I have long been planning Jimmy’s second birthday party, a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. It all started with some gorgeous baskets I saw from East2Eden which have red gingham linings and were just a fiver at the Ideal home Show. I built the rest of the party around them really and I have so enjoyed the planning, making and eventually pulling off! It’s been brilliant so I wanted to share it with you.

It was quite an inexpensive party really although I feel it looked really good and more opulent than its cost; at least I hope it did! My home made approach together with some savvy shopping proved to work wonders for the purse strings anyway! The hall hire and bits and pieces (not including the cake made by my Mum) cost about £100 and the food with another cake for Jimmy’s actual birthday, the day before the party, came to a further £80. All of the eats at our picnic were bought in Morrisons as I was asked to be a Morrison’s Mum the very same weekend of Jimmy’s birthday and the party! They have a new pricing structure with loads of products having gone down in price and having the intention of staying down! I had pre-calculated how much I would spend at my local supermarket and I am chuffed to say I spent around £30 less at Morrisons!

So… Here’s Jimmy’s Teddy Bear’s Picnic Party which started out with the big party shop!

The shopping was quick and easy with, like I mentioned, excellent prices!

I like the bright yellow stickers shouting out which products are cheaper, it was really helpful when shopping on my party budget! Butter is now just £1 which is ace but it is a shame they don’t do slightly salted as a middle choice. The experience was very easy and considering I don’t know the store or lay out I found the shop to be quick with helpful staff. I got excellent quality products and absolutely loads for my money! I did find however that the Pimms was much cheaper in other shops, a shame when everything else was such super value.

I left very happy with my shop even if minus the Pimms and will definitely be going back. I was particularly impressed with the cool mist being sprayed over the fruit and veg in Market Street, it was great attention to detail and shows how much they care yet prices were marked down and not up because of it – fab! Spending just under £80 I bought all the food for my party plus enough for a couple of meals over the rest of the weekend and even a ready made cake for Jimmy to have on his actual birthday! It was the Morrison’s caterpillar cake and was absolutely yum!

I LOVE how much Florence is looking after Jimmy in this video of us singing Happy Birthday on his actual birthday, the day before the party!

Then the day after his birthday and with all the shopping and preparing done, party day arrived!

A family of teddy bear sandwiches for the little ones included a honey Daddy bear and chocolate spread Mummy and baby bears. The adults had smoked salmon (£1.99 a pack!) and cucumber with dill and lemon butter sandwiches! I used a mandolin on the cucumber after peeling it and mixed a teaspoon of dill with a squeeze of lemon per 200g of salted butter! The Mummy and Daddy salmon sandwiches came in at 33p each and Baby Bear sandwiches at a staggering 12p for four!

I filled the family picnic baskets with the sandwiches and added a pickle pork pie (£1.29 for four and EVERYONE said they were YUMMY), a packet of pop corn (at 50p this is less than half the price of my local supermarket), some teddy bear biscuits made by me and everyone had a bottle of either Jamaican Ginger Beer or Elderflower Presse from the Morrisons Signature Collection (At £1.50 these bottles were over a pound cheaper than the similar style glass bottles of drinks I had thought about getting)! The children’s boxes had the teddy bear sandwiches, lovely fresh apples, a baby pepper, pom bear crisps, a Capri Sun (half price at £2 for 10 was an ace bargain) and some more teddy bear biscuits!

I might be a geek but I adore thinking about all the finishing touches to a party. The bunting, the goodie bags, cups… I even wanted the pass the parcel to look pretty! I ordered lots of bits and bobs on line like the party boxes which were super cheap and the face paints are Snazaroo which I always think are the best but they don’t break the bank!

I set everything up outside in the garden of the hall which is a beautiful little building in Epping with rolling countryside all around it!

And inside I had the cake (made expertly by my Mum) and the goodie bags!

I spent a long time thinking about what to put in the goodie bags and in the end decided upon Teddy Bear biscuits on sticks made and iced by my own fair hand. Just as with the teacher presents I made at Easter I used Adelle from BKD’s recipe. I then covered them in cellophane wrappers and tied them with ribbons adding a little chain I made with beads bought at Beadoir in Greenwich Market. Tiny little teddy bear beads and a wooden bead initial for each child’s name. The second favour was cone shaped cellophane bags tied with ribbons but this time filled with Haribo Gummy Bears, party poppers and whizzy, whizzy balloons! I was REALLY pleased with my party favours!

Then it was time to enjoy the party! I wanted the adults to have a lovely time too so for a lovely summer’s day I made big jugs of Pimms and lemonade. I might not have been able to get the Pimms in Morrisons but I DID get their lemonade which was a fraction of the price of well known brands yet delicious! I sometimes think lemonade has to be expensive to taste half decent but it’s really not the case at Morrisons. This is fresh, fruity and perfect for a drink on its own as well as a mixer! I make my Pimms with cucumber, strawberry and lemon slices. I never use mint or anything else as I think it all gets too fussy and is perfect with just those three added!

The children had so much fun eating their picnic, playing pass the parcel and other games and it was JUST as I imagined it! The weather was glorious which helped of course!

I think everyone enjoyed the food and no body complained about my ever so novice face painting skills! My Mum excelled herself (yet again) with the cake and Jimmy LOVED it! He shouted FIRE when we lit the candles which was very funny! 

It was a sign of a great party at the end when Florence and Jimmy lay on the floor in the dappled light of the end of the day, exhausted with fun! The food had been enjoyed, the cakes demolished and the bears all looked worn out too!

I loved planning this party and it came together exactly as I wanted it to! I need to thank Morrisons for providing all the food as it was truly delicious! I love being a #MorrisonsMum! So now I turn my attention to the planning of the next one… Florence says she wants Princess and Pirates to be her theme for turning five in December so I’ve a good while to get my party planning head on but I can’t help already having a few ideas in my head – told you I was a geek!

I was sent some vouchers to spend in Morrisons as part on the #MorrisonsMum blogging project with BritMums. All opinions are my own and completely honest.