Calling all Foodies!

For as long as I’ve known Hutton Brooks (3 years and 9 days), I’ve wanted to throw him a food-themed birthday party.

Food is his #1 love language.

That said, I’ve also felt like our window of time for such a theme was running out.

I mean…at some point, constant eating becomes, like, a self-control issue or something.

A 36 year old sprinting to the kitchen at the mention of chicken nuggets? Not cute.

A 3 year old? Totally hilarious. And totally still fair game for a birthday theme.

What started with this invitation:

(yes. Genius, I know.)

morphed into a “foodie” theme.

Specifically, a Central Market foodie theme.

Central Market, aka Heaven on Earth, is a grocery store here in Texas that sells “high-quality, hard-to-find gourmet foods”.

Their produce section is so immaculate, you find yourself saying things like, “Have you ever seen such beautiful cauliflower? I’d marry that asparagus in a heartbeat.”

Mostly, though, we went with a Central Market theme because their tagline is “REALLY INTO FOOD“.

home-bag And that perfectly describes our favorite foodie, Hutton.

In fact, this was our conversation about his birthday:

me: What kind of food do you want to eat at your party?
him: Meat.
me: Ok. What else?
him: Hot dogs.
me: Ok. What else?
him: More hot dogs.

We finally landed on a few more buffet choices, pulled everything together, and had the greatest foodie birthday of his 3 year old life.

[fair warning: pics aren’t the best quality, but you get the gist.]

Hutton’s favorite part of the party was either the Candy Land bounce house or the unsupervised, unlimited popcorn consumption.

Mine was a toss-up between the food our friends brought or the food our friends took home.

The thing about having 3 boys so close together is that they like the same toys. And share the same toys.

Ergo, we are drowning in toys.

So nearly every birthday, we offer an alternative to presents. This year, it was this:

which led to this:

The food our friends brought was the greatest gift to us.

The food they took home was the greatest gift to the party theme.

Because, you see, Walmart has a few items of importance for a foodie birthday:

100 paper lunch sacks for $1.96.
A 101-piece pretend food set for $9.96.

combine the two and you have GROCERY SHOPPING PARTY FAVORS.

The kids were instructed to grab a bag, get some groceries, and cook up some meals at home for their fam.

Some kids picked out 13 items, some 2.
Ask my friends how much they loved going home (and keeping up) with one can of tuna and a single piece of lettuce. Unconditionally, I’m sure.

I love me a good party theme, and this one did not disappoint.

Not because the grocery bags I crafted made me squeal with delight. Not because Hutton’s new chef hat and apron are hilarious.

No; it didn’t disappoint, because celebrating Hutton is our favorite.

And bringing a smile to his face by putting 15 of his favorite eats on a table for 15 of his besties to enjoy with him?

That, you guys, is totally worth the amount of time it took to clean the floors, tables, and walls after a gaggle of 3 year olds were a) armed with plates full of macaroni and cheese /frosted cupcakes and b) unleashed in our home.

Totally. worth. it.

UPDATE: I totally forgot to add my FAVORITE favorite part, and that was after the party as my mom helped me put my house back together, completely oblivious to the fact that my brother safety-pinned a balloon to her vest.

20 minutes it lasted. 20 full minutes of a balloon shadow.

It was incredible.