Little boy's bear themed birthday, on a budget

A couple of weeks ago my little boy turned three years old! I can't believe it, it seems like yesterday we were celebrating his first birthday. I wanted to make a little themed party for him and decided to get creative... I'd

 made shaped toast for him a few times and knowing his love of animals, I decided to go from there. I had a bear cutter in my draw and decided to work in a few shabby chic elements too. Here's what I came up with...

I found these really sweet Meri Meri bear shaped plates on ebay here for about £6 and we chose a costume from Cheapest Fancy Dress for £9 with free delivery. We found ourselves undecided between the minion costume, and the bear costume, they are just so cute. We eventually went with the bear costume because Oscar wanted to dress like a gerbil haha, it's the closest thing we could find! It turned out to match our theme perfectly...

I also bought the stripey straws on ebay for under £2 and the little centrepiece jug came from Poundland, only 25p! The nutella bear sandwiches look tricky but are so simple to make, you can find a similar cookie cutter here and simply press and twist in to the sandwich, trimming off the excess bread around it afterwards. 

I'd found the idea for these Bear paw biscuits floating about on Pinterest, so decided to make my own! You will need a plain cookie recipe - or a chocolate chip cookie one like I used, just without the chips - and a packet of Cadbury buttons for the claws. I used this recipe and all of the ingredients were already in my cupboard!

I used local free range eggs to make these but you can also find a vegan recipe for these here. The Cadbury buttons can also be easily substituted for vegan chocolate, all you need to do is cut two buttons in half for every whole one and press them in gently while the cookies are still warm from the oven, to help them stick.

They are amazing eaten warm, they naturally have a soft, gooey centre that goes perfectly with the melting chocolate button in the middle. For our party I served them with ice cold chocolate milk, Oscar's favourite. 

We also had bear paw cupcakes, decorated with buttercream icing, oreos, chocolate raisins and desiccated coconut. The coconut was definitely a little messy but I love how it gives the appearance of fur on the cakes. 

I hope this post makes sense as I have been so sleepy lately haha! Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my past posts, especially my previous one, it is so kind. Do leave me your links, I love visiting back! ♡