Today, I am going to take a trip down memory lane to my son’s toddler and preschool years, and share with you some of my son’s early birthday parties.  I hope they prove to be helpful as you explore birthday themes and ideas for your precious little one.

Enjoy every moment since it goes by too quickly! Have fun planning these parties. We chose to do these parties with mostly family and cousins.  We did invite some of his close preschool friends later on at the My Gym party venue and local park venue which was special as well.  Do what works the best for your family and loved ones. Will they remember these birthdays? They won’t remember the decorations or the special touches, but they will remember how much you loved them and the quality time you spent with them.

2nd Birthday Party Theme: Planes “Time Flies” (at Home)

I made a few labels, got some plane party decor, ordered this beautiful cake, made a Time Flies banner with his baby photos, put planes on wrapping paper, made a little runway for airplanes on the island, and put together this little airplane box.  Even though this looks simple, I was commuting to work almost 45 minutes away at this point and putting in at least 40 hours a week of teaching while designing the curriculum.  It was busy, so I needed those months of prep time, or nothing would be done! It was simple to plan, but that is how I was able to do it.  I did not have a house cleaner either, so it was a lot to clean! If you find yourself working a lot of hours and commuting, it can be done! Just be sure to give yourself around 4 months to plan, so you can check off a few items each month leading up to it.  Planning ahead can make it possible, so don’t give up. It can be simple.  Remember, it is more about building memories than anything else.

The cousins had a blast playing together in the finished basement with all of the toys and the indoor slide.  I made it a priority to blow up as many balloons as I could (blue and white), so the kids were definitely preoccupied with that as well.  I had mini ice-cream cones that were so small and cute! It was a nice day, and everyone had a lot of fun!

3rd Birthday Party Theme: Construction Vehicles (at My Gym)

My Gym was an amazing birthday venue.  Imagine 13 or so kids lined up at a table all wearing construction hats with their names on it digging into cake! The kids were laughing and having so much fun together the entire time.  There was a bubble time where they were all running through the bubbles then a time to swing and even zipline through the room! It was very special, and I know it made my son’s year to be able to have his birthday here! I have so many photos of him, his cousins, and his preschool friends playing in the balls, jumping up and down, laughing, and enjoying this party.

I didn’t do too much planning either as you can see from these photos.  I just made gift bags for the kids with their names on it.  I also got them all yellow construction hats and wrote their name on it with a sharpie.  Besides that, I just had a personalized banner made and planned out his cake, the food, and wrote out his interests on the birthday chalkboard. I also had his shirt made from a seller on Etsy. Simple. Easy.

4th Birthday Party Theme: Tractors (at a local playground)

One of our traditions we do is each birthday is bringing breakfast in bed with candles on the morning of our birthday! As you can see, this one was another fun early morning surprise! Lots of balloons and pancakes to be thankful for!

We had this birthday outside at a park; unfortunately, it was very cold and windy so that never happened again! I decided no outdoor birthdays in March, but then the pandemic came so we did another one outside! Here are some fun things for this birthday.

I found this print and just printed it out from online and gave it to Giant.  Did you know they will print anything you want on a cake? The exact image was printed on the cake edible and everything.  Much less money than some of his early birthday cakes you saw above! My favorite thing I did for this birthday was the dirt dessert with the farm animals and gummy worms.  I also set up a sandbox in the basement, but with corn! I know it sounds crazy, but we got hours and hours of fun out of that.  I put farm animals and tractors to play with in the corn. We also saw all the tractors at a local farm show of course! Finally, we set up an inflatable at the park and the kids rode around on the tractor toy.

Stay tuned since I will be also sharing the next four years of birthday ideas! Remember that you are building special memories with your child and investing into their life and your relationship with them.  Even when things get harder in their middle school years, you will have the strong foundation of love and time that you invested into these early years.  Keep on building this strong bond with your child.