We celebrated Olive’s third birthday at the park this past weekend! Typically it’s too cold to have an outdoor birthday, but due to temperate fall weather we were able to do it this year. And Olive loves the great outdoors so this is the type of party she’d love best. Overall it was probably more difficult to have it at the park than a venue since we had to carry everything on a dolly (cars are not allowed). We also couldn’t get a table because the park was unexpectedly packed so we ended up having a picnic, the day started off a little chilly and windy, and we had way too much food. But it eventually turned out to be a beautiful day and everyone had a blast, particularly the birthday girl. Here’s what I would and wouldn’t change for next time!

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F O O D

I told myself that I wouldn’t go overboard on food, because I always do. I have this fear of not having enough food, which has never ever happened!

I ordered pizza which was delivered to the park. The pizza place said to allot 1 slice per child and 2 slices per adult. 17 adults (34 slices) and 14 kids (14 slices) were attending, so I ordered 6 pizzas (48 slices). We ended up having 3 last minute cancellations (7 guests), but 3 whole pizzas were leftover!

I also brought:

– 1 gallon ziploc bag full of assorted veggies (celery, carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes)
– ranch dip & hummus
– 2 blocks of cheese
– 1 cantaloupe and 2 bunches of grapes
– homemade potato salad
– tortilla chips and salsa
– juice boxes for kids
– 2, 2 liter bottles of soda & 1 gallon of water

Half the food was left over! Next time I will really prepare half of what I think I need.


Olive showing the pizza who’s boss.

C A K E

I ordered a plain strawberry shortcake from a local bakery and decorated it with one bottle of sprinkles. It literally took one minute and made the cake look so much fancier than it really was! The kids loved it and couldn’t wait to dig in. This 12 inch round cake is supposed to feed 30 (the total number of guests we had), but not everyone had a slice so we had half the cake left.

A C T I V I T I E S

Because kids’ birthday parties tend to be about 2 hours long, there isn’t too much time for activities once you factor in an hour for eating and cake. I made sure we had plenty to do, but there were three activities that were the biggest hits.

I brought some kraft paper from home, rolled it out on a plastic tablecloth, and left out markers and crayons. Such a simple activity that the kids loved.

I prepared this simple nature scavenger hunt. You can download the printable yourself here! I included a rock, green acorn, brown acorn, brown leaf, green leaf, and a twig. I taped it onto a brown paper lunch bag with washi tape. The kids loved this so much that they filled their entire bags with acorns and rocks and twigs, and then asked for more bags!

We also had beanbags to toss into containers, safety cones for races and obstacle courses, and temporary tattoos. But most of all we had a ton of different balls (soccer balls, footballs, handballs) and a t-ball set that kept kids of all ages entertained the entire time.

The dolly that we used to bring everything to the park became a ride-on toy!

I think just 3 simple activities — the art station, the scavenger hunt, and the balls — would have been perfect.

F A V O R S

I love practical favors so I purchased these bags from a local toy store that the kids could reuse for Halloween, and included a copy of Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat inside and some m&m’s. As a prize for completing the scavenger hunt, I gave out these little rocket launchers which were also big hits.

D E C O R

I purchased balloons and a balloon pump just to have a bunch of balloons lying around on the ground that we could use for games, decor, and favors (on these balloon wands), but it was so windy that they kept flying away. The balloons I bought were also such poor quality, most of them popped anyway. But at least the number 3 balloon I purchased on Amazon and had filled at a local party store provided a great photo prop.

G I F T S

We requested no gifts because Olive doesn’t really need anything. But she did receive a pair of shoes and a fairy princess outfit, which are probably two of her favorite things in the world.


Showing off the Mini Melissa shoes she received as a gift.

My only regret is that I didn’t get very many pictures because I was busy talking to all the guests, but we have enough – including a video of everyone singing happy birthday that Olive has been requesting to watch over and over. The adults had fun, the kids had fun, and I love the open space that a park provides because kids run around and adults get a chance to chat too. It was the perfect little party for Olive.

Have you ever had a park birthday? What activities were the biggest hits?