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Hundred Acre Woods -3yr- Useful Pot Gift

January 2005

Victoria in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Special Mention

We live in northeastern Ontario, which tends to have very long, cold winters.  So I decided to try and reproduce a summer day in the Hundred Acre Woods for my son's third birthday. I did some research, and some of my ideas came from party suggestions from this website. 

I booked the arts and crafts room at the local sports complex, so I had a large, empty space with lots of room for running around.  I used two sheets of white bristol board to make a picket fence with a large sign saying 'Rabit's Garden' and used three cardboard pop flats to support tp tube and construction paper carrots, with tissue paper greens sticking out their tops. 

I put a black plastic garbage bag under the flats, and spread a little soil around the carrots.  I cut out rings from paper plates, and the garden became a ring-toss game.  Then, to cover the walls, I found a large roll of thick white paper, and traced, painted, and cut out green tree-tops.  I used rolls of brown packing paper to trace and cut out the tree trunks.  I saved an extra large trunk and drew a little door on the bottom, and then made a sign out of bristol board that said "Tresspassers will", for Piglet's house. 

My mother drew and painted a picture of Eeyore for Pin the Tail on Eeyore, and then made the tails out of grey and pink ribbon.  I found a box large enough to make a treehouse, so I cut the back open to create more space, cut out a square door (leaving one side as the folding hinge) and used a black Sharpie to trace the planks and door frame.  Then, I used green bristol board to cut out large tree tops, and attached those to the topside of the box flaps, so they hung down slightly over the door. 

I made a sign that read "Mr. Saunders" and hung a liberty bell next to the door.  Pooh's house was the perfect size for the pre-schoolers!  My next step was another game; I used white and blue plastic table-cloths to make a waterfall in another area, and colourful beanbags to play Poohsticks.  Rainbow coloured balloons were gathered at the ends of the food table.  I ran fishing line across the room at several points, and used it to hang bees that I made from gluing two halves of egg carton cups together, painted yellow and black, with pipe cleaner antennae and stinger, googly eyes, and wings made from pipe cleaner and white plastic bag pieces (hot glue worked best).  I also hung colurful streamers between the 'trees' and across the room.  (The balloons and streamers were red, orange, pink, blue, and yellow.) Because the room had a tiled floor which was fairly cold, I used an old, clean rug to cover a large space in the center of the room.  This was the space for dancing, statue games, and the picnic lunch. 

For lunch, we spread yellow plastic tablecloths on the carpet - the kids sat around the edges (and was actually much more comfortable for them than plastic chairs!).  My husband made little peanut-butter and jam sandwiches (we checked for allergies) and baloney and cheese sandwiches, as well as vegetable sticks and dips.  We brought drink boxes to save on cleanup, and used flowery paper plates.  My husband made a large beehive cake with little marzipan bees he shaped by hand, for our son to blow out his candle, and several smaller, cupcake-sized beehives for each child to eat, each with a little marzipan bee.

The invitations were made of cardstock with Pooh and Friends clipart pictures, and I asked each child to bring their favourite stuffed animal to play with.

For the favours, I bought 2' long dowels and used scraps of cloth and some old handkerchiefs to make hobo bags, filled with 'travel kits':  each child received two Pooh bandaids, a Winne the Pooh cardstock postcard with a real Pooh stamp from the post office, a bag of Winnie the Pooh fruit treats, a granola bar, and a miniature clay pot that I painted with brown and yellow acrylic paints to look like a drippy honey pot (I used a fine brush to paint 'Hunny' on the side), and in each pot a plastic baggie held gummy bears. 

The decorations completely transformed the room, and it really felt like a sunny summer day!

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