{Personal} Levi's Robin Hood 3rd Birthday Party

On December 2nd 2011 at 11:01am, our little Levi was born and changed our lives forever. He just turned 3 recently and I'm wondering where the heck the time went!! It seems like yesterday he was just learning to crawl like a little caterpillar in a big world, hitting peas out of our hand as we tried to feed him, exploring his tiny fingers and toes as he gnawed on them and filling diapers like it was his favorite past time.

Now, our little man is so grown up with an innocent curiosity of world, testing boundaries, limits and heights as he leaps from the highest of them. He is so brave, so smart and so intuitive. I am so thankful for this tiny, yet bursting soul of his.

To celebrate Levi's birthday, we threw a Robin Hood themed party for him. (Well, two parties actually because last year, there were SO many people in our home that it was a little difficult to even walk through. We decided to split it up this year). It was all pretty last minute due to many things going on these past few weeks and since we really didn't have the funds to get super fancy, we made do with what we had. I whipped everything up just a couple days prior to the party. The only thing I bought were red streamers from the dollar store which gave me a grand total of $1 spent on decor ($1.08 if you include tax)! Below are tips and tricks I used to come up with decor pieces.

Here are just some highlights of the themed party decor. All of the photos captured during the party where on phones but the majority was on the video camera. There is A LOT of footage so I have yet to finish the video to share but will once it's complete.

{enjoy}

...and the morning of his birthday.

I actually debated cropping this one but realized that this is Levi. He doesn't care if his bed head is totally crazy, his pants are missing (which is weird because he went to bed with pants on) or if he's only wearing one sock. He's happy and that's all that matters this morning!

Happy Birthday my little love!! You are the light of our lives. <3

Decor Tips

Arrows: I used sticks I collected from outside and felt I had on hand. Cut the shapes and glued them to the ends of the sticks. The kids loved them and they are gentle to touch if they are thrown!

Feather garland: Just some twine and a bit of glue added to the ends of extra feathers I had. Anything can be turned into garland right?

Triangle garland: Got a bunch of paint chips from home depot, cut them into triangles and glued them to twine. Love the paint chip idea because you can choose from SO many different colors so you are bound to find what you are looking for. We are going to use this garland in his room too.

Wood target and "let them be little" sign: We have a bunch of extra wood that we use for the fire pit in the backyard. My husband cut a few pieces for me, I used what paint I had on hand, grabbed my brush and painted away. I actually created the "little" sign for the kid's bedroom a while back so I was able to use that in the decor as well.

Feather/arrow cupcake toppers: I cut the ends of some feathers off so the feather sorta made a "V", glued them to some tooth picks and wrapped them with a bit of twine. They are supposed to look like little arrows going into the cupcake.

Robin Hood Prints: Googled images and also made my own from the movie.

Cupcakes: Target! Ok, I LOVE the vanilla cupcakes from Target but I love them even more when they are half off-$3.49 for a dozen! Go into Target the day or night before a party and look in the bakery (I found mine in the bakery markdowns). The markdown dates are still good until the following day or 2 so everything still tastes great (the cupcakes still tasted amazing even days after that-especially if you keep them in the fridge)!

What do you do to keep events within a small budget? Favorite decor tips? Food tips? etc.