Stevie’s 3rd “Set”: An 80’s Fitness Workout Party!

This past weekend we hosted another super fun themed birthday party and I am SO excited to share the details here on my blog. My tiniest babe is already 3 years old (HOW???) and I have had this idea for so many months now. Read on for details on our “Let’s Get Physical” 80’s workout themed fitness bash!

My initial inspiration was a boy’s first birthday that was gym themed. (His name is Jack so they called it “Get Jack’d” – it was complete with protein shakes, kettlebells and was a black/white/gray color scheme with a little bit of green turf thrown in. (Think: TRX style studio). As many of you know, I have been working with a personal trainer since January, and for a vast majority of my sessions, Stevie was right there “working out” alongside me. It’s been such a highlight for us these last few months, and when I saw Jack’s theme I knew I could put my spin on it.

First off…. COLOR. My 3 year old princess needed all the bright, fun vibes – and what decade had the most outrageous colors & patterns? THE EIGHTIES!!! It clicked for me, knowing that all the parents were 80’s babies and all the kids love to dress up. I decided we’d go with a workout/fitness theme… but instead of those TRX vibes, we’d be channeling our inner Olivia Newton John in her “Let’s Get Physical” music video. I taught Stevie the song and she started singing it right away. It’s now a regular on our Spotify.

I began to envision the party: A stationary bike, a white foam gym mat, colorful (foam) weights, jazzercise, gym bags as swag… but of course I would need lots of help to throw this all together! We decided to host in our backyard which gave us freedom of decor, freedom of setup & breakdown… I love having zero restrictions, and we have a great property for hosting outdoors, but this theme can really be done anywhere – an indoor play space, a gymnastics studio, or even a park! This time, we did our tent, adult table & adult chair rentals through a new company – A Party Center in Fairfield, NJ! They were great. In fact, their customer service was top notch when I asked them to switch out the initial side wall that they placed. It had a huge zipper down the center, and I thought it would be an eyesore based on all the decor I had planned. They happily, and quickly, swapped it same-day. Lots of supplies to choose from, and overall just a great experience working with them.

As for kids’ tables, I always turn to Petite Seats… they have the best stuff – and this time in addition to the tables & chairs, they also provided me with a really cool dessert cart that acted as our “cake table”! Perfect height for Stevie, too! Daniella of Balloons by D came back to do another set of incredible garlands for us – one on the dessert cart, a garnish for the bounce house, and a beautiful installation connected to a pair of arch backdrops that I found on amazon. She does incredible work, and I’ve had her at every party in recent years!

There were certain details that I DIY’d for this event, that typically I might have brought a vendor on board for… one being signage, the other being flowers! I consulted with my florist friend who told me that colorful carnations were “So 80’s” so I invested in some clear bud vases from Amazon and bought several bunches of carnations at Trader Joe’s and ShopRite and did about 24 bud vases to put all over the tables. It worked out great, and was exactly what I needed – nothing more, nothing less. Super easy. As for signage, I used Canva Pro to create the invitation as well as some fun fitness puns to sit near the pizza, gifts & beverages. Since using Canva Pro to make Instagram posts for my Doula business account, I’ve gotten a lot better at using it and I’m so happy with how they came out! My biggest gripe is that I printed them on cardstock paper at Staples and put them into picture frames… Pro Tip: Try to use some type of a cork board, clipboard, or even glassless frame to avoid having big glares. The signage didn’t “pop” as much as I would have liked it to, but I think foregoing the glass in front would have done the trick – and it certainly saved me some money on the signage!

22 kids require lots of options for activities… so we blew up our bounce house (dubbed the ‘cardio zone’ of course) and I enlisted the help of a face painter & two local fitness professionals to entertain the kids! Our face painter Janice owns the company Pixie Painters. Based right in Andover, she has done two parties for us now and I’ve given her name out countless times because of how punctual, fun and talented she is! You’ll see her beautiful work all throughout the photos from the day and we couldn’t have done this party without her… but back to FITNESS because I love a tight theme! First up to join us for group activities was an actual personal trainer, Michele Morongell Russinko – the face behind Tone Her Up in Boonton, NJ! Michele offers women’s only small group fitness classes and specializes in pregnancy and postpartum. She’s a mama herself (and a mom-to-be!) and I’ll most definitely be adding her services to my Doula referral sheet. The kids were, admittedly, tough to wrangle… consumed with our playhouse, getting in line for face paint, & lots of bouncing – so I give a ton of credit to Michele for trying her best to entertain whoever was a willing participant! She did some good old calisthenics to warm everybody up, and then they had pizza because life is all about balance! After lunch, Sabrina Brooks arrived to pick up where Michele left off. Sabrina is co-director & instructor at Dream Dance Academy in Ledgewood! They teach all kinds of dance to all different ages, and I could tell the minute she showed up (in an awesome costume) that she was going to be a hit! She blasted Trolls Band Together (Stevie’s favorite) and got the kids into some 80’s style Jazzercize moves. It was so funny and cute to watch! A few of the moms may or may not have gotten into it, too. (Guilty.) Splitting up the activities into two shorter stints was definitely the way to go, here. We had so many different ages going on and different attention spans to BIG thank you to both Michele & Sabrina for winging it with me and providing a fun, safe space for the kids to hop around if (and when) they wanted.

It actually made me happy to see that most of the kids were just enjoying being together in our yard. No one seemed bored or distressed… so I wasn’t really worried about how many of them were actually participating. After Jazzercize we balanced it out (again!) with dessert! We sang Happy Birthday to our girl and enjoyed cake (complete with a fondant STEVIE topper) courtesy of my friends at Splurge Bakery, as well as cupcakes by the extraordinary Gina at Sweet Charlie’s Confections. The design was giving BIG “Saved By The Bell” vibes, which I’m sure all the 80’s babies appreciated! I tried a little of everything, and I’m glad I did!

Each kid went home with a ‘gym bag’ instead of a goodie bag. I packed them with granola bars, gummies (for a burst of energy!), water bottles, vinyl fitness inspired stickers to decorate them with, some nail polish for the girls, sunglasses for the boys, and of course a jump rope to keep that cardio going! They turned out so cute and I loved that I was able to keep them in our tight theme. Our guests did an AMAZING job dressing up. It really helps for the photos to come out awesome if everybody is in theme, and for the most part, they were! It seems like people really have fun with it – and you know in our house, we certainly do!! Stephen’s outfit was a hit (Richard Simmons!) and I even patched TRAINER onto the back of my vest!

I’ll end my synopsis by saying that a tight theme & attention to detail is really the key to throwing an “aesthetic” party. I found a stationary bike toy on facebook marketplace for $20 and repurposed it as a backdrop prop… sourced confetti in the shape of weights… put a sweatband at every kids’ seat to ensure they felt they fit in regardless of how they came dressed…. and there’s more where that came from, but when I do these events I really try to take every aspect big or small and say “how can I make this in theme”? So on that note… feel free to scroll through the gallery of party shots done impeccably by Mark Martucci Photo (edits by me!) as well as Stevie’s official 3rd birthday studio portraits, done by The Deerwood Company! This theme was such a blast and can even work for adults! Happy planning, and don’t forget to follow along on Instagram for more content like this!