Hedgehog Themed Birthday

Recently my middle daughter turned nine and requested a hedgehog themed birthday party. Here is how we turned our home into a lush forest filled with mushrooms and hedgehogs using simple supplies, little expense, and time. I also made some free themed templates that are available to download below. Many of these ideas could also work for a fairy birthday, woodland themed baby shower, or even fall celebration at school or church.

Decorations:

The birthday girl helped me to create mushrooms out of paper plates and cotton balls. We just cut red paper plates in half then glued three cotton balls on top. We glued some white cardstock on the bottom as stems. We used double sided painter’s tape to hang them all up around our house and even made a banner out of some.

I made a mushroom banner for my daughter. I really enjoy creating banners for my kids’ birthdays and special occasions as they are a simple and inexpensive way to decorate. The banners are available here and can be customized for any event.

My daughter helped me to make toadstools out of cut tree parts. We covered large bowls that we had in red plastic tablecloth and inverted them on top of the tree rounds. Then my daughter cut white circles out of plain printer paper and taped them on top.

Here I covered a laundry basket in red plastic tablecloth and flipped it over a large tree trunk to make a giant toadstool.

We also made pool noodle mushrooms to decorate our yard. They are just red plastic bowls and cut up white pool noodles hot glued together. We stuck wooden chopsticks into the ground and slid each pool noodle mushroom on top. They have really held up well outside and surprisingly our puppy hasn’t tried to eat them.

We made giant mushrooms out of large pieces of scrap wood. My very handy dad always has a huge supply of wood on hand for us.

Here is the birthday girl waiting for birthday guests to arrive.

We made hedgehogs out of paper bags. My kids also used the same template to make paper bag puppets. The template is available above for personal use.

To make the puppets, you just need brown paper bags, some construction paper in brown cut into strips, and my free template above.

To make the fuller paper hedgehog, you start by creating a paper bag snowflake. There are a lot of tutorials on paper bag snowflakes out there but I found this one from Lovely Etc. to be particularly helpful. I used only six paper bags to create the hedgehog quills then just cut and pasted my template on top. These paper hedgehogs can be suspended from the ceiling with little command hooks and fishing line or taped to the wall using painter’s tape.

The birthday girl made some pine cone hedgehogs. She used found pine cones which are plentiful around us, wrapped one end with white yarn, and glued on pom pom noses and googly eyes.

My kids turned their existing play castles into pet hotels for all their little hedgehogs.

Here is little sister painting a giant hedgehog on another piece of scrapwood.

This is what the finished hedgehog looked like. My dad used his jigsaw to carefully cut around the flower and quill details and even sanded it.

I draped dark green plastic tablecloths over our walls and reused the trees my kids had made for their camping themed school dance. After the party, the plastic tablecloths come down and get folded for later use (usually to cover tables for my kids’ art sessions). The party signs I made are available here with the details for each activity explained more completely below.

We made a lot of ballon garlands using a mix of sage green, dark green, brown, white, and gold balloons and hung them throughout our house. Over the sofa, I draped the birthday girls’ favorite blankets. We actually made the pink hedgehog blanket together a few years ago from fleece fabric that we cut and tied together.

Another balloon banner was strung up in my kids’ playroom. To make the garlands quick work I use a balloon pump that allows me to inflate two balloons at a time. I also use this balloon tape that is easy for my kids to use. They pull the tied balloons into each hole and are able to work together to make them.

In the kitchen, we taped more tree cutouts as well as white paper flowers. The paper flowers were made from regular printer paper with a white coffee filter glued to the center and then my printable flower centers were added. I also used the leaf template from my giant apple balloons to create the large and small paper leaves, adding some green swirls of constrution paper for more visual interest and fun.

This same design was continued into our dining room. Here is little sister all dressed up waiting for her sister’s party to start. Pardon the mismatched chairs. In lieu of trying to fit an extra table into our dining room, we opted just to pull in more chairs and to set up the extra folding tables outdoors.

Party Activities

I made some hedgehog themed coloring pages that are available here.

I found some adorable coloring pages here and here and used my projector to make a few large coloring pages for the kids.

I purchased these white poster boards inexpensively from Walmart and used double sided painter’s tape to secure them to the wall. This is always a really easy to prep and low cost activity that the kids enjoy.

Here is little sister coloring. She spent a lot of time here.

I used a thick black Sharpie to make the outlines.

This was the birthday girl’s favorite one and now the completed poster hangs in her room.

I purchased these adorable hedgehog charms here from Amazon as well as these flower charms and set up a little invitation to make keychains. I laid out a set of alphabet beads, colorful pony beads, and elastic string for kids to create. My daughters and their friends really enjoyed this simple setup.

I purchased this hedgehog puzzle from Amazon. I often like including a puzzle as a party activity. This was a doable size for multiple kids of varying ages to work on together. Puzzles are one of my kids’ favorite screen-free activities and are so wonderful to have on hand during flight layovers, waiting for dance class, etc.

I just added this simple sign to our giant Lego stash to invite kids to build their own Lego hedgehog. Sometimes kids just need a little direction to create something new from what they already have. The activity signs I made are available here.

My daughter requested sugar cookies shaped like hedgehogs. I used this recipe from Alrecipe. I purchased the hedgehog cookie cutter here.

Setting up this activity was as simple as setting out vanilla buttercream frosting tinted brown, these hedgehog cookies, along with some paper plates, plastic knives, and a few sprinkles, and letting the kids have at it. My favorite recipe for vanilla buttercream frosting is this one from Two Sisters.

My kids really enjoy decorating cookies for all holidays and their birthdays are no exception. I found the adorable flower plates here.

I found hedgehog tattoos here. Including a little area for kids dedicated to temporary tattoos is another inexpensive and low prep activity that is always well received. There were a lot of really cute ones to choose from. Even some adults were applying them onto themselves.

I added the pinecone hedgehogs that my daughter made as well as some of her small hedgehog stuffies to my kids’ existing dollhouse. I am a big proponent of using what we already have for parties.

I made these simple signs to work my kids’ existing play kitchen into the party theme. They are free to download above and are meant to overlap a bit.

I purchased this scratch art paper and cut small hedgehog silhouettes for kids to decorate. I found the free silhouette here.This is another minimal cost activity that the kids enjoy not only at their parties, but as an activity on the go for all those waiting periods.

My kids helped me to gather rocks from our backyard and painted them brown. I added peach paint to the center and set them out with paint pens for kids to make and take home their own rock hedgehogs.

I found this school supply organizer at Target and filled it up with various colored pipe cleaners, added a chip tray filled with beads, hair clips, and headbands for the the kids to make pipe cleaner flowers. The girls as well as some boys really enjoyed this station.

Instead of purchasing blank canvases, I found this watercolor paper at the Dollar Tree. You get 24 sheets for just three dollars which is way cheaper than purchasing blank canvases. I found the adorable coloring page here and projected it onto each sheet, tracing the outline with a black Sharpie for kids to later paint in. When it was time to paint, I just added little cups of water and I also ended up switching out my fabric tablecloth for plastic tablecloth which made for much easier cleanup. I also provided kids with Faber-Castell connector watercolor paints as well as a black Sharpie to sign their painting.

As my daughter’s birthday is always near back-to-school season, I like to incorporate a craft that kids can use. I purchased these inexpensive notebooks from Target for just 35 cents each and invited kids to decorate them with these cute hedgehog stickers as well as a mix of chalk markers and paint pens.

My kids helped me to make a poke a prize game. It’s a simple and inexpensive make that is always enjoyed.

Here is my oldest daughter painting the hedgehog.

The birthday girl chose a few prizes to fill each cup. She picked these resin hedgehogs, hedgehog erasers, and keychains. Each cup is a SOLO cup that we hot glued to our board. After filling each cup with a prize, we covered them up with brown tissue paper squares, securing them with a rubber band.

The kids had so much fun lining up from youngest to oldest and punching them to get a prize.

We made a ginormous hedgehog pinata together from cardboard. This is an easy and wonderful way to make larger, sturdier pinatas, that can fit into any party theme. You just need to cut out the shape of your piñata twice, add 3-4 inch cardboard strips to the sides, and tape everything up with masking tape.

We use masking tape as it can be painted or easily covered up with tissue paper and won’t show through.

We then covered up our pinata with brown paper streamer leaving the center uncovered and glued some black construction paper and a paper plate mushroom for added detail.

My kids always enjoy helping me to make and fill these pinatas. As the cost of making these are minimal, we get to splurge on filling them. We filled ours with the birthday girl’s favorite candy treats as well as a mix for her family and friends. The birthday girl made sure to include a lot of Tootsie Rolls to share with her dad as well.

Here is the birthday girl taking her swing! When asked about their birthdays, my kids always tell me that the pinata was one of their favorite parts.

Because my daughter’s birthday is smack in the middle of summer, usually with 80 degrees plus heat, we made sure to rotate outside and inside activities so the kids wouldn’t overheat. We had the usual summer activities that my kids enjoy all set out… jump ropes, parachute, sidewalk chalk, one water table filled with bubble solution, and one filled with flowers, funnels, and ladles. We also ended her party with an epic water balloon fight.

To make the homemade bubbles, I filled the kids’ water table up with 4 gallons of distilled water, 30 oz Dawn Dish Soap, and 1/2 cup of glycerin. I also purchased this bubble wand set previously for my kids’ school field day and we brought it out for the party too.

Food:

The birthday girl LOVES corn dogs. I used this delicious recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen to make my daughter’s favorite corn dogs. I found the cute signs for the food at the Dollar Tree in their school decor section.

We enjoyed some twice baked potatoes. I sliced each potato in half, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and baked them for an hour at 400 degrees then scooped out the filling and added melted butter, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. I then refilled the potatoes, topped them with more cheddar cheese and green onions, and placed them back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes for the cheese to melt on top.

I followed this recipe from The Cookie Rookie to make queso in my crockpot. We kept it on a warmer to serve with tortilla chips but it also tasted really wonderful ladled over the potatoes.

My daughter requested some taco meat to go with the chips and queso. I used my crockpot to easily brown five pounds of ground beef. You just dump the meat in, adding 1/4 cup of water for every one pound of ground beef and cook on high for three hours. I added about a pound of frozen corn to stretch out the meat then seasoned it all with some salt, pepper, and taco seasoning.

Here is the birthday girl helping her dad to fry shrimp chips. Dad made sure she wore her swim goggles to protect her eyes.

We made them a week in advance and stored them in the refridgerator in ziploc bags, ready to pull out on party day.

We served homemade mac and cheese. I doubled this recipe but skipped the bread topping and it was completely devoured.

We made traditional Vietnamese egg rolls. The egg roll recipe handed down from my mom can be found here.

We mixed two cartons of lime sherbet with a three bottles of ginger ale to make a forest punch. The birthday girl wanted to call it grass punch in the water form instead so she made that change.

Here is her big brother helping to make the punch before guests arrive. We often need all hands on deck to get ready.

My daughter requested a chocolate ice cream cake like the one she had last year for her Matilda birthday but wanted it shaped like a hedgehog. I used this recipe to make the chocolate cake and this recipe from Sugar Spun Run to make the stabilized whipped cream frosting.

Here is the birthday girl helping to frost her cake. We had to add a lot of extra cocoa and brown icing gel to achieve the darker brown color for the quills. We also used a small star tip to pipe them. You have to work super fast with the whipped cream frosting, refreezing, then piping some more until finished.

Favors:

For favors, I used canvas bags I had previously purchased from Amazon. They were leftover from my daughter’s Matilda birthday. I made a hedgehog template and traced it onto each bag with a black Sharpie, inviting kids to decorate with these acrylic paint pens. As most guests RSVP’ed I included their names but made sure to leave some blank just in case. The kids really enjoyed decorating them and filling them with pinata candy and crafts they made at the party.

Here is the birthday girl proudly wearing the flower headband she made out of pipe cleaners and reading her birthday cards. She really does bring the life to every party. We had so much fun planning and creating everything together. I also really enjoyed helping my kids to see how we can easily make decorations and fun activities from simple everyday supplies.

I create more printable activities for kids here.

To see my other kids’ parties click here.

If you use these printables or party ideas, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.

I hope this post quill be helpful!