A Woodland Birthday Party

Phoebe turned 2 last Friday. My mom was in town and we had a day full of adventures including a trip to the zoo and dinner at a local kid-friendly joint. Phoebe insisted that she have blue cake for her birthday, so I made sure that she had a little Phoebe-sized cupcake with very blue frosting. We sang happy birthday (something which Finn hates, so I don't get to do for him anymore) and she loved it so much that she has been continuing to sing it (to herself) for the past several days. Too cute.

Her big birthday gift was a super-cute ride-on ladybug. I also made her a "P" bag and put Phoebe's Birthday and this knit fox inside. I was worried about my fox after I finished knitting it. It didn't look nearly as cute as the one on the pattern, so somewhere along the way I think I messed something up. Anyways, I figured she would at least be able to tell it was a fox. When she opened it, I said "Look, a fox!" and she said "No mama, a doggy". So, there you have it. A knit dog.

Phoebe's woodland party was Saturday. It was a pretty small affair, which was perfectly fine with me. Here is what I did:

I made Phoebe a little ruffle skirt with gnome and mushroom print. I also made her this knitted gnome hat, but it came out enormous, and she refused to wear it. In these photos, she is sporting a felt gnome hat that I whipped up for all of the wee-size guests. I literally just bought some felt by the yard, cut out a triangle-ish shape and sewed the sides together. The kids wore them for a bit, and mostly threw them around, and my hopes and dreams of a group gnome picture went entirely down the drain.

For decorations, I made a bunting out of the leftover skirt fabric. I also made silhouette cut-outs of woodland animals (fox, bear, owl, hedhehog, etc.) and hung them around the room. The entrance sign was made by Finn on an adorable mushroom chalkboard. This is the present that he picked out to give Phoebe for her birthday. Sweet, huh?

To keep them busy, I bought tiny wood bird houses at JoAnns for $1 each (yes, they were probably assembled with child labor in China, and I do feel guilty about that) and each child got to paint one with watercolors (I was afraid of the mess that acrylics would make). Since I didn't hand out gift bags, these doubled as a take-home.

We also sent each child home with a mushroom pencil. I needle felted toadstools and hot glued them onto colored pencils.

We served toadstool cupcakes and squirrel shaped cookies for dessert. And Phoebe once again enjoyed her "happy birthday".

Thanks to my mama for all of her help. Happy birthday baby girl!