4th of July Theme Birthday Party Ideas

My little one turned two on July 2nd so what better way to celebrate than with a 4th of July themed birthday party!  I happen to LOVE the 4th of July and red, white and blue so I was in patriotic heaven planning this soiree!

We hosted a breakfast birthday party for the first time, which was really fun, cheap and easy.  And, as a bonus, there was no waiting around all day for the party to start! By the time the girls got up and at ’em, the guests started to arrive.

Our breakfast birthday party included pajamas, donuts and a bounce house from Orange County Jumpers which was the main attraction.

This was not an over-the-top party by any means, but I wanted to share some of the things we did because I love looking at party ideas for inspiration.

THE INVITATION

I did email invites through Paperless Post, which is an online invite service that “delivers” invitations to your email in an envelope that you actually click to open. It’s really very cute and different. We chose a 4th of July theme of course, and being that it was the start of the 4th of July weekend, I used this 2-year-old birthday invitation wording:

Let’s kick off the weekend of
red, white & blue and
celebrate Morgan turning two!

Roll out of bed, wear your jammies
and join us for a backyard breakfast
bounce house party!

Saturday, July 2nd
9:30am – 11:30am

THE ENTERTAINMENT

The main entertainment was the Castle 3-in-1 Bounce and Slide from Orange County Jumpers. I have found that for the little ones, there is NOTHING more fun than a bounce house!  And if you have the room, the Orange County Jumper bouncers with the attached slide are the BEST!  The kids LOVE having that slide feature!

I think this company is one of the best bounce house rental companies in Orange County. They are courteous, reasonable, prompt, professional, and get this, when they inflate the bouncer on delivery, they sanitize the entire interior. Mama like.

THE FOOD

The menu included:

* Sprinkled donut holes
* Bagels & cream cheese with sliced tomatoes & lemon pepper
* Hash brown and egg casserole
* Quiche Lorraine compliments of my mother-in-law
* Mini-muffins from Sensitive Sweets for Morgan’s food allergies (no milk or eggs for her!)
* Fruit salad (strawberries & blueberries) to match the theme

The donut holes had patriotic sprinkles that I pre-ordered from Oh, Those Donuts and displayed in $1 red, white and blue star containers from the Dollar Tree.  I ordered 72 and should have gotten more.  They went fast! The vanilla frosted ones went before the chocolate, so if I ordered again, I would do 3/4 white frosting & 1/4 chocolate and order a LOT more. You can ask if they can do sprinkles to match your color theme too.

I am picky about having my bagels toasted, so we put a toaster oven outside on the food table so people could toast their own to their liking and it worked really well! See picture below, far right.

The hash brown casserole was another thing that went fast, I should have made two because the kids also gobbled it up.

And it is quite handy to have a friend that owns a bakery for kids and people with food allergies and sensitivities, because I was able to order special mini-muffins from Sensitive Sweets in Fountain Valley that were egg-free, milk-free, gluten-free and soy-free and DELICIOUS!

I think Morgan had 6.

And you gotta love a patriotic fruit salad!

THE BEVERAGES

I did juice boxes for the kids and a coffee and champagne cocktail bar for the adults.  At the Dollar Tree I found to-go coffee cups with lids that worked great for the coffee, plus easy clean-up, and displayed the Coffee Mate creamer (my favorite) along with milk on ice in an acrylic bin.

For the champagne cocktails, I put the champagne and 7-Up on ice, and then bought orange juice and mango nectar from Trader Joe’s for the mixers.

When I entertain, I love labeling items so people know what is what, so I printed out patriotic labels on white business card templates from Staples which are the perfect size for labels (and place cards if you ever need them!) Go to dafont.com to download fun, free new fonts!

THE DECOR

I bought some red, white and blue stars from Party City and hung them from our patio pergola with fishing line.  I also adore paper lanterns, so I hung a handful of those as well.

For the tables, I continued my obsession with tissue paper flowers in pots and realized they can be made for more than just fiestas! I took red, white and blue tissue paper and made little bursts of our themed-color to place throughout. For my how to make a tissue paper flower centerpiece click HERE! SO CHEAP!

THE CAKE

Again, I was so lucky to have Melanie Hohman of Sensitive Sweets bless us with her talent and make us this AMAZING cake! It almost looked too pretty to eat! And being food allergy friendly, I love that I have a custom bakery to call upon when I have a special occasion for my little one!

THE FAVORS

I found $.99 red and blue hula hoops at the $.99 Store which worked out beautifully because the kids played with them at the party, and then got to take them home.

All in all, we had the best time celebrating our Sweet little firecracker, which by the way I found cute 4th of July pajamas at Old Navy that said “Daddy’s little sparkler.”  SO CUTE!  Thanks for reading about my ideas!

Hey mamas!

Have you thrown a themed birthday party you would like to share? Over-the-top or simple or somewhere in between? I love to share these theme ideas, so please email me at jennifer {at} tinyoranges.com if you have something you would like to share!

{Disclosure: Orange County Jumpers & Sensitive Sweets are Tiny Oranges Partners.}