A San Francisco Birthday Party

A few weeks before leaving San Francisco, we celebrated our sweet oldest’s 5th birthday. The inspiration for the party came from some of her beloved San Francisco books, and was a great way to say farewell to our favorite city. In addition to setting the mood for the party, the books also doubled as both party decorations and entertainment during the party.
I’ve said it before, but if you haven’t read any of Miroslav Sasek’s books, you are seriously missing out. I am of course partial to This is San Francisco, but we have almost all of the titles in our collection. The beautiful vintage illustrations in this book set the color scheme for the party.

San Francisco 123 was perfect for the littlest SF loving tots at the party, and matched both the colors and the Golden Gate bridge theme.

For an simple no-sew bunting, we used a round punch to cut circles out of paint chips in the colors of the party, then glued a string between two circles (with the right sides of the circles facing out). Quick and easy.

This San Francisco 3-D puzzle was a sweet gift and made a nice decoration for the party.



We kept it simple (and economical) by using plain white plates, napkins, notecards and paper bags. Then we used a an alphabet stamp and a Golden Gate Bridge stamp to decorate. Coral and Seaglass ink pads coordinated perfectly with the color scheme.

A few other notes about the party, and how we kept things simple and inexpensive:

• Everything had to be quick and easy, since the party was happening so close to our move.
• Food consisted of a fruit and veggie platter plus cheese and crackers. Good for both kids and adults, and minimal prep time.
• Dessert was homemade (from a box) cupcakes.
• Party favors were the stamped bags filled with piñata goodies. Because after living in Honduras, no birthday party is complete without a piñata!
• The party was held at Julius Kahn Park, one of our favorite neighborhood spots, which also happens to have an amazing view of the Golden Gate bridge. Parks are my favorite venue for birthday parties (especially in the city). There is free entertainment for the kids, beautiful and natural scenery, and you don’t need to worry about limiting the number of people. Plus, a permit for a party is very reasonable and cleanup is a breeze.