Pooh Party -1yr- Pooh & Tigger Cake

First of all, I want to thank this site for giving me excellent ideas  for a wonderful party.i celebrated my sons first birthday party on oct 10 2008, I wanted it to be an unique event that could be remembered by all for many years to come.i also wanted to have a lot of handmade things because that’s what makes an event unique and memorable,and when saaiq would grow up he will be proud of his mom's love and effort. I started working four months in advance,I chose babby pooh as a theme because I think baby pooh resembeles saaiq a lot ;) ,and the garden arround his grandfathers house the100 acre woods of innocence and happiness PARTY PLAN; make sure every one participates in one or the other game everyones a winner,because its party time at hundred acre woods.keep it simple ,short and there should be a constant series of activites till the end.  

PARTY FAVORS: the first thing I worked on was the guest list. Only close friends and relatives were invited.once that was done I grouped the kids, depending upon their interests,-this helped me decide the goody bag content. Each goody bag had three portions:

FOOD;( three different flavours of biscuits and two different types of muffins each with topping colour to match one character of the pooh theme,),then there was the FUN PART; which had a poohs bubble maker,poohs blow out,and one gift that was specific to each childs interest,( pooh puzzles for the intellegent kids,pooh toys for toddlers, yo-yo's,makeup and jewelry for the girly girls and some simple babby pooh puzzles, for Body parts, alphabets and numbers for the ones just starting school) , third was the KEEPSAKE PART I wanted it to be useful and memorable so I made cloth toy organizers with winnie the pooh material. This was the most difficult part of the job and took the longest time and a lot of patience because finding pooh specific things was very difficult and because of the expensce involved I had to work slowly..thanks to the tip I picked from your site: I started at least a few months in advance .

DECORATIONS  I wanted them to be hand made and inaccordance with the theme.my idea was to convert the garden all around our house into the hundred acre woods that’s celebrating the first birthday of mohhamad saaiq( my babby pooh), so I started making butterflies and dragon flies with transperancy sheets,glitter glue,glass paint made their bodies with colourful wires used in flowermaking. Then I made lots of honey bees with chart paper their wings and feet with wires and used board markers to make their faces and and stripe their bodies.my husband made babby pooh characters on 3-d and we printed them and stuck them all over the garden.their were number ones made of chart paper,each had two sides matching with the two colours of each pooh character and hung by  matching twirling ribbons( I hung these number ones from windows and  covered all the trees outside the house with them ) .

Then their was the rabbits garden with vegetables and leaves greenstickking out of a flat cartoon and mud on top make it look real. Poohs thoughtful spot, where I had collected a few branches of wood.piglets playland with a slide and swing.mr.sanders tree house made out of a carton and chart paper and a ceremic bell hanging next to it all these things had chartpaper   signs (misspelled) next to them .then their were ballons all arround the boundry walls - each tree&plant in the garden had streamers,stars,hearts and bells hanging from their branches and all the windows facing the garden in our double story house had pooh characters, butterflies,dragonflies and number ones. I also made a  large cartoon car,plane, ship and a train out of card paper and foaming sheets and hung them from the window..thats because saaiq loves vehicles.

ACTIVITES:  I kept the party really short so I couldn’t play all the games but my idea was to make the elders enjoy the show by m aking them participate as well..i had a colouring competition for (kids and for younger ones mom,s could help) they could choose from one of the four basic characters of the pooh theme,and decorate with pencils,markers,glitter glue and stickers( each character had its stuff a basket of the same colour),winners got pooh picture albums,..then I tossed number ones and the one who caught it was the winner not much of a game but belive me the elders loved it, was simple and broke the ice gifts for them were tigger and pooh cushions, and pooh magic ceremic cups.there was a lucky draw based on the number written on your pooh party hat, gift was a ceremic pooh dinner set and pooh puzzels there is no concept of pinata in pakistan so after trying hard to get one made for three months I ended up covering a box with red papper and writiing hunny written on it..kids just loved it, was new and fun filled game for them,I filled it with small yoyo,s ,bayblades ,drums and biscuits..obviously the loot bags were red pooh party time bags.i made sure all the adults participated ,I belive that no one can enjoy  b-day party unless you come home with a prize and unless you have eaten a good portion of the cake:)

COSTUMES; another tip from the site let everyone be comfortable so that they can actually become a part of the festivity rather then being concious of their getup.except the pooh party hat kids were given AND everyone was asked to wear them at cake cutting and during games.

PARTY SNACKS; no one enjoys a party without good food,so I didn't compromise on the quality of food, there was two different types of pasta, bun-kebabs( pakistani-burgers),sashlick stikz,chilligarlic,french fries,mazae' platter with pitta bread, tea and coffee and  special homemade icecream and cake..all food tags had funny names like tiggerific bun kebabs( these are spicy and match tiggers jubillent nature),poohfect pasta,fresh from the rabbitz garden( pickelsand mazae' platter) ,rooh's pockets-(pita bread), eyores rain clouds ( dinner rolls) and so on the crockery was all disposeable in  solid colours of pooh characters,even the dishes holding the cutlery matched the theme.

CAKE; I ordered a ten pound cake with a picture of baby pooh and baby tigger playing in the garden with a rainbow covering them,they were both wearing party hats.and I wrote on it celebrations at hundred acre woods"and had candles that spelled happy birthday on the cake I found  an old pooh toy organizer at a secound hand store cut out all the characters stuffed flowers and fruits and vegetables and spread them all around the cake table with confetti. 

INVITATIONS AND THANKYOU NOTES; these were created by my husband on computer---the invitation card said "celebrations at hundred acre woods" with picture of baby pooh..but since I had no time to distribute them so I stuck them in the goody bag with ribbon---thank you cards had a picture of pooh and his friends on one side and the other end said 'thank you for  making my birthday poohfect and for your tiggerific gifts'this side had a picture of cartoon vehicles I had made for decorations.  My party was a roaring success everyone enjoyed the food and was thrilled by the hand made decorations most of all my hundred acre woods(my garden) was alive with festivity  colour and happiness to celebrate the first birthday of my baby pooh.         "