Squishmallow Pumpkin Birthday

Recently my youngest turned six and requested a Squishmallow pumpkin birthday. Here is how my kids and I created an easy and fun, low budget celebration to share with friends, family, and neighbors. We ended up having thirty plus kids attend! Hoping these ideas can by useful and fun for your Squishmallow birthday parties. Many of these ideas would also work for a fall classroom party, general pumpkin party, and even Halloween.

Decorations:

I love using inexpensive paper plates and painter’s tape to quickly decorate a space. Here I used two packs of tangerine orange colored paper plates to create a giant pumpkin. I added two green plates to make the stem, two pink plates for the cheeks, two smaller plates for the eyes, and the rim of one small plate for the smile. Lastly I added some green poster board cut into a swirl to make the tendrils. This was super easy and made for a fun backdrop to our snack table.

I cut out more swirls out of green poster board and taped them to our kitchen ceiling to create a pumpkin patch hanging above us. I made a template for the pumpkin stem and leaves which is free to download above for personal use. I did not end up using the stem for this decoration but I used it below to create smaller paper plate pumpkins. To attach the “pumpkins” I just hole punched the poster board at random intervals and inserted orange balloons. I added some fall florals and tied some orange gingham ribbon to complete the look. Lastly I stuffed some of my daughter’s Squishmallows into plastic pumpkin pails to tie in with her unique theme.

I used a lot of green poster board to create pumpkin vines. As my daughter’s birthday is so close to my son’s birthday, we often have little time to prep so we needed decorations that were quick and easy to make and be able to cover a large space. These paper vines fit the bill and made a big impact.

My daughters helped me to paint this large scrap wood panel. I found a cute coloring page of some stacked pumpkins with flowers here and projected in onto the board, outlining it with a black Sharpie. My kids enjoyed painting it together.

Here is the finished panel standing in the playroom. It made for a wonderful photo prop and really helped to set the scene. My kids loved posing in front of it and seeing how tall they were in comparison.

We also reused several cutouts from previous birthdays.

Here I reused a cutout from my oldest daughter’s Squishmallow Winter Birthday and just glued some fall flowers and a paper plate pumpkin to it to go with the theme. If we had more time, it would have been nice to repaint the deer brown.

In the living room, I filled the bookshelves up with my kids’ Squishmalllows. They have acquired quite a collection over the years. I also added some pumpkins (real and fake) and some of my daughter’s fall books to further decorate.

Lastly, I made a personalized banner for my daughter. I really enjoy creating banners to coordinate with all my kids’ party themes. These decorations take little time and effort to put up but really help to set the scene. I make more custom banners here.

Party Activities:

I found free coloring pages at ColoringAll and set up a little table for kids to color. I also made the birthday girl some personalized coloring pages. I make more personalized coloring pages for kids here.

I projected several pictures onto white poster board to create a large coloring wall. I like to do this for all our parties as it is so quick and inexpensive to set up. The poster board cost just 50 cents a piece at the Dollar Tree. It takes advantage of the unused space in our hallway and is always enjoyed by kids as well as some adults.

I found this cute Squishmallow hedgehog coloring page here and simply drew in some arms holding a small pumpkin to add to the theme. I used a thick black Sharpie to create the outlines for kids to color in.

Here I added a larger pumpkin to the Squishmallow flamingo. My daughter’s kindergarten friends really enjoyed this space. They worked together coloring and were all so proud to write their names on them.

Here is a Squishmallow sloth with a small pumpkin on his head. The birthday girl thought this one was particularly hilarious.

I made pumpkin coloring crowns. They are available here and can be personalized with name, age, or grade. I precut and glued the bands on them and laid out a bucket of markers as well as a variety of stickers (flowers, Squishmallows, and pumpkins) for kids to decorate their own pumpkin crowns. After decorating they measured their head and stapled them to close.

I make more pumpkin crowns here.

I laid out a simple invitation to create pumpkins using green pipe cleaners and orange pony beads. The kids ended up making a variety of pumpkins (some 2D and some 3D).

We brought out a Squishmallow puzzle and card game for kids to play.

My kids helped me to make pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. We used this recipe for the cookies. Decorating cookies is always so fun and setting up this activity was as easy as putting out orange frosting, these cookies, along with some paper plates, plastic knives, a few sprinkles, and letting the kids go to town. The kids really enjoyed decorating and eating their pumpkins.

We reused this board we made last year for my daughter’s Hello Kitty Halloween Birthday and the kids lined up for multiple rounds of Poke the Pumpkin.

This was such a hit with all the kids that I think we’ll have to somehow work it into all our future fall parties and get togethers. The kids really enjoyed the small prizes as well as the element of surprise.

I purchased pumpkin temporary tattoos from Amazon here. This is always a super inexpensive and low prep activity that the kids enjoy.

I filled a chip tray with a variety of pony beads, these pumpkin charms, and Squishmallow charms for kids to make their own necklaces. This was popular with the kindergarteners and many of the older kids.

I added a simple sign to invite kids to make a pumpkin out of my son’s huge Legos collection as another easy to set up party activity. The kids really enjoyed this no prep activity that did not incur any additional cost.

I purchased mini pumpkins from Walmart, provided acrylic paints, gold glitter, brushes, and aprons. This is an activity my kids really enjoy every fall and I love incorporating it into our fall gatherings and celebrations.

We reused a game from sister’s Squishmallow Winter Birthday but just changed out the winter hats for fall beanies.

We reused another game from my daughter’s Hello Kitty Halloween Birthday last year. I just hot glued some fall florals to the pumpkin and used a small Squishmallow in place of bean bags for this game toss.

I added a few signs to my kids’ play kitchen to turn it into a Pumpkin Patch stand. The signs are available above for personal use. The cutouts are all from my kids’ previous birthdays. I cut up an orange pool noodle to make quick “pumpkin spice donuts”. I also included my old containers of ginger, nutmeg, autumn sprinkles, and fall salsa. My daughter’s kindergarten friends really enjoyed this space. I create more dramatic play setups here.

We made a ginormous pumpkin pinata by recovering my son’s Death Star pinata (that we had made the week before).

My kids always enjoy helping me to make and fill these larger than life pinatas. They are made out of large boxes, some thinner cardboard for the sides, and then covered up with tissue paper and crepe paper streamer. I cut out a giant number six from white poster board and hot glued it onto the pinata. I added a toilet paper roll stem, some flowers from the Dollar Tree, and some green construction paper tendrils to complete the pumpkin.

Here is the birthday girl taking a swing at her pinata. This has become one of my kids’ favorite birthday traditions to share with their friends.

Food:

We included the birthday girl’s favorite foods as well as a lot of homemade kid friendly favorites. My daughter loves twice baked potatoes.

We served queso, taco meat, as well as this homemade chili. I also cut some some carrots into a pumpkin shape to put into the chili.

We served these delicious egg rolls along with shrimp chips and my parents’ delicious fried rice. We make the egg rolls as a family usually one to two weeks prior and freeze them. On the morning of party day, I just dump them all into a large countertop roaster oven to reheat them and keep warm to serve.

I found these cute pumpkin plates at the Dollar Tree and filled them with lots of orange colored as well as pumpkin shaped and flavored treats. I used this recipe from Domestically Creative to make dinner rolls and shaped them like a pumpkin just by making eight cuts in the dough with kitchen scissors. I inserted the ends of large pretzel rods as stems.

My daughters helped me to turn mandarin oranges into pumpkins using just Sharpie markers. This took minimal effort and time and the kids really loved them.

We had a hot cocoa bar. This is something we really like to serve for any gatherings we have in the fall and winter. I followed this recipe from Wishes and Dishes to make the crockpot hot chocolate and laid out some simple toppings (mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, mellowcreme pumpkin candy, whipped cream, and seasonal sprinkles).

We scooped out orange sherbet ice cream and mixed it with a few bottles of ginger ale to make an orange colored pumpkin punch. The party sign is available here.

My daughter requested an ice cream cake shaped like a pumpkin. Ever since I made the giant chocolate ice cream cake for my daughter’s Matilda birthday, my kids have all requested ice cream cakes. I doubled this recipe to make the chocolate cake and baked it in two 12 inch cake pans. After I removed the cakes, I used the same pans to shape two 48oz containers of Tillamook Oregon Dark Cherry ice cream and two 48 oz containers of Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. I frosted it all with this stabilized whipped cream frosting from Sugar Spun Run and tinted it orange.

In lieu of cupcakes, I made these pumpkin patch brownies. I just used Ghiradelli brownie mix, baking them according to the package directions. While still warm, we crumbled Oreo cookies as dirt and when cooled, we cut them into squares and pushed in (or planted) little mellowcreme pumpkins.

Favors:

I made these personalized labels for my daughter. I purchased these plain white paper bags from Amazon and printed the labels onto regular paper. My kids glued them onto the bags and filled them with these wooden pumpkin ornaments, pumpkin stickers, Fun Dip, and party blowers I found at the Dollar Tree. They were given to each guest at the time of the pinata to collect candy.

My greatest joy in creating these parties for my children is seeing all their excitement and happiness.

Here is the birthday girl opening some of her presents with her sisters. She still needs some help reading her birthday cards. I really enjoy planning and creating with my kids. I also love helping them to see that we don’t have to go out and buy all the things and can easily make a lot from what we already have.

I create more printables 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 inspires you to create something simple, low budget, and fun to celebrate your autumn babies!