Alphabet Party (1-3yr) Magnetic Picture Frame

My son and daughter's birthdays are only a month apart so I had one big party for the both of them.  Since my son was turning 1 and my daughter was turning 3, I thought an alphabet theme was perfect. 

INVITATION: I made a card out of cardstock and on the front glued a picture of my two kids wearing Happy Birthday" t-shirts and holding a big foam number that represented how old they were going to be.  I hung up a white flat bed sheet for the backdrop.  Near the kids was a stack of alphabet blocks (We had the gigantic foam floor alphabet and number puzzle so we used pieces from that.) 

Inside I wrote: "(My daughter's name) is almost 3 (actual birthday date)And he is ready for some fun! They plan to celebrate their birthdays together And make happy memories that will last forever.  There will be fun things to see and do And of course delicious cake too!  But without you the party just won't be the same So it would mean a lot if you came. It is as easy as ABC(our home address) is the place to be! Saturday April 26th- Save the date!  Come at 4 O'clock and don't be late!"  Lastly I used cut out letters from sheets of colorful scrapbooking paper and glued them around the invitation.  Everyone gushed about how cute the invitations were! 

DECORATIONS:  I hung a Happy Birthday banner near the opening of the party tent.  On the tables I had small cut out letters sprinkled in the middle of the food table and on the guest tables. 

MUSIC:  I made a party CD that contained all the songs related to the alphabet (Hap Palmer has a lot of songs).  My favorite song was A- You're Adorable sung by John Lithgow.  We played the CD on repeat the entire time. 

PARTY FOOD:  We served alphabet noodle Mac and Cheese and other typical party food.  I made little signs using colorful cardstock for each of the food items.  For example one card said F is for Fruit. 

ACTIVITIES:  As the party guests arrived they colored a block letter that contained the first letter of their name (I found these on the internet and just printed them off).  While the kids colored I painted their faces.  On one cheek I would paint the first letter of their name and decorate it.  They got to decide which colors I used and also what to paint on the other cheek. 

Then the kids made a magnetic picture frame.  I bought some inexpensive frames from Oriental Trading Company and then purchased self adhesive foam letters.  The kids just peeled off the backing and stuck the letters to the frames (I had hot glued on the magnets ahead of time).  The older ones spelled out their name and then the younger ones just stuck on random letters.  Next we played the song the Alphabet Bean Bag Rag by Hap Palmer using homemade bean bags.  The song uses the alphabet to do a variety of actions.  For example one line goes T toe tap it on top of your toe. This activity was a big hit!  The kids (of all ages) loved to play it and the adults got a kick out of watching! 

A couple days before the party I had made some bean bags out of felt and black eyed peas.  I made the bags by cutting out a square in the felt and then sewing 3 of the sides with a straight stitch adding the black eyed peas and then sewing up the last side.  To make them look even attractive I cut the edges into a zigzag pattern.

For the last activity I scattered cut out letters around the yard (I just bought these from a teacher supply store.)  The kids had to match up the lower case letter with the upper case letter.  We actually ended up playing a couple of rounds of this game because the kids liked it so much! 

CAKE:  I purchased a cake for each of my kids.  On top of the cakes I had the bakers use icing to make a big block letter for the first letter of their names.  Each cake ended up looking like an alphabet block. 

PARTY FAVORS:  For each of the guest I had purchased plain white paper gift bags.  On the front I put the first letter of the child's name for decoration.  Inside I had a few "Smarties" candies play doh and a gift related to the alphabet.  For the smaller kids the gift was a deck of aplhabet cards (I found some nice ones at the dollar store).  For the older kids I bought activity books that were age appropriate for them.  Some focused on phonics while others dealt with writing.  We had a fantastic time! "