8428

Beatrix Potter 4yr

March 2004

Kara in Asheville, NC

Honorable Mention

We are celebrating my daughter's fourth birthday this year on Easter.  She is crazy about Beatrix Potter and we thought that it would be fun to theme the party around Beatrix Potter’s stories. My daughter and I made up rhymes about some of the stories and drew and colored corresponding pictures on the invitations.  We also added:  How I love Beatric Potter lore And soon I’ll be turning four Oh, I can’t wait to celebrate When you come through the door!  My party’s on Easter at noon With games, a cake and balloons.  We’ll have so much fun Before it’s all done I hope that I’ll see you there soon! The party will be mostly family so I have assigned an adult to each of the activities planned. The activities correspond with a Beatrix Potter story.  I made large “title page” posters that will hang near each of the activities and the adult in charge will give a synopsis of the story before (or during) the activity.         The Tailor of Gloucester:  the children will decorate straw hats that I purchased at my local craft store along with ribbons, trim remnants, silk flowers and small objects (some Easter themed, others include birds, butterflies and miniature sports balls).         The Tale of Peter Rabbit:  I purchased plastic vegetables from the local toy store (to add to what my girls already had) and will scatter them in a cardboard fenced section of the yard.  My husband will play Mr. McGregor.  Each child will be given a basket from a line of baskets outside of “Mr. McGregor’s garden”.  The children must run into the garden, take one vegetable, bring it to their basket, and go back into the garden, take a second vegetable, etc.  If they are tagged by Mr. McGregor, they must drop their vegetable, run back outside of the garden and try again until all of the vegetables are gone. The child with the most vegetables wins. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin:  I made game boards using objects that appeared in the story.  I will pick an object (from a box decorated like the owl Old Brown) and the children will mark their boards with m&ms. The child that fills his/her board first is the winner.  (the boards have 6 objects each). The Tale of Tom Kitten and the Roly Poly Pudding:  I will place about thirty objects from the two stories on a tray and let the children look at the tray for a few minutes (items include a button, a comb, a washcloth, a toy rolling pin, doll pants).  Then I will take the tray away and the children will take turns remembering the items they saw. If a child repeats an item or can’t remember one the child is out.  The last child left is the winner.   The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck:  The children will have an Easter egg hunt using the baskets from the Peter Rabbit game.  Each child will have a colored plastic egg in his/her basket and must find only eggs of that color (this allows the younger children to find eggs easily and the older children to be challenged). I will put trinkets in each of the eggs. The Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan:  We will end the party with an outdoor tea party complete with linens, flowers and china (the adults will participate, too).  The children will wear the hats they made. My daughter wants everyone to pick a character to "be" for the tea party. It may be easier to make namecards using character names and let the children "find out" who they are when they sit down. We will have typical tea fare: little sandwiches, scones, fruit tarts (blueberries in a nut crusted tart will be eggs in nests)and of course tea. We'll end with a carrot cake (shaped like a carrot from a 9x13 inch baking pan and using cream cheese frosting tinted orange and green). I will use little Beatrix Potter storybooks for party favors for the younger kids and Peter Rabbit’s Big Book of Fun (activity books) for the older children.  They will also take home their baskets, hats and eggs.

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