Sugar & Spice Party -1yr- Dress-up Relay

After having three wonderful but very boy boys, I wanted a very girl theme for my little girl's first birthday but wanted to leave some of the more popular girl themes open for when she's older and able to appreciate and participate in them more.  I decided to do a "Sugar, spice and everything nice" party. 

I cut out 3-fold paper doll garland out of pink cardstock for her invitations.  The first doll(front) read, "What are little girls made of?"  The second doll read, "Sugar, spice and everything nice!"  Around the saying, I hot glued several wrapped hard and chewy candies.  The last doll read, "You are invited to join us in celebrating all of the things that make little girls so wonderful in honor of our own wonderful little girl, Faith Bethany, on her first birthday, (date, time, address)" 

I decorated our dining room with pastel pink and hot pink balloons and streamers.  The streamers were hung like ribbon and trimmed with bows.  The tables in the dining room and kitchen were covered with pastel pink tablecloths and draped with "ribbon and bow" streamers.  I used paper lace doilies on the dining room table like a runner down the center and placed a very pretty collector doll(it was my grandma's) dressed in pink as the center piece. 

In one corner of the d-room, I set up a small table and chair set, covered the table with a little white tablecloth and a play tea set, and placed two teddy bears on the chairs that I dressed up in  a couple of my daughter's frilly dresses, hats and some long beads.  In another corner of the d-room, I placed an old antique trunk which I decorated with pink balloons and streamers and filled with some of my dresses, blouses, skirts, scarves, and shoes, and also some of my husband's slacks, blazers, ties, hats and shoes.  In yet another corner of the d-room,  I placed a child's rocking chair with a baby doll, bottle and blanket. 

On the buffet counter in the kitchen amidst the platters of food, I put out several pictures of my daughter in easel-back frames sitting on lace doilies.  In the center of the buffet counter was a bouquet of lollipops and gumdrops. 

The cake served as the centerpiece on the kitchen table.  Using the Wilton stand-up cuddly bear pan, I made a little girl dressed in pastel pink pants, a magenta top, white shoes and pony tails with pink ribbons.  To make the bear into a little girl, cut off the ears and snout after the cake has cooled.  Stick two lollipop sticks (one on each side) out of the top sides of her head.  Then insert a flexible straw(flexible side out) over each stick, and bend down to create ponytails. 

Decorate with icing, overpiping to form nose, ears, and thickness of hair and pull icing down straws for ponytails.  Use satin ribbon to create bows for hair.  Around the little girl, I made cupcakes iced in green with piped on "grass"  and tulips created from rolled out gumdrops and green toothpicks.  (Roll gumdrops out with rolling pin on wax paper with plenty of sugar to prevent sticking.  Tulip shape and leaves can easily be cut out with clean scissors.)  More detailed instructions and a visual can be found in the Wilton 2003 yearbook.  The cake was adorable!  

Lunch was simple, kid-friendly but suitable for the adults.  We had a spiral-sliced ham, baked macaroni and cheese, a veggie and cheese tray, a fluffy pink jello salad, flower-shaped tea sandwiches(egg salad and peanut butter and jelly), and chips and pretzels.  Plates, cups and napkins were solid hot pink and the utensils were pastel pink.  Small plastic tea cups were provided for the children to drink from.  The following were activity ideas that I thoguht were appropriate for celebrating childhood play, especially that of little girls, but due to the particuliar array of children I had attend, I didn't do all of them.  Obviously, the dress-up trunk, teddy bear tea party and doll and rocker were available for free play. 

CRAFT: paper dolls cut from poster board and three outfits per child cut from construction paper with tabs to fold and hold them on the "dolls".  The girls obviously have "girl" clothes and boys "Boy" clothes.  The kids could "decorate" their dolls' clothes with buttons, lace, ribbons, beads, sequins, glitter and fabric patches, as well as draw faces on their dolls. 

GAMES:  Dress-up relay -- I had invited exactly six girls and six boys, so I thought it would be appropriate to play the boys against the girls.  In relay fashion, the children had to race one at a time to the dress-up trunk, find the appropriate boy or girl clothes(something for their top, something for their bottom, shoes and something for their head), and put them on before the next person on their team could go.  The team with all members dressed up first wins. 

Recipe match relay-- Again, boys against the girls.  One at at a time, each child pulls out a picture of some menu item(i.e. salad, cheeseburger, mixed vegetables) and then must find the three "play food" ingredients in the play refrigerator.  The team that completes their menu first wins. 

Musical tea party -- Played like musical chairs except children sit in a circle and pass tea cups around to music.  One less tea cup is provided than children.  The child without a tea cup when the music stops must sit out next round but gets to play the music for that round.  

For party favors, I purchased pink and blue bags(pink for girls,blue for boys) and wrote "What are little boys made of? ...Frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails!" on the boys' bags and "What are little girls made of?...Sugar, spice and everything nice!" on the girls' bags. 

The boys' bags contained assorted candy, stretchy frogs, puppy dog memo pads, scooter necklaces, sports ball slinkies, and race car stickers.  The girls' bags contained assorted candy, stretchy caterpillars, kitten memo pads, bead necklaces, butterfly slinkies, and hair bows.  It was a really fun and sweet party to put together.