It's a Peanut Butter Birthday Party!

My 3 year old loves peanut butter, so for her recent 3rd birthday party we had a Peanut Butter party.

The invitations were created with clip art from the internet featuring a jar of peanut butter and a cute peanut character. They turned out great!

When the kids arrived, we had them make packing peanut sculptures. In advance, I glued a few packing peanuts to a paper plate, then each kid had a pile of packing peanuts and toothpicks that they used to create their own sculpture. That was an indoor activity. 

After that, we moved outside and made peanut butter birdfeeders out of pinecones. They all had fun spreading the pinecones with peanut butter, and then rolling them in birdseed (we tied strings to the pinecones first). We put them in plastic bags to take home later. 

Then it was time for peanut races. Each kid carried a shelled peanut on a spoon and ran to put it in a cup, then ran back. Since the kids were little we didn't have them race but just had them do it one at a time.

They giggled the whole way. Afterwards we presented peanut medals - necklaces I had made out of a few peanuts sprayed gold and strung on a thin ribbon.

Since we had some dads there, we had a peanut eating contest on the patio for the dads. Each dad got a pile of peanuts in the shell and tried to be the one who could shell and eat them first. We crowned the winner the "Peanut King" and made him wear a silly crown.

Then came the fun part - the kids got to stomp on the shells that were on the patio. Found A Peanut was the next activity - we had hidden peanuts on our backyard playground and the kids all raced around finding them.

We had a peanut butter lunch..an assortment of bread, bagels, rice cakes, graham crackers, apples, celery, and other stuff suitable for spreading with peanut butter. I also had cheese in a can for anyone who didn't want peanut butter!

After lunch we opened presents, and then it was time for cake. I made chocolate cake and also served ice cream with a choice of peanut butter toppings, including Reeses Pieces, chopped peanut butter cups, crushed peanut butter candies (the crunchy ones), and, of course, peanuts.

For party favors we gave each a peanut butter cookie mix that I layered in a plastic jar along with directions on what to add (eggs and vanilla) and how to bake. The kids also took home their bird feeders, sculptures, peanut necklaces, and the peanuts they had found.

The entire party lasted about 2 hours and was great fun!