Mother Goose Party -2yr- Humpty Dumpty Cake

When my daughter turned two we had a Mother Goose play-date party. She knew all the nursery rhymes and loved Humpty Dumpty the best.

The invitation was shaped like an egg with eyes and accordion paper legs and arms. It said, Hey Diddle Doo (My child's name) is turning two! Please join Mother Goose at (our address) at (time) on (party date). Regrets only. We prepared decorations ahead of time: scanned and printed nursery rhyme pages from my old Mother Goose Book and taped them inside the french door window panes; cut out cardboard eggs all the same size (twice as many as the number of guests) drew Humpty's face on half of the eggs.   I then cut those into fifths like puzzle pieces that could be arranged on the uncut piece. 

I prepared a cake table with fresh flowers balloons and a Humpty Dumpty framed photo of my child; connected puzzle foam play mats on the floor to make a soft play area; drew a large clock face on poster board with the hands set to one and cut out small gray ovals for mice with features drawn on in ink; hollowed a small pumpkin placed a Kelly doll inside and replaced the top for a side table decoration and part of a later scavenger hunt. 

Glued raffia over a cardboard cone to make a small haystack and placed a Tommy doll underneath; and set up a small craft table covered with packing paper and the craft supplies (cardboard tubes construction paper cut in flame shapes and rectangle shapes to fit/cover the tubes small curved Dixie paper plates bowls of markers and crayons to decorate the rectangles and tape).

As children arrived we directed them to the craft table to make small candle sticks.  They colored the construction paper rectangles and we helped them tape the rectangles onto the tube with the flame sticking up. Then we attached the paper plate to the other end. For a final touch we added a small rectangle folded and taped to the side of the plate to finish the candle holder look.  When some were finished with their candles they began to color the paper on the table. It looked so nice we had all the parents sign their children's names for a keepsake for my daughter.

When all the children had arrived and finished their candles we played Jack be Nimble.  We placed the candles in a line on the mat and sang the nursery rhyme when we said "Jump" the children were to jump over their candles. My child had been practicing for days so she showed the others how to do it. This lasted longer than expected and the kids had a blast. 

The next game was a group scavenger hunt.  Each child received an egg-shaped piece of cardboard that said Can you help put Humpty Dumpty back together again?  Each parent received a small empty paper bag with holes punched at the top and ribbon through the holes and the first puzzle piece to start the scavenger hunt. It said Little Jack Horner. We then sang the nursery rhyme to our kids and nudged them off to look in every corner for what? Why a pie tin of course.  Inside the pie tin were small favors for the children and more puzzle pieces for parents covered by a small Christmas tea towel.  The children all gasped when we lifted the towel and found the presents small wrapped hair clips and matchbox cars. This was such a sweet moment.

The next piece said Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.  We found the pumpkin and the next clue quickly. When the children saw the Kelly doll they shrieked with surprise. At this stop each child received a special gift from a basket under the table (her own Kelly doll or his own pumpkin-colored ball).  The third clue was Little Boy Blue which led to the Haystack on the sofa table with little blue blow-out horns underneath. The fourth clue was Hickory Dickory Dock. Time to play pin the mouse on the clock. Each player received a small wristband printed from the Nick Jr. site.

Then we sat down and had a snack of mouse eggs (eggs halved lengthwise with string cheese tails and whiskers half sliced carrot ears and a tiny mustard nose) Moon cheese shapes Humpty Dumpty grapes snap peas (hot boiled beans) etc. The last clue was Pat a Cake. We played that first and when we got tired I said I think you put him back together again. At this the kids all ran to the cake table where I was holding up the Humpty Dumpty cake. I baked the cake in an oval Pyrex baking dish because I didn't have any oval cake pans. It took half the batter and I made cupcakes with the rest. I iced the cake in white and piped on lips and eyes. We used red fruit rolls to make a big bow tie and accordion folded red construction paper strips for legs and arms.  I topped the cupcakes with Cool Whip and a strawberry.  Instead of Happy Birthday we sang Humpty Dumpty.

After singing we helped the children into their Humpty suits just a white trash bags with arm and head holes cut out. While I seated the children and handed out cupcakes other parents taped the puzzle pieces to the backing cards. We labeled all the brown bags that held the gifts and tied the ribbons.  After the children ate we left on the Humpty suits for the Little Jack Horner game. 

The parents had to help their children with this game. We brought out covered pie tins filled with gooey things like Jello jelly ketchup mayonnaise etc and spaced them around the table.  One pie tin had a goody bag filled with sweet treats. The tins were covered with paper plates with stapled on paper handles. We walked around the table singing Little Jack Horner and when we said Stuck in his thumb we pulled off the top plate and helped the child splash his hand into the goo.

The child with the surprise was supposed to leave the game with the treat but no one wanted to stop. So we played several rounds with all gooey pans and then one final round with all treats. After that we cleaned hands at every available sink and took off the Humpty suits. We had a Little Miss Muffet (duck duck goose type) game planned to play with cushions on the floor but we didn't have time.  The guests had to leave before the presents were even opened. It was really fun and all home done. "