One birthday party down, one to go...

Edyn's second birthday is this Thursday, and since her brothers is at the end of July, I try to have her party the Sunday before her birthday and his the Sunday after so I get as much time as possible between the two events. I go a bit overboard on birthdays...probably a psychological backlash from the fact that my parents rarely celebrated mine (it's very close to my dad's and my parents usually went away for an extended weekend for his birthday, so they often weren't even in town on mine).

Anyhoo, I decided to have a Mother Goose party for Edyn, and since I had trouble finding enough tips on one web site, I am going to post all the gorey details here, just in case somebody else wants to throw a Mother Goose party for their own toddler. If the thought of that bores you to tears, come on back tomorrow, when I hope to have something more grown up to say.

Edyn's Mother Goose Party

Invitations: I found some blank cards featuring the cow jumping over the moon ("Hey Diddle Diddle"). The message said, "Edyn May with eyes of blue/Will have a party when she turns two/We hope you'll come to laugh and play/To eat ice cream and cake for Edyn's big day." After I sent them out, I thought of a better rhyme: "Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle/The cow jumped over the moon/We're having a party for Edyn's birthday/We hope you can come; answer soon!"

Decorations: I used simple balloons and streamers. If I would have had the time, I would have added pictures from a Mother Goose coloring book, blown up on a photocopier and colored. But I didn't have time.

Cake: I made an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe Cake, following the basic directions on this site. However, I also made sugar cookie dough and cut out small gingerbread men shapes, plus one large woman shape and decorated them with royal icing to be the Old Woman herself and all the children that led her to not know what to do. The kids munched on cookies while I sliced the cake. I tried to decorate one cookie to look like each of the kids who came (mostly cousins), but I'm not that skillful. The kids didn't care. We also served vanilla ice cream and our Wedding Punch (recipe follows).

Games: Ring-Around-the-Rosey, London Bridge and Duck-Duck-MotherGoose (that's Duck-Duck-GreyDuck for you Northeasterners) were on the list. Also, I made a Humpty Dumpty game. I took a plastic Easter egg (actually top half white & bottom half green), drilled small holes and inserted pipe cleaner arms and legs (ends finishing inside the egg so no poked fingers). I taped two pennies in the bottom as a weight, then I taped it shut with black electrical tape to serve as the belt and drew on a face with a Sharpie. Then we built a brick wall out of legos and set it on the floor with Humpty on top. The kids threw beanbags at it to knock Humpty off the wall. (Sometimes just hitting the wall is enough to knock him down.) We also were going to play Jack Be Nimble with candlesticks of varying sizes made out of a wrapping paper tube, construction paper and tissue-paper flames, but I didn't get time to put that game together. I toyed with the idea of playing a Miss Muffet game -- sort of like hot potato, but you use a spider beanie baby instead -- however, I thought two many of the little girls including Edyn would be too timid to enjoy it...or play it properly.

Goody Bags: We bought cheap sand pails to be the "bag" in deference to Jack and Jill. Inside, we put a Cow Jumps over the Moonpie, a small bag of cotton candy labelled "Baa Baa Wool", a horn (Little Boy Blue), a sheet of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star stickers, and a bag of fruit snacks (Care Bears -- not Mother Goose, but Edyn picked those out herself).

Thank You cards will probably be the notecards I saw with black sheep on them (Baa Baa Black Sheep), unless I can find something more Little Bo Peepish or Miss Muffetish.

Edyn was exceptionally polite and thanked everybody individually as she opened their gifts. An hour and a half after the party started, she was staring into space, dazed, so it was definitely time for a nap! She got several terrific books, a pair of dress-up shoes that she clomped around in all evening, a Mrs. Potato Head (sooo cute), various sand toys, toy pots, pans & dishes, a new outfit and phonics fridge magnets. People are so generous!

Okay, now for that recipe. This is what we served at our wedding, and it's quite tasty.

Our Wedding Punch

2 quarts cold cranberry-raspberry juice
1 12-oz. can lemonade concentrate, thawed + 1 can water
2 litres chilled ginger ale (or lemon-lime soda, but that makes it very sweet)
1 pint raspberry sherbet.

Mix the juice, lemonade and water in advance. As guests arrive, add chilled ginger ale and stir gently. Float small scoops of sherbet in the punch and serve.

--Sparki