Nursery Rhyme -3yr- Rhyme Invitation

For my daughter's third birthday we had a Nursery Rhyme Party. 

I created the invitations using a rhyme to give out the information:  Pat-a=cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man, Hurry to our house as fast as you can; Little Miss Mollie's having a birthday- with food & cake, maybe curds & whey/  On the first of June at half past noon, will the dish run away with the spoon?  Three blind mice, see how they run, please call & tell me you'll join the fun!  Little boy blue hopes to see you, the party shall last until 2"  I printed these out using a graphic from the cat & the fiddle and included our address & phone number at the bottom. 

On the day of the party, we had egg & spoon races (hard boiled- it was inside), Jack-be-nimble contests (jumping/obstacle course), & played a lot of ring-around-the-rosy.  I had also planned to do Jack & Jill water bucket relay races but the weather was not warm enough for us to go outside. 

For lunch I served the adults row row row your tuna boat sandwiches: using split hot dog buns, I filled them with tuna & used pretzel sticks & cheese triangles to make a sail, & red peppers to make oars; also stuffed a few cherry tomatoes to decorate the plate as bouys.  For the kids, I made peanut butter & jelly & cut them out with cookie cutters into cows & moons, (twinkle twinkle little ) stars, etc. 

The cake was my best ever- Little Bo Peep & her sheep.  I used the Wilton mold to make a doll cake, & decorated her gown with pink & white frosting & added a little straw hat from the craft store.  I cut colored mini-marshmellows into thirds to make flower petals & arranged them around her hat & dress to form flowers with round candy centers.  I baked a 9 x 13 cake and iced it in green to use as a base for Little Bo Peep. 

I made her a cookie staff using a cookie press & a spritz cookie dough.  On top of the base around her skirt, I added little meringue sheep:  using meringue, I piped sheep onto a foil-lined cookie sheet, added pretzel stick legs & chocolate chip eyes, plus a piece of a chocolate mint for the ears.  After baking & drying them, they stood up on the "grass" by poking the pretzel stick legs just slightly into the cake. 

For party favors, I find that buying many little items adds up to cost so much, so instead I like to get the children books or something a bit nicer, but still try to keep it to between $5-$6 per child.  I was able to find some really cute Nursery Rhyme books at Barnes & Noble that averaged out to that, and I always wrap them up & give them to the guests while the birthday child is opening her presents so that they don't get too anxious about watching & have something to look at of their own.