An Indoor Picnic in the Three Hundred Acre Wood

Clara turned two at the end of January, and we I had to throw her a party, of course.  So, given her recent interest in Winnie the Pooh, my love for the original A.A. Milne story with the E.H. Shepard sketches, and the similarity in Clara's haircut and Christopher Robin's, it was practically mandatory to have an "Indoor Picnic in the Three Hundred Acre Wood."

Warning: I'm having some fun using the instagram app on my iphone - hence the filtered pictures.  Carry on. 

I started by making a "Clara Bee Robin" outfit.  Christopher Robin wears a blousy white shirt and red shorts in a lot of the original drawings, so that was my starting point. 

 

I turned hers into a dress (so you really couldn't see her shorts too much).

And of course Winnie the Paul needed something for the party, too.  You can see this link for more of his clothing details.

Then came the difficulty of transforming our living room into a forest...

 

Large swatches of Cedar and Privet provided the majority of the greenery.  Their size combined with the natural style of the party made the decorations go quickly.  The mantle was flanked by two arrangements of Cedar (from my mother in law's yard) and Privet with little blue berries (from down near the hay barn).  Pine cone garland was hung under the mantle. 

I hung two large swags of the cedar and privet on the front double windows; a little burlap helped hold things together.

 

The table centerpiece was more of the same, plus a few red berries for fun.  Oh, and a gingham red table cloth - it is a picnic, you know!

 

A close up of the pine and pine cone garland - the pine swags were saved from my Christmas garland - including the wire - sweet!  The pine cones came from Wal-mart's after Christmas super sale.  Pine trees don't grow close by.  It feels silly to buy pine cones, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

And we had to have an extra large blue balloon so Pooh could get honey from the honey tree!

Then it was time to eat!  Everyone grabbed a picnic basket and loaded their food inside.

 
The meal included cuban sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Eeyore's blue "thistle" chips (aka Blue Terra Chips), stuffed eggs (thanks Ann!), Tigger's "spring" water, and Rabbit's broccoli salad.
 

The "Sumthing Sweet" table included a honey tasting, "haycorn" cookies c/o Piglet, and honeycomb cupcakes.  Pat had some fun cutting wood slices that I used for a cakestand and platters with his dad's new chainsaw.

No cake at this party - I opted for cupcakes made from my mom's honeybun cake recipe.  The bees were made from pipecleaners - super fast and easy!  A yellow iced hexagon cookie on top of the cupcake made the arrangement into a honey comb.

 

The honey tasting had 4 different types: raw local honey, blueberry honey, cotton honey, and tangerine honey.

The tangerine was the overall favorite.

A "haycorn" cookie (Piglet's way of saying 'acorn') is just a hershey kiss, nilla wafer, and butterscotch chip held together with a little frosting.

I enjoyed putting this party together so much, and it really came together just about as well as I had imagined.  The best part was Clara's wide-eyed amazement as she woke up from her nap and saw the Hundred Acre Wood.  I think she really enjoyed it.

Reading with Aunt Ann under the picnic table was pretty fun, too.

Patrick and Brooks were sports to sit on the picnic blankets with Clara.  It was a really wonderful family get together (plus the adopted Mrs. Pino and Lee Jack).

Happy Birthday, Clara Bee Robin!