Chase turned three on Sunday but his birthday celebrations officially kicked off on Thursday evening with a pool party play date!
Dragons + Unicorns Birthday Party
Back in June, my friend Lauren asked my thoughts on planning a double birthday party for our two little ones since they’re best friends and their birthdays are four days apart. Truthfully my plan for a birthday celebration for Chase with his friends was going to be something along the lines of “meet us at Duck Donuts for sprinkle doughnuts if you’d like” but a weeknight pool play date sounded like a lot more fun! Plus, it seemed like a relatively low-key way to celebrate that the kids would love and that also wouldn’t require a ton of planning.
Lauren was the perfect party planning buddy and we both took a pretty laid back approach to everything which kept it fun and easy! Lauren suggested a Unicorns and Dragons fantasy theme since Claire is all about unicorns and Chase is obsessed with dragons which sounded great to me!
We decided on Lauren’s neighborhood pool as a party location and divvied up our party to-dos.
We met up a couple of times to finalize everything and arrived 30 minutes before the party officially started on Thursday to set everything up in the shade on the pool deck and inflate the giant unicorn and dragon pool floats.
Chase and Claire were immediately infatuated with their respective floats and the $26 I spent on Chase’s dragon float was the best $26 I’ve spent in a while! He loved it and I know the float will get a lot of use during summers on the lake in the future.
One of Lauren’s friends made the cupcakes and two mini cakes for Chase and Claire for their party and everything was SO delicious! We had to laugh because the Happy Birthday candles on their cakes kept blowing out as we started to sing “Happy Birthday” to Chase and Claire so I’m pretty darn positive neither of them actually blew out a single candle but at least we tried.
After food, cake and cupcakes, the kids ran around and eventually got back in the pool for some more summertime swimming.
There was something about the end of Chase’s party that felt like the definition of a memorable summer night to me and I just loved hanging out by the pool with friends and family and watching our little ones squeal and splash around.
I hope Chase and Claire had as much fun as it looked like they had at their party!
Chase Turns Three
Chase’s actual birthday was on Sunday and we did our best to fill his special day with some of his favorite things. It wasn’t too hard to do since our child is in love with sprinkles and icing so simply serving him a slice of birthday cake made his day!
When my sister and I were little, my mom would always decorate our place at the kitchen table on our birthdays which felt like such a special treat so I took a page out of my mom’s book and blew up some balloons, hung streamers and placed Chase’s presents on the coffee table for him to find after he woke up in the morning. We actually saved a bunch of the presents from Chase’s party (we said no gifts were necessary but people were still very generous) for him to open so he was very surprised!
Chase had a ball opening his gifts (the hits this year were a simple shark bath toy, a space projector flash light and dinosaur toys) and we wrapped every last thing up individually (including bubbles and a few $1 toy cars). Chase’s reaction to everything made us smile so much! He’s at the age where his mouth drops open and he gasps at everything from a book to a tiny toy car and it’s such a fun age!
Once the presents were opened, we packed up Chase’s shark toy, some towels and snacks and headed to a little lakeside beach near our house so Chase could splash and swim.
The beach near our house is actually the same beach where we dock our boat and it’s a great little spot because it’s shady and almost always completely deserted. We had the whole beach to ourselves for nearly two hours and had fun swimming before we took a little break to eat a morning snack on our towels picnic-style since Chase thinks picnics are the coolest.
Since our beach morning began rather early, we were back home a little before noon which gave us plenty of time to grill out and make burgers on the grill for lunch — another Chase favorite!
We spent the rest of the afternoon around the house hanging out with my family and our boys and wrapped up Chase’s third birthday with lots of birthday cake!
I am planning to check back in tomorrow or Wednesday with Chase’s three year old update (current challenges, the big brother transition, etc.) and hope to see ya around here again soon!
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Such a cute party theme for boy girl besties. It’s been fun watching Chase over the last three years. He seems to share in his mom’s joyful disposition!?
What a FUN way to celebrate!! Chase looks like he loved every second 🙂 Totally proof that less is more 🙂 I’m glad your family was able to join as well!
Super cute birthday celebrations for little Chase! Love it! I mean, have these three years flown by for you? I bet! Also, it’s awesome your parents were around for it all. Happy Monday, Julie! 🙂
Aw, Happy Birthday Chase. I came here to say that the photo with your mom and Ryder is truly one of my favorites. You can feel the love coming through that photo.
Aw I love it, too! She’s an amazing grandma to her grandsons!!
I thought the same thing! Such a look of contentment.
Aw, yay, what a fun looking weekend! Also that cake on the cake stand looks beauuuutiful!
What a fun, but laid back weekend! Absolutely perfect- these are the things they will remember!
How fun!
Side note-Chase’s cake looks DELICIOUS!
Box mix for the win! Haha!
OMG what a cute idea for the party – its perfect! Happy Birthday to Chase!
Happy birthday Chase! Just wondering – what is the little floor mat contraption you have Ryder in with Chase leaning over him?
Hi Crystal! It’s the Snuggle Nest and we use it as a mini changing table for Ryder downstairs (and sometimes for controlled play, too, like you see in that photo)! It’s awesome and they almost always have them on sale at Marshalls or TJMaxx!
Thank you, looks like a great product! We have a 10-month-old, but it’s nice to know what is out there if we are blessed with future babies.
happy 3rd birthday Chase!!! your love for your sweet boy pours through your words 🙂 wondering where you got the adorable rainbow Happy Birthday cake sign?! thanks so much!!!
I actually saved it from his birthday last year but I’m 99% sure I ordered it on Amazon last summer!
He is adorable – I want that float! That is awesome!!!! Happy birthday Chase!
Happy birthday, Chase! I’ve been reading your blog for years, and I seriously cannot believe he’s already three!
Same!! Isn’t it crazy?!?!
Ryder asleep in that little sleepsack in the group picture is precious — that sweet sweet age where they sleep everywhere still! haha Looks like a fun birthday weekend, such a lucky boy to have so many people who love him around 🙂
Sounds like a great birthday weekend for Chase! Can’t wait to read tomorrow’s post! Enjoy the rest of your day!
Looks like Chase had a great birthday weekend. It must have been nice for him to have his grandparents there for his birthday.
Happy birthday Chase! I cannot get over how you have one bright blonde haired boy and one brown haired boy. it’s so incredible! Your kids are just wonderful and so beautiful!
Happy Birthday Chase & Claire!! What a fun birthday party!
Such an adorable birthday party!! I usually woke up to balloons on my birthday when I was little, and it always made me feel so special. What kind of cake did you make for Chase?
He requested vanilla cake with white icing and sprinkles! It was actually just a box mix cake topped with homemade buttercream! 🙂
What a fun birthday for Chase! What is that sleep sack you have Ryder in? It knots at the bottom?
It’s the Ollie Swaddle and we LOVE it! We discovered it when we had Chase and it’s my favorite!!
Great pictures! What fun birthday celebrations-sounds perfectly relaxed and delightful!
Great pics!! What kind of bandanna have you been using in your hair lately, I love the look!
Thank you!! I love the bandanas from Madewell but also found a fun bandana scarf scrunchie on Amazon! I shared direct links to them on my blog post on Friday if you are interested!
So fun! Looks like a great weekend!
Where is Ryder’s customized blanket from? Etsy?
What a fun weekend with your family! That photo of your mom and Ryder is precious.
Awww, what a fun weekend celebrating Chase with your family!! I love all of these photos, such special memories!! Hope you are having a great week, Julie! Xoxo
There’s something extra happy about seeing the pics of the grandparents with the babies! All the feels. <3 I said this on instagram but I love this party idea. It's so cute. I think *I* want a dragon and unicorn pool party now. 🙂
I also love your mint green cake plate! Looks like it ended up being such a great weekend. Family is the best.
Thanks for another great post, as always.
What an adorable party theme!! I love it! And he is looking so grown up in his pictures! I swear once they turn 3 they start looking like little people vs baby. My daughter turned 3 in march and I totally notice a change!
So so cute! I loved your shirt and Lauren’s shirts from the party! I would love the links if you have them!
Ohhhh good question! I love your shirt from the party…looks like the perfect fitting sleeveless!
wawooooo thank GOD for the grace of life
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Pool parties in the summer are the BEST! The cake you guys had for him at home is literally the sweetest! The pic with him holding that shark (fav present I assume?!! lol) and smiling at that cake is priceless. Glad you guys had such a special weekend.
Love the idea of decorating the birthday kid’s place at the table! I have to remember that for February when my daughter turns three. Now that I think of it, my mom did that for my sister and I growing up too – she was always very festive 🙂
Happiest birthday Chase! We did the same idea for Sully’s birthday, pizza and ice cream sandwiches in the park which luckily also has a wading pool! It makes for a super easy party and the kids can run around without worrying about everyone having a great time! Can’t believe our boys are 3!!!! So glad you guys had an amazing weekend!
Your kids are too cute! Happy birthday! Thanks for sharing such cute pictures.
What a sweet little birthday! Unicorns and dragons? Can’t think of a better fantasy theme that celebrates both creatures. I hope that Chase and Claire had an amazing birthday party. Lucky little boy gets to enjoy TWO cakes! 😀