Birthday parties are one of the few times it’s more cost-effective to have four children at the same time. Instead of hosting four parties throughout the year, we throw one big bash for four kids.  For the big one, we hosted a splash party at our home, and when they turned two we had a pirates and princesses soirée at the house.  I enjoy decking the house for parties,  but it’s hot outside in July and guests end up cramped in the den.  This year I decided the party would be away from home with limited prep and clean up.  We rented a local church’s jungle themed playscape.  I ran with the existing decor for a safari party.  My friend, Amber, designed custom invitations, which I printed myself.  She is expanding her Etsy shop, Texas Take, to include invitations and other printables.  For your next shindig, check out her collection.  If you don’t see something that fits your theme, she can create something unique for you.

I was disappointed at the lack of safari party supplies and favors at our local party and big box stores, but Amazon did not disappoint.  I scored paper bags at Hobby Lobby in the kid’s colors and filled them with Amazon trinkets including: neon animal print pencils, animal print notebooks, make-a-zoo animal sticker sheets, and flashlight key chains, all of which coincidentally came in the same four colors as the bags.  I also ordered each party guest a beige pith helmet to add to our party ambiance.  Keeping with our prior party tradition, my friend Jen, snapped photos of the party.  It means so much to me that she takes pictures because if it were up to me, we’d get home without a single picture.  I struggle to host parties and preserve memories of them at the same time.

Since our party wasn’t at home, our menu consisted of easy to prep and serve kid-friendly fare: fresh fruit, veggie straws, animal crackers, popcorn, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and juice boxes.  I intended on ordering a Costco sheet cake too, but George insisted on baking and decorating blue and pink velvet cupcakes himself.  He did a fantastic job!

As part of our party decor, I printed our three-year photos Jen shot the week prior and mounted them onto canvas using a tutorial from Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body. My little project set me back about $20 and maybe 30 minutes of time.  I believe I’ll be making many more canvas photos in the future.

As party guests arrived, we snapped a quick family photo.  As usual, we weren’t successful in capturing four smiling kids, but we got this one.

Our venue was ideal for our mix of party guests.  The quad’s little guests included another set of quads, a set of triplets, two sets of twins, and five singletons.  If you do the math, that’s lots of little people!  We also had their teenage cousins, parents, and grandparents at the party.  The littlest ones were content hanging out on the playscape while the older kids (and adults) were entertained by the arcade.

This year, we sang Happy Birthday to each of the kids individually.  They may share a birth date, but they are individual people so I try to honor that.  Rylin and Harper were slightly bashful, while Sydney soaked up the limelight and danced to the tune.

When it was time to open gifts, we lined the kids up at a table where they could be seated.  It worked really well for organization.

We managed to wrangle up both sets of quads for a quad squared photo.  EIGHT three-year olds and two Ambers in one frame.  Wheesh!

Here’s to a year with threenagers….stay tuned!

hugs,

Amber

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