A Penguin Party for a Cute 4 year old

Someone pinch me! How do I have a 4 year old already? He’s like a little boy now. Oh how we love him but oh how fast that went! The month of January at his preschool was penguin month and they had projects and learned quite a bit about those cute little birds we all love. So when we asked him what he wanted as a theme for his 4th birthday, he didn’t hesitate to ask for penguins. Hallelujah because I was going to protest if I had to do another train or construction vehicle party. Penguins are SO fun and make for the cutest winter party. So waddle right in! You’re not going to want to miss a single sweet detail or the many DIYs captured by my oh-so-talented friend Ruthie of Ruth Eileen Photography.

Penguins naturally morphed into a black and white theme which made it easy to coordinate. I found the cute penguin fabric off Etsy and then happened to find this amazing black buffalo check paper table runner (26 ft worth in one roll!) while we were in St Helena, Ca a few weeks back. This adorable store also had the black chalk paper placemats. Brilliant for a kiddo party as you just set out chalk and you’ve got easy entertainment. The table runner and placemats are all disposable/recyclable and made for an easy clean up.

I used Pinterest to gather ideas and while searching, found these adorable wood penguins. They are made by the company Design Ideas and boy were they a challenge to track down. I bought all three sizes and had to get two sets, the small and medium size, from England. Shipping wasn’t much since they are packaged flat and you assemble them by sliding the wood pieces into each other. You can still find the extra large penguins (12″ tall) here and the medium ones (7″ tall) here. They are adorable and worth the effort to track down. They added an almost modern edge to this sweet little party and looked adorable all grouped together on the kids table.

Now I love party planning but knowing that half our house is under construction was a wee bit daunting to say the least. We ended up setting up the party in the under construction part and just embracing some saw dust and chaos. I found white vinyl table cloth rolls at Target in their clearance section which let me make the dessert table wall white with nothing but a staple gun. I like the contrast they added with the black balloons.

I absolutely loved Kai’s Brown Bear Party invitations. See the whole party here. So when it came time to think about throwing Cade a little shindig I contacted my sweet friend Ashley at Miss Nibbit Etsy Shop to make the invitations. She did an incredible job. They’re whimsical and fun and oh so cute.

The dessert table has some cute DIYs. We made the paper rounds garland with a hole punch and the sewing machine and created the cute 4 art out of words that we felt described our sweet 4 year old. We had it printed at Staples for less than $5.

The cupcakes were delicious, dark chocolate with a taste of coffee and marshmallow frosting that was lighter than air. I used this recipe from Foodess and would highly recommend them. I made the chocolate crinkle cookies from Simply Recipes and love the textural effect they added to the dessert table. My dear friend and favorite cookie baker Jess Sellers from Kessacakes made the frosted sugar cookies. And given the fact I ate 6 of them (shhh!) they are gorgeous and delicious. And last but not least, the adorable penguin Oreo cookies were inspired by this article on Babble. We used orange Neco’s for the beaks and black chia seeds for the eyes. I wanted an “easy to pull off ” and adorable dessert table and I really think it was perfect! The kids loved it and rather than cutting cake, it was easy to pass out the cupcakes for the cupcake decorating time.

One brilliant idea I stumbled upon was the “decorate your own cupcake using paint palettes” that I bought in bulk off Amazon. So easy and fun. I bought 6-8 different kinds of sprinkles, and it only took a teaspoon to fill up each slot. I tried to stick with the brand, India Ink and chocolate curls as much as possible for the less artificial coloring. It was a big party hit. The kids loved it and it had them occupied for a good 20 minutes, which in 4 year old party world is basically eternity.

We made two games for the kids: a bowling game using cups that I turned into penguins using craft paper and googly eyes and a “pin the beak on the bird” using poster board and construction paper. Easy, inexpensive and fun.

Another easy and fun DIY were these black penguin outlines that transformed an ordinary white party bag into a perfect penguin party favor. I freehand sketched an outline onto black construction paper, cut it out and glued it on to the front of the bags. We filled them with black and white finds from Party City and Etsy–from silver chocolate coins to soccer balls and cute penguin bubbles. We made sure to have cello bags for the kids (and adults!) on the dessert table so everyone could take home cookies and cupcakes in their goodie bags.

And last but not least, we had the guests sign Cade’s birthday book. I love having these at parties. It’s like a modern day guest book in a more usable format. Whenever we read these birthday books, Cade looks at the signatures and notes and remembers just how loved he is and who was at his special party.

We’re thankful for these little goofballs, all four years that they’ve been in our lives and I know my time is short to throw these little men parties. So thank you for waddling by! I hope you enjoyed these pictures by Ruth Eileen Photography, contact her for your next event, she’s amazing and it’s worth every penny to not have to try to capture those special moments yourself. And don’t forget dear friends, even if everything isn’t exactly perfect, ie you have sawdust all over your clothes and you have to bring in space heaters to keep everyone warm, there’s lovely there too!

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