For Claire’s whimsical unicorn-themed fourth birthday, we celebrated with soft and springy pastel colors. We kept some of our family’s traditional party elements – paper globe lanterns, felt ball garlands, a felt crown, a cake by Grandma – but added in a new element – a piñata!
Decorations
Felt ball garland
I wet felted these balls using 100% wool from Wistyria Editions. They sell a bundle of soft pastel colors which was perfect.
Globe lanterns
We love using these in place of balloons and saving them to reuse over the years. I hang them with flat white pushpins and fishing wire.
Watercolor star lanterns
We scattered several of these lanterns around on various tables and surfaces. The tutorial for these can be found on Bella Luna Toys’ Moon Child Blog. I painted watercolor paper and folded it to make these candle holders.
Proctor Farmer’s Market flowers
The day before the party, I visited our local farmer’s market and found a bouquet of mostly daffodils and tulips to match the pastel color theme.
Streamers
We hung crepe paper streamers in the birthday girl’s doorway. This has become a tradition that we do for the birthday person the night before the celebration. They walk through them when they wake up in the morning. I’ve found many of these crepe paper streamers at thrift stores.
Grimm’s pastel wooden rainbow tunnel and Ostheimer unicorn
While they are definitely an investment, we love how these are high quality, made with natural materials, and great for imaginative and open-ended play. Both were purchased from Bella Luna Toys.
Activities
Rainbow rice sensory bin
The rice is colored with natural food coloring and vinegar. We added paper cups my mom had left over from another event, scoops, pieces of wood, and tiny shells that looked like unicorn horns.
Piñata
My mom and I found this piñata at a craft store. It originally had a bright pink and purple tissue paper for its mane and tail, but my mom replaced it with pastel rainbow tissue paper. The kids had so much fun with the piñata. It was so exciting to see each of them break it open a little bit more each time.
Unicorn horn sidewalk chalk
This chalk is from Bella Luna Toys and is handmade by artisans in small batches in Philadelphia. Unfortunately I realized after ordering it that the gold horns have some glitter on the outside but at least the glitter is biodegradable. I need to do more research on biodegradable glitter but in general I think avoiding glitter altogether is probably the best way to go.
Favors
Handmade playdough
Party Time seeds from Wild Creek Co.
Handmade felt gifts
Crown inspired by Magical Birthdays for Children by Natalie Trusler
Bag inspired by Lee Sutton of Mae’s Landing
For the crown and the bag, I used the beautifully soft hand dyed and felted merino wool from Lil Sprigs on Etsy.
Food
We kept the food very simple with heavy apps like charcuterie, a caprese pasta salad, and a rainbow fruit and veggie tray.
Of course for dessert we had a stunning cake made by my mom.
What a joy it was to honor our bold, sweet, vibrant Claire! I’m not sure how she’s four already but I’ll keep trying to savor each little moment.
Note: This post is not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned. I just wanted to share the details with you all in case it helps or inspires you in some way.
