Our home was already decorated in a country theme so decorating was fairly simple. I used quilts as table clothes & as designated areas for crafting and eating.
Laura & Almanzo Wilder purchased a glass plate that read, "Give us this day our daily bread" on it. The plate survived their house fire in Dakota territory as well as their journey to Missouri. I have a wooden plaque with the same phrase, & so it seemed a fitting tribute to decorate our table with a similar piece.
Tucked in the corner was our Photo Booth. Goldi's "town dress" with hoop skirt, an antique screen door, milk container, & my Grammie's quilt as a backdrop completed the scene.
My Gaggle compliantly posed for a quick picture, & Goldi got a picture with her guests as well. Upon arriving our guests we able to choose a sun bonnet to wear for the party & to take home as a favor. (I purchased the bonnets from www.etsy.com for just $5/bonnet.)
From the Little House series, Goldi chose 3 activities to complete with her guests: Rag Dolls, Sewing, & Button Necklaces. As we waited for lunch to cook, we jumped right into our first activity...Rag Doll making. I read a brief paragraph from "Little House in the Big Woods" which tells of Laura receiving her first rag doll as a Christmas gift. (I used this tutorial: http://www.restlessrisa.com/2014/07/rag-doll-no-sewing-required.html) My craft closet came very in handy for this part, & I barely purchased anything for the activities. I had precut all the fabric needed for the rag dolls using scraps from my fabric stash.
Mommas were invited to stay & join in the party, & their help was much needed during our activity time. I like to think that they all enjoyed some Mommy & Me crafting! My husband even surprised me by staying and helping our Gaggle with their creations as well!
This by far was the activity I was most excited about, & I think they turned out darling if I do say so myself! Once we'd finished the rag dolls, we moved on to lunch.
Another quilt covered my kitchen island and held all the fixin's for lunch. We served Nellie Olsen's Lemonade, cookies, & a pioneer style lunch in tin pails.
Pioneer Lunch: Fried Chicken, Biscuit, Apple, & Cookie. The girls grabbed their lemonade & pails, & sat down on another quilt to eat.
Our lunch quilt overlooked our "Prairie" as the rainy day kept us indoors. Once lunch was finished, we returned to the activity quilt for our final two projects.
For the sewing activity I precut 6"x6" squares of muslin, & using heat-n-bond adhered each girl's initial to it. To "sew" we used thick embroidery thread & embroidery needles as they are more dull (and less likely to prick little fingers). I was surprised by how much the girls enjoyed this and how much patience they had with it!
We used the same embroidery floss & needles to then make Button Necklaces like the one Laura & Mary made for Baby Carrie in "By the Banks of Plum Creek".
When crafting was done, we celebrated our birthday girl with the traditional song & cake. My mother-in-law pulled out her old Holly Hobbie pan & made the perfect Prairie Girl...even with blonde curls just like my Goldilocks.
We couldn't be more grateful for God's gift our our sweet girl...and for the friends and family who love her just as much as we do!
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