse cake pop. I bought blue for the boys and pink for the girls.
5. Minnie Mouse shaped sandwiches and party food. I kept food really simple and made Minnie Mouse sandwiches using at ‘mickey mouse cookie cutter’ I bought from eBay and used tomatoes cut into bow shapes to make minnie mouse’s bow. I filled these with simple sandwich fillings such as ham salad, tuna and cheese. For other party food I made cupcakes, meringues and filled rolls. I printed and laminated some pictures of Minnie Mouse and stuck these to cocktail sticks to make little flags to put on top of the good to keep it in with the Minnie Mouse theme
6. Minnie Mouse piñata –
This was simple to make and all you need is some card board (I cut up a box one of Grace’s birthday presents came in), celloptape and wrapping paper. I chose a red polka for wrapping paper I bought from the supermarket to fit in with my theme. The first thing I did was cut two ‘mickey mouse’ shapes from cardboard and used another piece of cardboard and stick them both together (i used this helpful tutorial to make it), cut a hole for the sweeties to come out and cut two holes at the top to add the string to tie it up with. Then cover it in wrapping paper. It was simple, fun to make and really effective. And the kids loved it!!
For other decorations for the party I bought polka dot bunting from a party shop (much cheaper than buying Minnie Mouse bunting) and first birthday printed balloons. My mum bought grace a life size Minnie Mouse balloon sculpture as part of her birthday presents so I displayed it at the front door for everyone to see as they entered the party.
I also was lucky enough to know someone who owned a Minnie Mouse mascot outfit who was happy to turn up at the party dressed as minnie for free.
Lots of friends and family also asked to help and brought some party food such as cakes, sausage rolls and meringues.
It’s always worth asking about to see if someone can help you with things for the party and always take people up on the offer when they ask to give you a helping hand.
Thanks for taking the time to read my first blog and I hope it has helped at least a little in the planning of your frugal birthday party.
Mummy to one 