AND HERE COMES WINNIE THE POOH My sister's son celebrated his 1st birthday on 28th October 2006  the party's entire planning and organization was handed over to me. THE THEME: Teddy Bears being children's favorite I thought of using them as the central character. And Winnie The Pooh won the maximum votes. THE PLACE: The guest list consisted of 21 children.  Therefore we decided to plan the party at my sister's residence, as the hall would very easily accommodate everybody. THE INVITATION: Invitations turned out to be very cute. I cutout a Pooh picture from a storybook, scanned it onto my PC and enlarged the size. I then took color printouts. From the printout I traced Pooh's red t-shirt with the help of a tracing paper and then copied it onto red colored chart paper. I cutout the t-shirt, wrote the invitation by hand onto the shirt and pasted it on all the Pooh bear printouts. A single small hole was punched in the middle of Pooh's forehead and a small red ribbon was tied through it this was for all the children to hang their Pooh invite in their rooms.    This invite was then put into plain red colored envelopes and posted to all the children. THE DRESSING: All the 21 children were made a simple request  they had to come dressed in a red t-shirt.  THE DECORATION: I had an extra Pooh bear printout wearing the red chart paper t-shirt. This Pooh was hung at the entrance door all the children coming in were required to write their name onto the t-shirt. This was a keepsake for my sister's son.    The entire hall was cleared of all furniture except for a dinning table. A red table cover was put over the dining table.  We borrowed Pooh Bears from all our relatives and friends and placed them on the dining table as well as around the entire hall.   Red balloons were hung onto the ceiling and the four corners of the hall. Luckily we also found Pooh balloons, which were placed at the entrance as well as on the dining table.  THE GAMES: Pin the shirt on the Pooh  my Pooh printout and red shirt cutout were useful here. Color Pooh's red t-shirt (for the little ones). Narrate a short but original Pooh story (for the big kids). Dress the Pooh (all the Poohs had their shirts removed. The shirts were bundled together and the kids were asked to find the shirt that matched the Pooh and to dress the Pooh with the shirt). Winners received Pooh stationery sets packed in Pooh school bags.    THE BIRTHDAY CAKE: Of course Winnie The Pooh cake with a single red candle stuck right in middle of his red t-shirt.   THE FOOD: We easily found paper plates with a picture of Pooh printed on it; this was matched with red forks, red paper glasses and red paper napkins. Food was very simple but matched the theme very well  we had tomato (red) & cheese sandwiches cut in the shape of a teddy bear, pizzas with topped with loads of tomatoes (red), french fries served with tomato ketchup (red) and red jelly. This was accompanied with fresh watermelon, fresh tomato and fresh red orange juice.   THE GIVEAWAYS: Red gift bags were filled with a Winnie The Pooh storybook, a small Pooh soft toy and red candy.       The party was a sure-fire hit among all.