Birthday 'Panda'-monium

Every year my sister allows my two nieces to each choose the theme for their birthday party. My youngest niece has a birthday on April Fool's day and she turned three this year :) Months ago she decided what she wanted and told us and sent my sister and I into a planning scramble where we franctically searched high and low for the tools we needed. She wanted a panda party. We still don't know how or why she came to this decision. Today was the party and it was a success. The birthday girl was thrilled! We couldn't find any party supplies or decorations that weren't Kung-Fu panda so we improvised :) She stuck with a theme of black and white and searched through the millions of toys and stuffed animals her girls have and pulled out any and all pandas and set them throughout the party.

This is the main party area with balloons and goodie bags.

 This big panda actually belongs to my mom. She works for a church and this year VBS has a panda theme and she bought this for it and let my sister borrow it. My sister tried to talk my niece out of the HUMONGOUS 3 balloon but since she wouldn't be getting any character balloons this year my sister eventually gave in :) We sat my niece here with a 'thank you' sign and took her picture for the thank you cards.

 This part I am so impressed and proud of! My sister has never made a cake/cupcakes for her girls' birthdays. I have always done it for them since I have a bit more talent. She got the cupcake idea from Bakerella and did a GREAT job! The letter picks are something I got for her while in Argentina a few years ago and they go on the birthday cake every year :)

 She used the wilton free standing teddy bear cake pan and just used black and white icing. Again, she has never done this so it isn't perfect but still totally cute!

 My sister also gave me Bakerella's book for my birthday. As soon as I opened she informed me I had to make these for the party. Not entirely happy with how they came out but I haven't done cake pops in a while...

 These were in the goodie bags. We found them at Dollar Tree in the baby item section. The large one has 3 fortune cookies in it and the little one has gummie panda bears we found at Big Lots.

I didn't take any pictures but of course we had Chinese food to finish off the theme. My nieces love Chinese food so this was a hit. My sister ordered three entrees from a local restaurant and then bought her egg rolls and fried  rice at Sam's Club and did it herself. Everyone was pretty pleased and incredibly full!