4967

Teddy Bear's Picnic -3yr- Teddy Shaped Food

Sept 2002

Margaret in Oxford, England, UK

Honorable Mention

My daughter, who was going to be three, decided she wanted to have a  Teddy Bear's Picnic party.  I sent out cute Teddy Bear invitations (they  were from a pad of Black paper with silver highlighted features, I wrote  on them in silver ink), asking all of them to bring their teddies to the  party. 

On the day we were lucky with the weather and had the party  outside, where we organized a blanket for the games and picnic and  teddy bears, and all the play equipment was out(swing, slide, bikes,  trampoline, etc) for some play time when not colouring/making or  playing games. 

We also had bunting up in the garden to give it a party  feel with balloons too (I also made some teddy bunting for in the  conservatory decorated with the many, many teddy bears my daughter  owns, and where the cake and food was laid out on a red and white  picnic cloth, all to be served in the garden later). 

When the children  arrived they were asked if they would like to colour in a picture of a  teddy (2 available for each child and easily downloaded from a website  specializing in teddy printouts and other birthday themed things).  They  could then make a teddy 'puppet', which was a brown card cutout of a  teddy shape (prepared earlier using a teddy cookie cutter shape),  which they could decorate with all manner of decorations (e.g. stickon  spots, stars, sequins, feathers, etc. - attached with glue stick or tape).   When they were finished (don't forget to put their name on for ease of  taking home!) they had a 'Popsicle' stick stuck on the back.  The kids all  loved doing these! 

We then had several teddy themed games, such as:  Pin the Nose on the teddy (I made a large teddy on poster card and  stickers with child's name on to stick on his nose area); Musical Teddy  Bears (this worked brilliantly, as we used teddies from my daughters huge collection so no one got upset about not getting 'their' teddy and  when they were out they did not mind as they could sit with the teddies),  we of course played the Teddy Bears Picnic song; Pass the Parcel and  a Teddy 'Pulina' (Winnie the Pooh theme - like a pinata, but you pull a  ribbon to release sweets/candy).

I also downloaded the words to the  Teddy Bear's Picnic song and printed copies for the adults and we all  sang that together (I had planned on reading a story too, called 'Ten  Little Teddy Bears' which ends in a big picnic, but we ran out of time!).   We also had a Teddy Bears Parade with prizes for the largest teddy  and the fuzziest!  (The prizes were all teddy themed, there was a nice  'note' set with teddies all over it, a mini teddy with gummy bears, teddy  note pad and teddy pen, etc). 

We of course had our food served out on  the picnic blanket (sandwiches made with small teddy cookie cutters -  these were the perfect size for small children, I made larger ones for  my older son and his friend; we also had teddy shaped potato  crisps/chips, cucumber sticks, cinnamon teddy cookies we made,  mini-boxes of raisins and watermelon cubes). 

Then to finish off a great  teddy cake (made with one small round cake tin-head-, one large  round cake tin-body-, a purchased 'swiss/jelly roll' cake - cut for the  legs&arms-, frosted in chocolate icing with liquorice mouth and nose,  white and milk chocolate buttons for eyes, and the ears and paws were  from chocolate covered round cookies - looked fantastic and you do not  need any icing equipment or specialist pans). 

For party bags I bought  some plastic teddy bear cups, crazy straws, gummy bears, rings, and  other goodies wrapped up in a clear cellophane bag, with a bear  sticker with the child's name on.  Some of the mums stayed and when  they left they all said what a fantastic party it was! 

And my husband and  I both agree it was our most successful one ever too (mind you birthday  parties for boys have to deal with more energetic characters..!) 

The  web was a fantastic source for ideas and print outs for the kids and  party preparation, including many ideas obtained from this website  amongst others (also managed to get Happy Birthday 3 with a Bear  which we printed out then photocopied large for posters which my son  and daughter coloured in to put up on the doors and walls for  decorations).

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