Little House on the Prairie themed birthday party

My middle child, Grace, will be celebrating her 8th birthday on August 5.  It's time to start planning the party.  Our house is kind of small, so we like to do parties at our barn.  Plus there's plenty of open space for the kids to run.  Last year, Grace had a tea party there and Mary had a scavanger hunt.  This year we're thinking about a Little House on the Prairie themed party.  I thought I'd share some ideas I got from the yahoo group-Prairie Primer Pluses.

Yesterday, we had a Little House on the Prairie
birthday party for my 9yo dd.

Invitaitons: We made the invitations from squares of
posterboard and construction paper. It was a
colorful quilt block. On the front we wrote “The
Little House on Clawson Road”, and my dd
added stitching lines. On the back we wrote “Laura's
friend, Hannah is having a special day! On
Saturday, March 25th at 2pm a nostalgic event will
take place. Wear your best “prairie” clothes
(long skirts, aprons, sunbonnets). RSVP to Ma
“Hausler” at ——– (a map was added)

Decorations: We had a table, by the entry covered
with an old crosstitch doily, with extra bonnets
and aprons. I made the extra bonnets from paper
grocery sacks with seam binding ribbons. (I
told the girls how wearing the bow on the side, meant
you were looking for a beau). The aprons
were made from an old sheet. I just cut a rectangle,
a hole for the head, rounded out where the
arms would be and rounded the bottom. We used safety
pins to attach sides. Great looking
pinafores.

The refreshment table had a basket with the favors,
the cake, Mason jars with Ginger water in
them, a patchwork block with a wooden flatwear holder
and little wood blocks that spelled out
quilt. Also had some country pieces and a courting
candle (the girls laughed at the idea)
I also used a big metal tub to hold the root beer. We
has various lawn chairs with cushions an
pillows. Under the carport were two benches for the
spelling bee (later removed for square
dancing).

Activities: We made corn husk dolls (we used wire
instead of string, easier for the girls to handle).
Then had a spelling bee ( I used two lists of words
for younger and older girls). As the girls went
out they took turns cranking the ice cream maker.
Next came the two legged race (none of them
had done this before). I placed a crepe paper
streamer across the finish line. The girls then tried

the Ginger water, molasses candy (taffy that went all
wrong), lemonade or root beer. We sang
happy birthday ate cake and ice cream. Then the girls
“washed clothes” at another metal tub with
two washboards, homemade soap and dirty socks. (Would
you believe this was on of the favorite
activities?). Then I removed the benches from the
carport, crancked up the “Fiddler” (CD player),
and taught them a few square dance movements. The
girls loved this, especially to the really fast
music. Then we got more drinks and settled down for
the birthday girl to open gifts. Some gifts
were in the theme, a wildflower bouquet, and one was
wrapped in calico. The girls were then left
to choose their own activities, until they were ready
to leave.

Prizes: Cross-stitch samplers-for winners of Spelling
Bee, Race and Best-Dressed.

Favors: Tin cups, Jacks in calico bags and “penny”
candy.

Food: Cake (Laura's Wedding Cake Recipe with Sugar
icing, Taffy, Jerky, ginger water,
lemonade, rootbeer, Homemade and store-bought ice
cream.

Notes: None of the Homemade food came out correctly
but all was fun. Good thing I had the
extra icecream on hand (cranking takes a long time),
The Rootbeer was in both bottles and cans, I
packed the bottles on top for the look. I got a book
on square dancing to learn the steps (just a
few) and bought the CD with Bluegrass music. A lot o
moms asked me about outfits-we just used
long skirts (adult skirts for the little ones). For
the corn husk dolls, I premade the arms. My one
regret–I was too busy leading activities to get
enough pictures, hope the other parents got some.
Next time-I would premake popcorn balls instead of
taffy. I think all of the girls enjoyed this very
much even our more sophisticated ones.
Geri, March 26, 2000

We used a covered wagon with a cover flap that lifted as the invitation. (We
invited the girls to wear long dresses or skirts.) Then we took the same wagon
and had it enlarged, dd colored it, and we made a yard sign to welcome guests to
the party. As each guest arrived, they were given an apron (which my mom made
for us — including one for me — for a total of nine! We found the fabric at
JoAnn's for $1 a yard!). As a get-acquainted activity we had them fill out a
fact sheet modeled after one done for Laura Ingalls by Scholastic. More on that
at the end. The girls sat in a circle on a quilt and each told her name and
shared one thing about herself from her fact sheet. We collected the fact sheets
and are using them for a thank-you project I'll describe later.

To provide some background, I read the My First Little House book called A
Little House Birthday. We talked about the differences between their last
parties and the one described in the book. Then we talked about how hard the
pioneers had to work, and that work ALWAYS came before fun. I teased them by
telling them they'd have to do chores before we could have any fun — you should
have seen the looks on their faces! LOL Their first chore was to make butter.
Still sitting in a circle on the quilt, they took turns shaking the jar of
cream. They had so much fun working VERY hard! And what excitement when they
saw the cream beginning to thicken!

When the butter was made, we used it to make Laura's Little Maple Cakes. Each
girl had a chance to add an ingredient and to help stir. The cupcakes baked
while the party went on. Their final “chore” was to decorate a paper bonnet,
which I precut and punched. As they finished, we took individual pictures of
them in their Little House costumes.

After all that “work”, it was lunchtime. The main dishes were baked beans and
Johnny-cakes, and then there were lots of things for the girls to sample: jerky,
dried fruits, pickles, pork rinds, cubes of cheese, apple slices, etc. To drink
(from tin cups made from small cans cut with a can opener that leaves no sharp
edges) there was homemade lemonade. The tin cups were a big hit — I wrote
their names on them with a black sharpie — and they took those home, too.

After lunch we played old-fashioned games: Hide the Thimble, and two
Native-American-inspired games, Bowl Catch and a Stick Game. The last game was
a version of Hot Potato. I made a “snake” out of an old pair of socks, sewed a
jingle bell on for a rattle and a felt tongue. We played fiddle music and
whoever had the snake when the music stopped was out. As they got out, they
went to the kitchen to frost (and eat!) one of the little maple cakes they had
made earlier.

After gift opening, the party ended with my daughter giving each guest a goodie
bag made from a square of the fabric that matched the apron she had been given
at the beginning of the party. The “goodies” included a thimble, a stick game
with rules and scoring, stick candy, lemon drops, peanuts in the shell, and a
copy of the recipe for the maple cakes tied with a ribbon.

So after a TON of fun, each guest left with an apron, a paper sunbonnet, a tin
cup, and a bundle of goodies.

We're using the individual pictures and the fact sheets they filled out to make
personalized thank you cards modeled after the fact sheet on Laura done by
Scholastic.