A Pokey Little Puppy Party

 Vera's Pokey Little Puppy Party

 

       Since Vera Rose loves all things "puppy dog" these days, I decided to have a Pokey Little Puppy themed party since that would give the party a fun literary twist since it's a classic children's book. 

       First I made two Pokey Little Puppy banners using teal/white-colored floral scrapbooking paper and two old and ragged Pokey Little Puppy books.  Usually I simply cringe at the idea of ripping a book apart (perhaps that is the former librarian in me) whether for repurposing or debundling for dealers to make a profit on old prints.  I simply hate books to be torn apart BUT this
was the first time I had no qualms about it since there are a zillion copies of The Pokey Little Puppy around and it is still very much in print.  I picked the two books in the worst condition that I could find, then cut the pages into a shape with a rounded bottom.  I glued that (using YES paste) onto the scrapbook paper, added a hand-made and curled paper fringe and ribbon and these were the quickest and cheapest banners I've yet made.

 

       I made the birthday cake based on the The Pokey Little Puppy's cutie pie head.  It was made of pound cake with chocolate cake spots, then iced with buttercream and Choco-satin frosting.

 

       My Mom made the food counter perfection by making bowls of Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Custard (both foods that the Pokey Little Puppy and/or his siblings ate in the story).  The chocolate custard was reaaaaallly good.  Moms always enhance anything they touch and parties are no exception!

       For paper products, www.birthdayexpress.com sells party supplies based on the Golden Books collection.  The Pokey Little Puppy was just one of four classic Golden Books highlighted by the paper products so not all items sold featured the puppy.  Luckily, the invitations, the party hats, and the dinner plates all centered on Pokey.  The napkins featured all four books on a different quadrant so I unfolded and refolded all the napkins so the Pokey Little Puppy would be the picture seen.

       I also took some wooden toy fencing and taped onto the fencing the cutouts of the signs featured in the book (cut from the books I used to make the banners).

       The theme was continued with some of the gifts that Vera Rose was given: both sets of grandparents gave her a Pokey Little Puppy puzzle (with a different image on each, of course) and a Pokey Little Puppy stuffed toy so my girls were thrilled (because yes, Liliana has claimed one of the puppies and they sleep next to them every night).  Such fun puppy items (I especially love the Holztiger dogs).

       The party itself was very special because family gathered to celebrate my little 2-year-old and that brought such joy to me.  I have never seen Vera Rose so happy as she has been throughout her little birthday celebrations.  She has smiled and squealed and clapped so much!  She seems to have entered a very joyous season in her little life (about a year ago I was concerned because she often seemed fussy and unhappy) so I am praising God and giving thanks for this sweet little girl who has found contentment and joy as she explores this extraordinary world full of doggies, books, parties, and family.  And it's a very, very beautiful world.
 

      

The Sock Monkey Party

A Monkeyful Birthday Party for Two Little Nieces

 

 
       Now that my brother and his family have moved a few states away, it is an extra special treat when they visit.  As we miss them a ton, it is so helpful for my sanity to plan a little party or some sort of fun occasion for their much anticipated return every few months.  I miss my siblings but love thinking about their children having a happy time during their next visit.  On the most recent visit, my Mom and I knew it'd be the perfect opportunity to celebrate two sweet nieces birthdays:  Maren turning six and Becky Jane turning one-year-old.  Maren has loved sock monkeys for a while so we celebrated a bit of monkey mania with cousins, grandparents, nieces, nephew, great Aunts and more.
       The cake was a three-layer one: one layer was pound cake dyed pink, another white cake dyed purple, and a chocolate layer in between.  The frosting was "Choco-satin Frosting" from my mother's tried-and-true Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, although I made it minus the egg it calls for in the recipe (and the recipe worked great without the raw egg: I simply added extra powdered sugar until it reached spreading consistency; it was a happy discovery for me because who wants Salmonella?).  I iced and decorated the outside of the cake with Buttercream Frosting.  The recipe for my altered Choco-Satin Frosting is as follows:

Choco-Satin Frosting

Combine 3 1-oz squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted (I used Nestle's premelted envelopes), 1/4 cup hot water,1/2 cup softened butter, 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla.

       Games were super simple and consisted of relays around the house holding a real banana beneath the chin, on top of the head, etc.  Only three bananas were squashed underfoot.  Luckily, we used a wooden, play kitchen banana for the Hot Potato (Hot Banana?) game we played or there would surely have been more fruit casualties.  I also read a few animal stories to the kids: picture books which featured animal actions (including monkeys of course).  Mostly, I was just thrilled to watch my own 1-year-old and three-year-old interacting with cousins.  Plus Liliana loved decorating the party table (she set out the paper plates and helped with arranging the stuffed monkeys and bananas) and watching me make the cake on the day before the party.  Happy, happy times.  I so love my little nieces!

 

 

 

Monkey Cake with Paper Leaves

Monkey Cake for Daddy's Birthday

       Liliana decided that Daddy needed to have a monkey cake for his birthday--specifically a monkey with toes and belly that was green inside--so this is what we made.  I used scrapbook paper to make jungle leaves for covering up the cookie sheet underneath the cake (since I couldn't locate a platter large enough).  Liliana loved placing the leaves around the cake.  She decided that the cake should be green so it's a white cake that is colored green.  Liliana is repeatedly pointing out the birthday monkey's toes and belly.