School Bus Party

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Since my son Will's birthday falls in September, we decided his 3rd birthday party should be school buses. After all, what 3-year-old boy doesn't love that big old yellow bus? We used to count them each morning on my way to work.

I must say we had lucked out with the weather for Will's 1st and 2nd birthday parties. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate for this party and since our house is the size of a shoe box, we opted for the clubhouse at my parents' condo (aka: lots of golf wallpaper and decor-not exactly the kid-friendly look I was going for, but, hey, it kept us dry!).


I'm a total closet lover of all things "school"--there's nothing better than a fresh box of crayons and sharpened pencils (oh, and whatever happened to those amazing Trapper Keepers??-I soooo loved them!). So planning this school bus party was a blast. The goodie bags held new crayons with a coloring page, a school bus book complete with real wheels (I bought them at my beloved Target dollar bins a year in advance!), magnetic numbers (from Michael's dollar bins--those bins are dangerous for my wallet!), and miniature wooden alphabet blocks for the little ones. I decorated with mini buses, an easel, a Little People bus, bus books, a pop-up bus tent outside (found it at a garage sale for $5!!), and all things in that "school bus yellow" color. I desperately wanted to hang my signature Chinese lanterns, but seeing that this clubhouse had a million rules (all with fines attached), I didn't dare take the risk of putting small holes in the ceiling or door frames.


I decided to be economical and make my own invitations. Over the past summer, I used the amazing Cricut machine (so jealous of those who own one--oh, the possibilities!) to cut out these school bus invites. I found this verse to put on the front: "Look who's turning three! Come take a ride on the bus with me!" and added a brad to attach the back which had the necessary info using "lunch and recess" time as the beginning and end as well as "bus stop" for the location (that had to be changed last minute). I also made coordinating thank-you notes with this same school bus attached to brown cardboard paper cards.


We probably had about 60 people including kids (we have large extended families), so we kept the food cafeteria-style. I made school signs designating the food, lunch bags for the kids including: apple, lunch-size bags of chips, pb & j sandwiches, and of course a Twinkie, and a tub with milk. We also had lunch meat trays and your usual party lunch food. The kids seemed to love the chips and school bus-shaped cookies most!


We kept the kids busy with a Pin-the-Wheel-on-the-Bus game, school bus pinata (that was quite a site watching them bat at this giant bus), and coloring pictures. It was definitely a good time had by all (even our 6-week-old daughter seemed to enjoy it!).

If you love(d) to play school as a kid, give this party a try! I'll be linking to these great parties this week, so don't forget to check them out! Have a great Derby weekend!