Stew Leonard’s Birthday Party

posted by yazmin

Last month we celebrated my twin girls’ 4th birthday party at Stew Leonard’s in Newington, CT. It was a cupcake decorating party held in the store’s party room. We followed a Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? theme to celebrate their favorite Eric Carle book. We invited 10 of their friends to come share in their special day. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and most importantly my girls had a wonderful day.

Birthday Party Stew Leonard's Newington, CT

Brown Bear Invitations

Stew Leonard’s includes party invitations as part of the party package. Since I wanted to stick to my Brown Bear theme, I ordered the party invitations off of Etsy. They were the perfect way to set the theme for the Brown Bear party.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Party Invitation

Brown Bear Dresses

I ordered the girls’ dresses off of Etsy and they were one of the most talked about elements of the party. I was able to customize the dresses for each girl. They ended up being the perfect wardrobe piece for the theme of the party. I had their little brother wear a Brown Bear shirt. It was actually part of a pajama set but without the pants no one could tell!

Brown Bear Dresses Brown Bear Dresses

Stew Leonard’s Party Room

The party room is located on the second floor upstairs from the main store. The room is decorated in bright kid-friendly colors. I brought along some of my own decorations but the room is fully decorated if you want to stick with what they have. There is a child size table and chairs, and tables for food and cake. The tables was set to the side so that there was plenty of room to play party games in the center of the room.

Stew Leonard's Newington Birthday Party Stew Leonard's Party Room (3) Stew Leonard's Party Room (4) Stew Leonard's Party Room (1)

Brown Bear Party Decorations

I chose the Brown Bear theme because it’s one of my girls’ favorite books but also because of the rainbow colors used throughout the story. I knew that I’d be able to find a lot of rainbow party supplies and that it would all come together pretty easily. Thankfully there are already lots of pre-made Eric Carle decorations that I did not shy away from using. I used Eric Carle garland to make a happy birthday sign. I hung large bulletin board pictures of the animals from the story on the wall around the cake table. I attached the large picture of the Brown Bear book (from the same pack as the animals) on fabric that I had found at Joann Fabrics. It made it very easy to identify the theme of the party.

Update: Since I originally wrote this post I’ve come across more Brown Bear party decorations including paper goods, birthday banner, and party favor packs.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Birthday Party

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See PartyBrown Bear, Brown Bear Birthday Party

Since the girls were turning four, I displayed the word “four” on the cake table similar to a display I made for Andrew’s 1st birthday party. I glued rainbow color cupcake liners to cardboard letters to make the display. It was a fun and easy craft.

4th Birthday Party

The main focal point of the cake table was the display of fruit. I was able to get rainbow color containers from Party City and glued on pictures of the animals from the story. Since Stew Leonard’s is a supermarket they provided all of the fruit already washed and cut up. We had watermelon (red bird), cantaloupe (orange fish), pineapple (yellow duck), grapes (green frog), blueberries (blue horse), grapes (purple cat), blackberries (black sheep), chocolate Teddy Grahams (brown bear), mini marshmallows (white dog). It gave people something healthy to munch on throughout the party.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Eric Carle Birthday PartyBrown Bear Birthday Party Decorations

Cupcake Decorating

The main activity of the birthday party was cupcake decorating. Since my girls love to help me in the kitchen I knew that this would be the perfect activity. The week before the party I went to the store to check out the party room and selected cupcake themes for the party. They had a large binder with colorful pictures to choose from. I let the girls each pick a cupcake for the party and I selected the third. We ended up with M&Ms, fish, and paw print. The cupcakes ended up working perfectly with the Brown Bear theme. Stew Leonard's Cupcake Decorating Party

As people arrived to the party they were given a name tag, tattoo, and take-home boxes for their cupcakes. There was crayons and stickers on the table to decorate the boxes. I had purchased aprons and chef hats to wear during the cupcake decorating.

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During the party we had two staff members who ran the party. The staff passed out the different ingredients needed to decorate the cupcake and showed us how each cupcake should look. Each child had a parent to assist them and it ended up being a great activity for all of the kids. When complete, each child had 3 cupcakes to take home.

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Activities

Along with the cupcake decorating, we played a few party games. We had a limbo line, parachute, and freeze dance with the lights off. We even had a surprise visit from Clover the Cow. The party was the perfect mix of activities that got us up and moving and being creative at our seats.

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Food

The party includes pizza and juice for the kids. We kept things simple and bought pizza and soda for the adults. There were reserved tables for parents and family outside of the party room.

Birthday Party Stew Leonard's

Birthday Cake

In case decorating 3 cupcakes wasn’t enough, a birthday cake was included in the price of the birthday party. The bakery has a large book with different selections. Since they didn’t have a theme close to Brown Bear I decided to have a picture of the Brown Bear printed on top of the cake. All I had to do was email a picture to the bakery and describe how I wanted the cake decorated. This came at an additional cost but the end result fit our theme perfectly. I topped the cake with a decoration I found at Michael’s. The cake was served with ice cream and was delicious.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Birthday Party

Favors

I gave away Brown Bear, Brown Bear board books to the youngest guests. For the older kids I found Eric Carle coloring, painting, and sticker books. I printed off a special Brown Bear tag that said, “We hope you had a “beary” good time!”

Brown Bear party favors

The Brown Bear, Brown Bear birthday party at Stew Leonard’s was a huge hit. It was only 90 minutes long but it felt much longer. The staff was super helpful. They setup the tables, brought in food, and cleaned up after the party. Many of our friends and family commented on what a great idea it is to have a party at Stew’s and I couldn’t agree more.

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