Charlotte's Doctor Party

Now that we'd decided on a birthday theme, memories of the fun, child-centered parties my mom used to throw reignited the former preschool teacher in me. Sprinkle in a little pinterest and a lot of self-restraint and voila! A doctor party in all its homemade glory. 

I found several invitation ideas and let Charlotte pick one she liked best for us to try and recreate. Right away she liked this one and when I read her the words "You are invited to a Doctor Party" it sealed the deal. 

Construction paper version--Charlotte's job was decorating
the bottom with colored pencil and stickers.

The weeks before the big day, Mitch was working evenings, so I used my down-time while the kids were sleeping to sew up these bad boys. I have neither a sewing machine or a glue gun, so I hand-stitched them. I thought it added to the charm and figured the hassle of taking a sewing machine up and down wasn't really worth it in the end. 

I thought they turned out cute!

The doctor kit and some patterned band-aids went inside to make a fun party favor. 

This would have delighted me as a kid--I still remember the party
where we got miniature chalk boards to take home. I was thrilled!

When the kids arrived, Charlotte gave them a "Doctor Badge" to put on their shirt. I had wanted to make headbands for them to wear, but I ran out of time. In the end, I was glad I didn't put in the effort because I don't think they would have lasted much more than five minutes on the kids' heads. 

The "badges" were a fun way for the kids to start getting into the theme.
And a nice icebreaker for my girl who is, in her words, "A little bit shy....just a little bit."

I set up the room to give the feel of a doctor's office (which probably didn't register to any of the kids--but I enjoyed it :) Charlotte put up the streamers by herself.

Doctor books to read in the "waiting area."
Inspired from this blog post.

My eye-chart decoration. I jimmy-rigged some drawing paper over cardboard--poster board
would have been much more attractive. But what can I say, I'm all about using what you have!

The patients waiting for their doctors.

Medical supplies. Inspiration here and here.

While we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids took care of the babies and stuffed animals. Out of cotton balls, q-tips, ace bandage, thermometers, and cotton rounds--thermometers and band-aids were the all-around favorites. 

The aftermath.

Then we got the party started with the welcome song and some games. I wanted to stick with age-appropriate games, so we played Drop the Coin in the Jar, Duck-Duck-Goose, and Ring-around-the-rosies. The games went WAY faster than I had planned (oops), so I improvised and ran upstairs to pull out some streamers, our awesome hand-held tape cassette player, and my go-to kid's cassette. What can we say, we like to party like it's 1999, baby!

Then we read some of the doctor books that I had checked out from the library. Three of the kids were really interested, but the others just had fun running around with Elliot as the delighted ring-leader.

Then we ran upstairs for a few minutes of balloon play and cupcakes. 

I'm proud to say, I came up with these little gems all on my own.

I debated whether or not to open presents, but went with it. I'm glad we did because several of the kids were especially excited to show Charlotte what they had brought. 

The circle quickly shrunk--too much excitement!

 We headed back downstairs for a game of Pin the Stethoscope on the Doctor.

Yes, I drew it. Yes, I'm proud of it.

. ..and the shiny, tinfoil stethoscope chest-pieces.
Very proud.

We ended by tending to the rest of the patients...

..and playing with cars.

In addition to the doctor kits, we sent each kid home with one of these:

With a little note from Charlotte on the back:

All-in-all, I would say the party was a success. Not only did I have a fun time getting it all ready, but it was also high-energy with lots of friends--just what the doctor ordered.

Just what THIS doctor ordered!

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet girl!!!