3 Scoops of Fun! Third Birthday

Looking for a third birthday theme with a different take on the “sweets” themed party? Look no further! I’ve got the perfect theme for your three year old’s birthday – 3 Scoops of Fun!

When I was searching for a third birthday party theme for my daughter, I stumbled across the cutest invitation with the title “3 Scoops of Fun!”. She currently loves all things pink including “pink” ice cream, so it was perfect fit for her. From there, I was digging through Pinterest for more ideas with this theme and there really was not much. Everything defaulted back to a “sweets” theme or just general ice cream party so, I decided to take pieces from this or that and make it my own.

I decided to put everything I did in one place to help someone else out that may be wanting to do this theme and have some inspiration. It turned out so cute and was very easy to put together!

If you need a cute second birthday idea, I’ve shared ideas for an Easy Two Wild Birthday theme that we did last year.

The Invite

I found the inspiration for this theme from an invitation on Pinterest, so I used it for the inspiration for the invite that I created. The website, Canva, is where I create all my invitations. You can make them from scratch or use one of their templates.

Since I was mainly sending to family and close friends, I saved to my phone and texted the image out to those we were inviting. In the future as my daughter wants to invite classmates, I’ll print some for that and probably still send an electronic copy to family and close friends.

The Outfit

I found a 3 Scoops of Fun! t-shirt from JadeandPaige on Etsy. Their site recommends sizing down in their toddler tees for girls. I went with a 2 even though my daughter has been wearing more 3T sizes lately based on that recommendation. I wish I would have gotten the 3T in this shirt to give her more space and longer wear out of it. The 2 fit, however, it was tight getting over her head and I had to stretch it a little. So, keep that in mind. Overall, the quality was great and it was super cute!

Her skirt is from Old Navy and runs true to size!

The Cake

I made her cake and it came out so cute! She and I spent some time going through Pinterest to have her tell me what she liked. There are so many ideas for ice cream cakes, but since I planned to make it, it had to be cute, but yet easy for me to do. This cake looks more complicated with the dripping, but it was not bad to do and didn’t take much time to do. Overall, pretty easy to do if you are wanting to try.

I used Cake by Courtney’s Classic Vanilla Cake with vanilla buttercream. I cut off a thin layer of each cake to make it flat and saved the cake pieces I cut off. Then, I mixed with icing and made a large cake ball. Put the cake ball in the freezer until you’re ready to do your dripping.

The dripping is a mixture of white chocolate chips melted in warmed heavy cream and then colored with pink gel coloring. I found the tutorial on how to do this on Cake by Courtney’s Instagram. Put the liquid mixture in a squeeze bottom and apply to a cold cake. The cold cake helps the dripping mixture fall down the cake slower to help it stop on the side of the cake. Much easier than expected! I didn’t focus too much on making it perfectly even drippings since it was mimicking melted ice cream. Cover the top of the cake with the melted chocolate mixture before doing your ice cream cone topper.

To construct the ice cream cone, take your large cake ball from the freezer and place a long cake pop stick through it at a slight angle. You’ll want roughly 1.5 inches coming out one side and then 3-4 inches coming out of the other. Place the smaller 1.5 inch side of the stick into the cake at an angle wherever you’d like your ice cream cone to be. I chose the middle of the cake. Once you have that inserted into the cake, cover the cake ball with your melted chocolate dripping. After it is fully covered, you can slip your waffle cone onto the cake pop stick and rest it against your cake ball. I took a little dripping mixture and smeared it where the two meet.

The cupcakes were the same vanilla cake (with pink food gel). I swirled buttercream, topped with sprinkles and finished with a cherry on top! Super easy way to make them look like an ice cream sundae.

The Details

I really tried to keep things as simple as possible this year. I kept food to a minimum and found all of our decorations at Dollar Tree and Dollar General.

Plates/Napkins/Table Cloths/Ice cream bowls: All of these items came from Dollar Tree and Dollar General. To be honest, they had better selection than Party City! I mixed pale pink plates and smaller white ones with different colored confetti around the edges with pale pink napkins. The ice cream bowls came from Dollar Tree and I found varying colors that went well with the theme. Lastly, I got plastic table clothes from Dollar General in pale pink and a white one with confetti on it.

Ice Cream Bar: I put together an ice cream bar with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream. For toppings, I had a selection of sprinkles, gummy bears, and crushed oreos with chocolate syrup and whip cream. It was easy to put together as several of the toppings we already had on hand. So, make your ice cream bar your own with whatever toppings or ice cream works for you. It does not have to be much! The kids (and adults) were perfectly happy with the options.

Favors: When I made the cupcakes, I set aside cake batter and cooked in a regular cake pan. I crumbled that cake, mixed with icing and make individual cake balls. I made enough for the kids we had attending. We had 10 kids attending, so it wasn’t a bad amount to make. I dipped the cake balls in white chocolate and covered with sprinkles. Once dry, I placed the cake ball into a waffle cone and it looked like an ice cream cone. Put it in a treat bag and folded up real tight around the cake ball. It was so cute!

There you have it. Our version of a 3 Scoops of Fun! birthday theme. This theme was so much fun to do! There are so many things you can do with it that are simple, but yet still stylish and not a tone of work. Even though I did a lot of this myself (the cake, cupcakes, cake pops), it did not take me that long to put all of that together. I did those items the afternoon before and then set up everything the day of. I hope you enjoyed these ideas and let me know below if you do this theme!