Mother Goose 1yr - Bo Peep & Georgie Porgie

Since I have boy/girl twins, party themes are a little tricky.  To celebrate their first birthday, I decided on a Mother Goose/Nursery Rhyme theme, since it's non-gender specific.  Turning one was a big deal for these two, as they came 7 weeks early and spent a month+ in NICU. 

INVITATIONS: I made a booklet for the invitations.  On the front I scanned in a picture of Mother Goose from a nursery rhymes book I got from the library.  The first page said Hickory Dickory Doc can you believe the clock? It's been a year since the twins got here hickory dickory doc!"  The next page read Young Mother Goose and Old King Cole wish to bid a fine welcome to every old soul.  Our Nursery Rhyme friends are gathering, you see, to celebrate the birthday of Mr. ___ and Miss ____ (my daughter's name rhymes with see)!  Please come to our home on the 6th of July at 6pm--you'll be glad you swung by!  The facing page said "please come dressed as your favorite nursery rhyme character.  Get creative--there will be prizes!  Please RSVP Jill for your food assignment."  The last page said "Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall!  'Cuz the twins survived _____(their 2 year old brother who is notorious for his antics and ways of getting in trouble in our family!)--twas a very close call!  All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't revive Humpty Dumpty again!"  I bound the book in cardstock and cute alphabet ribbon.

DECORATIONS:"  I decided to use orange, blue, green, and yellow as the main colors.  I made a happy birthday banner from cardstock and various scrapbook paper in my colors and hung it in the kitchen.  I hung a sign on the front door, using the same Mother Goose image as I used on the front of the invitations.  It said Mother Goose welcomes all our Nursery Rhyme friends".  I made Martha Stewart pom poms and hung them from the ceiling in my theme colors.  On the dinner table and going down the bar where the food was served I tried to create visuals of various nursery rhymes.  I had a vase of roses that I put a piece of cardstock around the neck of the vase.  On the paper I created a pocket and filled it with paper posies (ring around the rosies).  I filled a glass jar with silver wedding bells I found on clearance at a craft outlet nearby and set it beside another glass container filled with seashells (Mary Mary…silver bells and cockle shells).  I used a Halloween pumpkin on a candlestick for Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.  I used a peas pepper and salt shaker for Peas porrige hot.  I found a birthday party decoration at the dollar store that had stars etc on it that I recovered with cardstock added the Mother Goose image and used letter stickers to spell out Happy 1st Birthday ____ and _____.  I used metal stars stuffed pigs and mismatched mittens for various rhymes as well.  IN the center of the bar I placed framed pictures of my twins using plate holders to display them.  I checked out various nursury rhyme books from our library and put them around the room as décor too. 

COSTUMES:  I was Mother Goose of course.  I wore an old jumper-type dress a white Battenburg lace apron I had made years ago for this costume an 18th century cap (think Betsy Ross) and costume glasses.  My husband was Old King Cole.  He wore a blue tunic and red cape I made him for a Prince Charming costume years ago black pants faux-leather boots over his shoes and a Burger King Crown of which I covered the logo to say Old King Cole.  My oldest daughter wore a Little Bo Peep costume I made for her years ago complete with ruffled bloomers and bonnet.  My second daughter was The Little Girl with a Little curl (the rhyme suits her to a tee); she wore regular clothes but a drew a curl on her forehead.  My 2-year-old son was little boy blue.  I dressed him in blue put a straw hat on him and gave him a horn.  My twins I dressed up as Sugar & Spice and Snips and Snails.  My mother-in-law made my baby girl a skirt and I appliqued a cupcake onto a matching shirt.  The lettering got left off due to time constraints.  My son wore tan shorts and I appliqued a snail onto his shirt.  Everybody else came attired in various costumes.  My mother was the old woman who lived in a shoe with an apron papered with photos of all her posterity.  Our neices came dressed as Little Miss Muffet the Queen of hearts Twinkle Little Star The lady on a horse etc.  My nephew and his wife came as Jack and Jill and announced they were expecting with the sign on her belly labeled as "hill".  My sister and her family were the most creative and won our costume contest.  3 of them came dressed all in gray with sunglasses mouse tails and walking sticks labeled "3 Blind Mice"; my nephew was Wee Willie Winkie in a nighshirt slippers and an old-fashioned candlestick holder.  My brother in law was the Muffin Man with a baker's apron basket of muffins and flour on his face and clothes.  It was a lot of fun to see what everyone came dressed as. 

GAMES:  As an opener and doubling as decoration I scanned in pictures from nursery rhyme books of 25 different rhymes. We printed these and hung them up in our Great Room. I gave everyone numbered papers and they had to name the rhyme based on the picture.  I tried to keep it to well-known rhymes but it was still challenging.  After dinner the kids made a candlestick holder out of cardboard paper towell rolls paper plates toothpicks and cardstock-cut flames.  They stapled the rolls onto the center of the plate sticking up.  Using the toothpicks they glued the paper flame onto one and attached it to the other toothpick that was inserted into the tube horizontally about 1 inch down from the top.  Then they used another piece of cardstock to make the handle.  They used their candlesticks to play "Jack be nimble".  While I recited the nursery rhyme they jumped over their candlesticks at the words "jump" and "Jack".  This was best for the smaller kids. 

The second game was Little Bo Peep.  I printed out about 30 pictures of sheep and cut them out.  There were 29 white ones and 1 black one.  These I hid around our back yard.  I told the kids Little Bo Peep had lost her sheep and needed help to find them.  Whoever found the black one would get a prize.  This game worked well for older and younger kids and they really liked it.  I had to give a few clues to find the last few sheep but all were found. 

Next was Little Jack Horner.  I gathered several pie tins and filled them with various non-edible items such as grass rocks dirt sticks leaves etc but filled one tin with Hershey's dark chocolate kisses which come in dark purple wrappers.  I had made pie covers from styrofoam plates and black pipe cleaners (the pipe cleaners were the handles on the plates) that I used to cover the pie tins and their contents.  I placed the covered tins on a table and the kids stood in front of a random "pie."  While I recited Little Jack Horner they walked around the table.  When the rhyme ended they pulled the cover off the tin to see if they found the "plums" (purple chocolate kisses).  Whoever had the plums got to take one and they were "out."  I removed a tin every time someone got out.  This didn't turn out exactly like I had in my head but the kids LOVED it so I guess it worked ok.  I didn't realize when planning it that they would know exactly which tin held the "plums" and would try to manipulate the game so they wouldn't get out.  Maybe someone could improve upon this next time. 

The next game was Georgie Porgie.  I had intended on finding lip stickers but they were not to be found anywhere.  So we used hearts instead.  I gave each player a sheet of stickers and they had to "tag" each other by putting a sticker on each other.  They couldn't tag the same person twice in a row and the first to get rid of all his stickers was the winner.  This game went a whole lot faster than I expected but again the kids loved it.  The next game was Little Miss Muffet.  This game is played like duck duck goose except that "It" had a spider and recited the nursery rhyme as they circled the sitting players.  They threw it on the chosen person's lap when the rhyme was done before running.  Again the rhyme gave away when "It" was going to choose someone so maybe it could be adapted by someone but the kids enjoyed it anyway. 

The next game was 5 Little Piggies.  I blew up about 50 pink balloons and hid the 5 lines of 5 Little Piggies rhyme inside 10 of them (I put it in twice).  The kids were to pop the balloons on "go" and find the lines of the rhyme.  The first team (I split the kids into 2 teams) to find all the lines of their poem won.  I thought this game would be more fun than it was.  It didn't work all that well and the noise from the popping balloons scared the little ones.  The older kids enjoyed it though.  The last game was charades.  I typed up several nursery rhymes and divided the group into 2 teams.  Each team picked a random rhyme and had to act it out so the other team could guess it.  I had intended to include the adults in this one but most had petered out by then.  It may have worked better earlier on in the evening but again the kids enjoyed it. 

FOOD: I had specific things planned for food so I assigned specific items to bring.  I made signs for each item that went along with the theme.  We had Row row row your boat chicken salad sandwiches (chicken salad on halved hot dog buns with stick pretzel oars and sails made from toothpicks and cardstock triangles); Mary had a little jam sandwiches (white bread and jam sandwiches cut into shapes); Georgie Porgie Pudding Salads (various jello salads); Mary Mary's Garden Produce (a veggie tray with dip); Yankee Doodle Macaroni Salad; Humpty Dumpty deviled eggs; Pat-a-cake pops (Bakerella's cake pops.  I stuck these into a flower pot with styrofoam center); Queen of Heart tarts (I made little tarts and put a red hot heart in the center); Little Boy Blue horns (bagged horn chips); and my favorite Miss Muffets Revenge (spidered hot dogs barbequed on the grill.  To spider a hot dog cut the hot dog lengthwise about 1/3 of the way up on both ends.  Turn the hot dog a quarter of a turn and slice both ends again.  You will end up with a hot dog that has 4 "legs" on each end.  When it's grilled the legs curl up and resemble a spider of sorts. 

CAKE:  Since I had 2 babies I made 2 cakes.  For my daughter I made a Little Bo Peep cake and sheep cupcakes.  I used a Kelly barbie doll as the center and made her skirt using a small teacup.  I frosted it pink made a shepherd's crook using pipe cleaners and put a small straw hat on her head tied on with matching ribbon.  I put her on a cupcake stand and surrounded her with sheep cupcakes.  I made these by frosting the cupcake white using mini marshmallows as the wool an unwrapped tootsie roll as the head pretzel sticks as the legs and grasshopper cookies cut in half as the ears.  I added frosting eyes to the tootsie roll and dipped the bottom half of the pretzels in chocolate for the feet to complete the look.  For my son I made a Humpty Dumpty cake.  I used instructions from the Parents website scaled down to make a mini Humpty.  I made a large muffin tin cake for his body and a large teacup cake for his egg-shaped head.  I made another cake in a loaf pan for the wall.  I assembled him frosted him white and put a paper ring around his body.  I gave him paper leggs and feet folded accordian style and a polka-dotted hat made from fun foam.  I created his face from m&m's and frosting gel.  My husband came up with the brilliant idea to make bricks on the "wall" by frosting it white and then using the end of a matchbox he dipped it in cocoa first then "stamped" the wall with it.  The effect was a brick wall.  We placed Humpty and his wall on top of a green bed of frosting.  I was proud of how he turned out and my son ate almost the entire Humpty cake. 

We ended the night with opening presents.  I didn't do favor bags since I hate the expense and as the mother of a guest I hate the resulting clutter of favor bags.  I let everyone take home a cupcake pop plus the winners of the costume contest got to take home their prize as well.  I was pleased with how this party turned out and it worked perfectly for twins.  I just wish they could remember all the work that went into it!"