A Little House Birthday

*Posting this now since last Thursday we were too busy enjoying the festivities!

Shortcake gladly offered to let us use Cutie Beautie as part of the table decorations. We pulled all of our My First Little House books off the shelf and set them on top of the quilted pillow sham that matches the girls' quilts. We have the real books too, but these have such pretty covers!

Some prairie dogs were spotted on the fireplace.

I hope they were aware of the danger lurking behind them.

Usually, when we decorate for a birthday party, we confine ourselves to the dining area. This year though, we just couldn't resist setting up camp in the playroom. We turned the frame of the train table into a covered wagon complete with horse, wheels, bedding, and Pa's fiddle. A Jack look alike even showed up for our little day of fun on the prairie.

The birthday girl and her sister woke up bright and early and immediately climbed in to read a few stories of Laura and Mary's antics.

Cutie Beautie's friend has been christened Dorothy Anne.

We ate "Little House" PBJ's for lunch (which were basically plain PBJ's cut into the shape of little houses).
Sunshine requested a yellow cake with butterscotch frosting, but she still wanted me to decorate it with a "Little House" theme. So the cabin, tree trunks, filling and edging were made with butterscotch frosting and the other decorations are plain buttercream. The door is a graham cracker with melted chocolate chips on top with some "wood grain" planks carved in. All right, I admit...it's more "big woods" than "prairie" but prairies are boring. Just ask Dorothy... Oz was much more colorful than Kansas!

The birthday girl wanted to go bowling which was so much fun for everybody. My mom helped to keep an eye on BigBoy while he decided whether or not he wanted to try his hand at rolling the big shiny ball. When he finally warmed up to the idea, he had a blast! Jumping around, slapping hands and pointing his fingers in the air with every roll down the lane.

I love our birthday celebrations. We have done the big party thing with family and friends when the oldest children were very small, but for the past few years we have made them more private and low key. Husband and I stay up late decorating the dining area in whatever "theme" the birthday child chooses. We let the birthday person decide on breakfast and dinner. They also get to pick a movie (if they want). For Sunshine's birthday we watched this Little House movie that came highly recommended. They also get to request a special outing (within reason) and we try to scatter presents and surprises throughout the day so as not to make the gifts the focus of the day.

Some people might think we are silly for doing so much when the only friends who are invited are the siblings they see every day. I hope these family parties will be fondly remembered when they are older and can't see each other as often as they might like. I hope we are encouraging strong filial bonds that will keep them close to each other (even if it is only spiritually) as they grow.