Happy New Year!! And now onto the birthday party pictures

Happy New Year to you and your family!! I hope 2012 is your best year yet in every way!

I promised to share pictures from Hazel's third birthday party, so this is the post. You may remember I shared the invitation, the favors and some decorations, decorations done with My Memories, and birthday hats and more decorations previously. So I won't repeat those at least not too much.

Well my mother was a saint and stayed up with me Friday night baking while I decorated and prepared. She wanted most of the food done so we wouldn't have too much to do in the morning since the party started at 10. Our menu consisted of Humpty Dumpty Egg Casserole (my mother made this recipe), Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater Pumpkin Muffins  (again Mom made this recipe), The Muffin Man Blueberry Muffins (using a recipe I combined several and experimented with create), Three Blind Mice Cheese and Crackers, Little Miss Muffet's Salsa Baked Goat Cheese (a favorite recipe, but we left out the pine nuts and used fresh store bought salsa), This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef Sandwiches, And This Little Piggy Had None Cucumber Sandwiches (bread with crusts cut off and cut into quarters spread a little Light Garlic and Herb Alloutte and topped with a slice of cucumber), Little Jack Horner's Thumbprint Cookies (using this recipe), Queen of Hearts Raspberry Tart (bought from Trader Joe's freezer section), Polly's Raspberry Tea, Coffee and Tea, Wee Willie Winkie's Peppermint Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows, Jack and Jill's Juices and Water (orange juice, apple juice and some bottled water), and of course Baker's Man Birthday Cake. I meant to make some frozen pigs in a blanket called And This Little Pig Stayed Home In a Blanket, however I forgot about them in the chaos as people arrived. Oh, well. We didn't need them. For each food item I made a sign like the one pictured above with our title and the nursery rhyme words it is named after as well as a picture. I also had some themed plates and napkins which were also labeled in the same way. Since I couldn't find nursery rhyme themed paper goods I made some cloth napkins from some fabric I found on clearance.

Twinkle, twinkle little star plates

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary Plates

Three Blind Mice Cloth Napkins

Humpty Dumpty Cloth Napkins

Kids' covered paper cups!

Kids' Cup Box (in case you what to know)

Now let's talk about the cake. I think I mentioned I was making it completely homemade since there was someone coming to the party with severe nut allergies. I decided I needed to make two cakes. I made a chocolate one (because it is Steve's favorite) and I made a yellow one for me and Hazel. I used a large pan for the chocolate one, but it did not rise and apparently tasted more fudgy/brownie-ish. The yellow one  I made cupcakes and a few odd shapes (like a moon, and using some bowls to make a hill and haystack, etc.). Then I used my old standby frosting recipe which is in my Disney Cookbook from when I was a child. I tripled the recipe to make sure I had enough. I first made yellow frosting for the moon and haystack and put some of the yellow aside. Then I turned it green by adding lots of green. I frosted the chocolate cake with green as well as the hill. Then I wanted some blue for the water in the well. (A cupcake is the well with some brick paper around it.) So I added lots of blue. Finally I needed a color for the roof of the well (I used a piece of the cake I cut off from the hill since it was too big) and added red to the mix. Then I decorated it with sugar cookies. I used Trader Joe's Sugar Cookie Mix because it was on sale for 50 cents after Christmas and came with icing and colored sugar. I also decorated around the cake with cookies. Then I wrote Happy Birthday, Hazel on it and then added a tea set plate and one of Hazel's play spoons as the dish and spoon. Overall, I'm happy with it. It obviously was not professionally made, but it worked and people enjoyed it.

Front View--I cut the cow cookie off at the top...Sorry!

As you can see the cookies represented the different nursery rhymes. You have Jack and Jill going up the hill, Little Boy Blue sleeping under his haystack, the cow jumping over the moon, the five little ducks, Bah, Bah, Black Sheep, Mary and her little lamb, Little Bo Peep and her sheep are on the other side, the Five Little Piggies,Little Miss Muffet and a green spider (made out of a gum drop and frosting), Old Mother Hubbard and her dog, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater's wife in her pumpkin shell.

Top View

Needless to say Hazel loved it. We also had a plate of cupcakes. Hazel thought the singing was a bit too loud and got a bit scared, but recovered nicely.

Too loud singing

After blowing out the candles

Ok, enough about food. We had a total of 33 people including ourselves. I don't understand why people do not RSVP to parties anymore. I find it so rude, yet so many people don't. This time we tried regrets only to see if that made a difference and I have to say it made it worse.

Anyway, at the door we had a hat making station (which no one did, oh well), horns, and a frame to sign.

Next we had several Kids' Stations for different ages. We had This Little Piggy's Market so the kids could pretend to shop, Pat-cake Play dough station, Rub-a-dub-dub washing stuffed animals station, Miss Muffet's make your own spider and photo opportunity stations, and a Hickory Dickory Dock photo opportunity station. I borrowed a friend's infant bath tub for the Rub-a-dub-dub station and she gave me her inflatable duck one. The kids took everything out and climbed in it. But they were having fun.

This Little Piggy's Market

Yes, that is a cat toy mouse near the top

Rub-a-dub-dub

Miss Muffet's bonnet, tuffet and a creepy spider

Make your own spider

Pat-a-cake Station

Small Table in the Corner In Case Anyone needed to be away from the crowds!

I also scattered Nursery Rhyme books throughout the area so people could read or look at them. Then on the way out I gave the favors and made sure people signed the frame. I love having something for people to sign, so when Hazel is older she will know who came to her party.

Oh, and I had made her a dress, which she refused to wear although she loves to look at it. Ugh!!

Yes, that is the cow jumping over the moon and the rest of the characters from Hey Diddle, Diddle. Then the pleasant surprise that arrived on Hazel's birthday in the mail was a gift well actually two from Master D--her Australian pen pal (and son to Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts). Perfect timing! Thank you, Master D and Kelly.

I will share more about gifts later this week, since I think this is long enough for one post. Thank you for sticking with it. Hope you are enjoying your New Year's Day!!