A Celebration Doesn't Have to Be Costly

This was not the regularly scheduled week for our annual triple birthday party, but nothing this summer has been "regularly scheduled" so we just did it.

It's a good thing we had stocked up on cheap frugal party supplies in advance!

On an early summer outing, we found ourselves at Target (imagine that!) and we began with browsing the Dollar Spot where they had just put out some new back-to-school themed items. We saw some little tins that had a notebook paper design. My sister Linda suggested that they would look cute at a party with utensils in them...and thus a party theme was born. Mom, Kristin, and I all loved (love) school, so a back-to-school theme was fitting.

Let me show you how we used a variety of one dollar items, as well as a few things around the house, to create a fun party. 

I filled an old stoneware bowl with apples...

(Thanks, honey, for running out to get those apples on Sunday morning!)

...and put my Great-Aunt Minerva's school bell beside it.

(That was Bekah's suggestion. Party planning is a family affair!)

Bekah wrote a greeting on the sandwich board.

Notebook page banner from Target.

Oops! I should have bought two of those.
There were only enough "pages" to write "BIRTHDAY"...no "HAPPY."

Ben (6) noticed. (Ben is a noticer!)

One package of notebook page treat bags.

We filled them with mini composition notebooks, a colorful mechanical pencil, and Pixie sticks.

We put plastic utensils and paper straws in the notebook page tins.

Kati made the plaid apples a few years ago.

I love these little alphabet stickers!

I had put them in my cart two times and put them back because I wasn't sure what I'd do with them.

Then I picked them up the third time just because I liked them.

I found a way to use them. They were sturdy enough to mark our cups! Hooray!

Packages of chalkboard and notebook page gift tags for a dollar?

Yes, please.

Linda even found the chalkboard tissue paper! (I missed that!)

For mathematics class: 

3 generations, birthdays within 11 days of one another, 166 years, 1 party.