A Mardi Gras Third Birthday Party!

As most of you know, our precious baby girl turned THREE last month and we celebrated Louisiana style! Again, you probably know by now that I grew up in Louisiana and hold the rich cajun traditions very close to my heart. This year Landry’s birthday fell over Mardi Gras weekend and it was the perfect theme for her third birthday party! I figured that this is the last year that I’ll be able to choose the party theme, so I shamelessly went for it. She loved the bright colors, masks, and noisemakers and is definitely ready for the real deal Mardi Gras next year.

To be completely honest, I was a little overwhelmed by the idea of throwing another birthday party (see her FIRST birthday party HERE and her SECOND birthday party HERE). I let myself get too stressed and always spend wayyy more money than I intend to. This year I set out to make it as relaxed as possible and do it on a strict budget. I’m happy to report that I accomplished BOTH of those goals…here’s how it turned out…

Since I wanted to take a lot of stress out of the equation, I booked our neighborhood clubhouse to have the party. It’s a big open space with a kitchen, etc so it was a perfect place to host all of Landry’s friends. That eliminated all of the stress of having my house perfect and spotless and also helped with cleanup. I also didn’t commit to putting together a ton of DIY decor projects (like I normally do), which was such a weight off of my shoulders. I even ditched the traditional invite by mail and opted for an evite intstead.

Since I wanted to stay on a tight budget and wanted to do it without getting myself into a ton of DIY projects, I turned to my trusty source for all things party related…Oriental Trading! They had a TON of Mardi Gras decor and favors and they were all SO inexpensive. I literally pulled everything out of the boxes the night before and set it all up quickly before the party…easy and budget friendly…I was one happy mama!

This little Mardi Gras babe was smiling because we ended up surprising her with a bouncy house! It was the only thing that she consistently requested and was overjoyed when she saw it. I will say, it was the best money we spent on the party…kids were entertained and were also throughly worn out right in time for bed…haha!

I set up this mask decorating station for those who wanted to hang inside for a bit. I bought inexpensive half masks and some foam stickers (from Dollar Tree) and they were a total hit. The kids each decorated their own and got to take them home in their favor bags.

These green bins are from Dollar Tree and came in SO handy for the snack station. I will definitely use them again!

These sandwiches were one of my favorite things that we served at the party. I used cinnamon chip bread, spread on Trader Joe’s sunflower butter and topped with sliced bananas. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and salty and you simply have to try it to understand!

Read about the history of the King Cake HERE.

My sweet mama was in town and whipped up her famous pralines (PRAW-lines), but she definitely won’t be sharing that recipe…it’s her secret. Needless to say, they are SO good and were cleared out within minutes.

She also cooked a big gumbo to feed all of our friends and I sadly didn’t get any photos of it. Always good to have some authentic cajun food here in Charlotte!

One of my favorite photos..their little smiles are so genuine! Love these two!

Details:

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Tri-Color Backdrop (I used 2)

Tri-Color Pennant Banner

“3” Gold Mylar Balloon

Purple, Gold, Green Mylar Star Balloons

Fireworks Chandelier (At Home Stores)

Half Masks to decorate

Favor Bags (Sunglasses | Ducks | Beads | Coins | Glowsticks | Party Horns )

Mardi Gras Cups

Table cloths, silverwear, green snack bins + trays: Dollar Tree

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 See her FIRST birthday party HERE and her SECOND birthday party HERE