Prairie Party: For my daughter's 8th birthday we had a "Little House on the Prairie" party.  I made invitations in the shape of a sunbonnet and tied them closed with a ribbon.  The invitations invited guest to join us at our little house on the prairie (at our house).  We made homemade butter at the party by putting cream into baby food jars and shaking them until butter formed. I played down-home square dancing music while the girls shook their jars.  When the butter was finished they put it in my refridgerator to take home in their prairie baskets. Each girls' party favor was a brown prairie basket filled with a cloth, a small loaf of homemade bread, lemon drops wrapped in brown paper, marbles in a homemade cloth bag, their homemade butter they made, and the cloth doll they made.  After making butter the girls made their rag doll like Laura had in the Little House on the Prairie books. I premade the doll's body out of calico fabric. The girls added hair, button eyes, mouth and nose out of fabric markers, and hair ribbons.  After this we went to the "barn" (our garage) and had a barn dance.  Once again I played square dancing music and taught them some basic square dancing moves. We also had an apple dance where 2 girls hold an apple between their foreheads and see how long they can dance without dropping it. Also in the "barn", I hung and apple from a string and the girls tried to take a bite out of the apple keeping their hands behing their back. After the crafts and barn dance fun, we came inside for treats.  I set my table with a quilt as the table cloth. I used many old dishes to set the table explaining that pioneers used what they had to eat on since many of their things were broken on the way to the prairie.  We had a quilt cake to eat. I baked a 9 x 13 inch cake and frosted colorful squares across the top to resemble a quilt.  I used a small round decorator tip to pipe the stitches of the quilt between the colorful icing squares.  We had homemade lemonade in tin cups to drink. I also had old antique items on the table like a hurricane lantern, a wooden candle holder and candle, wooden bowls, etc.  After treats, the girls played the game "hide the thimble".  One girl leaves the room while the rest of the girls decide where to hide the thimble.  When she returns all the girls sing the old prairie song "Go tell Aunt Rhodie"  When the girls gets closer to the thimble they sing louder, when she gets farther away they sing softer.  Finally when she finds it, another girl gets her turn.  After all this fun the girls returned to the "barn" to dance some more until their parents came to pick them up.  They had a wonderful time and so did I!!