Brown Bear Brown Bear Birthday

Our daughter just LOVES the Brown Bear Brown Bear book.  She recites it all the time as she sees birds in the sky or ducks at the park.  I thought it would make a perfect theme for her 2nd birthday.

Invite: I found the image background online and added the text to it.  The fonts I used were "Return to Sender" for the colorful shaded words and Comic Sans for the white text.  I printed these and then added bright colored card stock behind them before sending them out to guests.

I always like my kiddos to dress in theme if possible.  For this party, I found some Brown Bear Brown Bear fabric on Etsy and purchased one yard.  I bought the coordinating fabric, ribbon, and buttons at Joann's.  My amazing mother sewed this beautiful dress.  She is so amazing, she even did it without a pattern!  Thanks Mom!! Oh...and isn't my daughter just the cutest in it! Just loved it.

Entry Decor:  I made this entry sign with a little help from my 4 and 6 year old.  I basically cut up a white poster board into 5 pieces and gave the kids paint.  They each got 3 shades of their color.  Then they painted randomly all over the piece of poster board.  Once it was dry, I made patterns of the animals from images found online and cut them out.  I glued them together and put them on the sign, but this method gave the animals the same look as the ones in Eric Carle's book.  The letters I cut from my Cricut.

I made these centerpieces for each of the tables.  I made the wraps on the vases using Photoshop and
printed them on card stock.  I filled the vases half full with gumballs to add color.  The animals I ordered off of Amazon.  They were part of our birthday gift to Jenna. I made simple tissue paper flowers for the top.  It was a windy day, so I did have to tape the flowers down.

I made a Brown Bear Brown Bear birthday banner. I couldn't find the brown bear paper, so I used an image I found online and used Photoshop to make it a wallpaper.  I then printed it on card stock to use as the background.  The letters were cut with my Cricut.

I already had various colorful napkins from past parties, so I decided to incorporate all the colors into Jenna's birthday.  I designed the napkin rings on Photoshop.

Party Activity: Besides a jumper outside, the only activity I had was for the kids to create their own Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. The kids really enjoyed creating their books.

I had the necessary animals, googly eyes, yarn, etc. packaged in individual Zip-lock baggies.  This way those kids that didn't want to make their book at the party could just take the baggie and paper home.  I also had a box of the "common" materials in the center of the table.

Here is my daughter's finished book before we put it all together.

These are the directions I placed inside each Zip-lock baggie.

Menu: I served Hot Dogs with all the fixings - chili, cheese, onions, jalapenos, avocado, pickles -- whatever the guest's wanted to add.

I also made bear shaped peanut butter and jelly with a bear cookie cutter I found on Amazon.

 For sides, I served various fruits to match the colors of the book.

I couldn't forget Goldfish crackers alongside other chips.

I saw this fun cake online and just had to try it.  It was actually very easy. I adapted the recipe I found online a bit.  I made three 9 inch round cakes.  I used two for the head and the other for the ears.  The nose is an upside down cupcake.  The eyebrows are a mini chocolate donut cut in half lengthwise and then covered in the frosting. The eyes are Wilton's chocolate melts warmed a bit in my hand.

I also made cupcakes.  I used Photoshop and my Cricut to create the cupcake toppers.

Favor:  Aside from the Brown Bear book craft that the kids got to take home, I also made small bags with Chocolate Teddy Grahams inside.  The tag I modeled after my invitation and created on Photoshop.

I found a chocolate lollipop mold of a brown grizzly bear at Calico Cake Shop in Buena Park, so I couldn't resist make chocolate bear lollipops for the kids as well.

It was a super fun birthday party for our little girl.  She had a blast.  After the event it was:

Mommy, Mommy...what do you see?  Sleep, Sleep..calling to me!