14112

Little Bear Party -2yr- Bear Claw Sidewalk

August 2006

Jennifer in Henderson, KY  USA

For my daughter Lauren's second birthday, we decided to have a "Little Bear" Picnic because she is fascinated with the "Littlt Bear" cartoon. 

For her invitations, I cut out brown fuzzy material in the shape of a bear and used spray adhesive to attach it to the front of a side-fold card I printed off the computer in the same shape to make it look like a teddy bear.  I hot glued a small bow  made out of ribbon that said "Happy Birthday" to the top of the bear's head. 

Inside, the card read:  "It's a beary special day, because Lauren will be two, and our celebration wouldn't be complete without all of you.  A "Little Bear" Picnic is what's in store.  We'll have food, and fun, and games, and more.  Your favorite teddy bear friend is a welcome guest.  Please come and make Lauren's birthday the beary best!" 

As the guests arrived, they walked up the sidewalk to the door where I had cut out bear claws on 8 1/2 x 11 paper and taped them to the sidewalk.  I set out a child-sized table by the door with a red and white gingham table cloth, teddy bears with birthday hats, and a sign that said "Welcome to our Picnic". 

As the children arrived, I had crayons, stickers, etc. set up for them to play with while I offered to paint their faces with balloons, bear claws, etc. 

After that, the children were able to "paint" sugar cookies in the shape of teddy bears with a simple confectionary sugar icing in different colors.  When they were finished with this, we read "The Teddy Bear Picnic" book. 

Then, we played a bear toss game where I had painted a teddy bear on foam board and cut out its face. 

Then, the kids took turns getting their picture taken from behind the foam board with their faces peeking through.  We then had the children hide their eyes while we hid the bears throughout the house.  They had so much fun with the "Bear Hunt" that we had to do it repeatedly because they kept saying "Again!"   

For food, we served hamburgers and hotdogs, corn on the cob, fruit, chips, and veggies, as well as snacks of teddy grahams and gummy bears.  The cake was a simple round two-layer cake with fondant icing draped over it to look like a tablecloth.  I positioned various teddy bears and animals around the cake to make it look like they were having a picnic and the cake was a table.  

After cake and presents, we gave out awards (little plastic gold medals and computer-generated certificates) for all the bears that were brought, including "sweetest bear", "oldest bear", "best dressed", "most repaired", "most huggable", etc.  The children each got a goodie bag with gummy bears, teddy bear stickers, their sugar cookies that they each "painted", their teddy bear award, and their picture from the foam board cut-out. 

It took a little planning and preparation, but I'm proud I was able to give my daughter a creative and fun birthday party and not have to spend a lot of money to do it.  The kids and adults alike had a great time and I think Lauren had a magical day.

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