In honor of my young friend Coco's birthday, which we sadly missed while we were away, I thought it might be a nice time to share the great party Page threw for her last year. Page has been obsessed with mushrooms for as long as I have known her, and now that love has passed on to Coco. That prompted an Alice-in-Wonderland-style fantasy mushroom party that was visually amazing. Page made enormous paper mache mushrooms and painted them bright red and white and used them to decorate the lovely little barn on their property. In addition to the giant mushrooms she also made a smaller version by twisting brown paper bags so that the bottom of the bag becomes the top of the mushroom and the twisted part makes the stem. These were also used to decorate the barn, and were tucked into the lawn too.
As an activity for the party she gave each of the kids a canning jar and let them make little terrariums filled with moss and tiny mushrooms which they then got to take home as the party favor. Another nature themed activity was a scavenger hunt: the kids had to find a feather, a rock, moss, mushrooms, and a dandelion...all things that were naturally present in their yard. Last but not least, she painted a few large boxes with bright orange paint (there were bright green ones too but somehow I neglected to take a picture!) and cut windows and a door in it to make a little clubhouse on the lawn...and I almost forgot...there were enough big red balls scattered on the lawn that there was constant motion as all the kids kicked and threw the the balls. The whole party was great fun and so pretty.