Little House on the Prairie/Pioneer Birthday Party

Hello!
In middle June we had a party for our daughter Brenda who was turning nine years old.
Those who know me know how much I love Lara Ingalls Wilder books.
I first read her books when I was nine years old in Brazil and fell in love with Laura and her family.
I am reading the series with Brenda now and what could be cutier than a Little House Party?
After lots of research and pinning, I found some cute ideas that could be used for Brenda's party.
But first, the location. We could not do at our little courtyard/patio.
We chose to have the party at one of our city's parks. We paid a fee to reserve a nice area for the day.
It was wonderful, because it was a very calm park, with very few people besides us.

No meio de Junho nos fizemos uma festa para nossa filha Brenda que estava fazendo nove anos.
Aqueles que me conhecem sabem o quanto gosto dos livros da Laura Ingalls Wilder.
eu li os livros dela pela priomeira vez no Brasil quando tinha nove anos e me apaixonei pela Laura e a familia dela.
Estou lendo a serie de livros agora com a Brenda, e o que poderia ser mais bonitinho que uma festa baseada nos livros da Laura?
Depois de muita pesquisa e muito pinning, eu achei algumas  ideas bonitinhas que poderiam ser usadas na festa da Brenda.
Mas primeiro, o local. Nao poderiamos fazer a festa aqui no nosso quintalsinho da frente.
Escolhemos um dos parques da nossa cidade. pagamos uma taxa pra reservar um bom espaco.
Foi maravilhoso, porque era um parque calmo, com pouca gente alem de nos.

The clothesline. I made aprons and bonnets for all the girls. There are many tutorials for bonnets on Pinterest. When the girls arrived at the party, each got to choose a set.

O varal. Eu fiz aventais e toucas de sol para cada menina.  Tem muitos tutoriais par touca de sol no Pinterest. Quando as meninas chegavam na festa cada uma pode escolher um conjunto de avental e touca .

 

The girls are ready for the party!

As meninas estao prontas para a festa!

I made a quick review of the Little House books using the My First Little House books.

Eu fiz uma rapida revisao dos livros da Laura usando a serie ilustrada para criancas menores.

 

I told the girls how in pioneer times kids had many chores to do. We had laundry time pioneer style.

Eu disse para as meninas que no tempo dos pioneiros as criancas tinham muitas tarefas. Nos tivemos a hora de lavar roupa no estilo pioneiro.

Time to hang the clothes.

Hora de pendurar a roupa.

They all danced to Pa's fiddle music and shaked  Heavy whipping cream in baby food jars to turn it into butter.

Elas todas dancaram ao son de musica pioneira e sacudiram potinhos de creme para fazer manteiga.

Snack time. I served cornbread muffins (to eat with the butter they made), apples, strawberries, baby carrots and lemonade served in mason jars. The snack was inside a small basket (from the dollar tree). Each girl had a basket with a paper tag with their name on it. I first wanted to get little galvanized buckets , but I found that it was very expensive, like five dollars each. The baskets worked fine.

Hora do lanche. Eu servi paezinhos de milho (para comer com a manteiga que elas fizeram), macas, morangos, mini cenouras e limonada servida em potes para geleia.
O lanche estava dentro de uma cesta. Cada menina tinha uma cesta com uma etiqueta de papel pendurada com seu nome. Eu ia comprar baldinhos galvanizados mas estavam muito caros. As cestas funcionaram muito bem.

After snack they went to Indian camp. When living at the Indian Territory Laura and Mary went to the Indian camp with Pa. They found beads that the Indians had left behind. They took the beads home and made a necklace for their little sister.

Depois do lanche elas foram para o acampamento Indio. Quando moravam no territorio indio, Laura e Mary foram no acampamento indio com Pa. Elas acharam contas que os indios deixaram la. Elas levaram as contas para casa e fizeram um colar para a irmazinha delas.

 

 

They made the necklaces.

Elas fizeram os colares.

Now was time to make clothespin dolls. Each girl got a kit packed in a brown paper bag. I painted the dolls' head and added all they needed to make a doll. The bow closing the bag is a sample of thefabric of the doll dress, so the guests could pick the color they liked. I even painted two brunnete dolls, for the two brunnete guests.

Agora era a hora de fazer bonecas de pregador de roupa. Sao feitas de um tipo de pregador antigo que a gente acha nas lojas de artesanato. Cada menina ganhou um kit embalado num saco de papel. Eu pintei as cabecas das bonecas e juntei tudo o que elas precisavam para fazer uma bonequinha.
O laco fechando o saco de papel e uma mostra do pano do vestido da boneca, assim as convidadas poderiam escolher a cor que elas gostavam. Eu ate pintei duas das bonecas com cabelo castanho, para as duas convidadas de cabelo castanho.

 

The girls did a good job following the step by step instructions.

As meninas fizeram um bom trabalho seguindo as instrucoes passo a passo.

Two finished dolls.

Duas bonecas terminadas.

We had planned lots of pioneer games, but time passed too fast.
My husband did one of the games while I took one of the girls to the bathroom.
They played Hot Potato. (no picture)
But now it's cake time! Yes, I made the cake.

Nos tinhamos planejado muitos jogos do tempo dos pioneiros, mas o tempo passou muito rapido.
Meu marido fez um jogo enquanto eu  levei uma das meninas ao banheiro.
Eles jogaram batata quente. 
Mas agora 'e hora do bolo! Sim, eu fiz o bolo.

The cake topper doll and bunting.

A boneca e bandeirolas que enfeitavam o bolo.

 

After the cake was time for the party favors.
I saw many blogs with ideas for a mercantile - like the General stores from pioneer days.
My version was very simple. At a park you have to go simple. It was windy, and I had a hard time keeping the tablecloth on all  the tables.
We gave 8 cents to each girl so they could go shopping at the Mercantile. Each item was one cent.

Depois do bolo, foi a hora da mercearia - Como as lojas dos tempos pioneiros.
Minha versao foi muito simples. Em um  parque voce tem que fazer simples. Estava ventando, e eu tive muita dificuldade mantendo as toalhas em todas as mesas.
Nos demos oito centavos a cada menina para elas fazerem compras na mercearia. Each item was one cent.

This table was a little far from the others, after the clothesline. Perfect.

Esta mesa era um pouco longe das outras duas, depois do varal. Perfeito.

Oranges.

Laranjas.

 

Hard candy and Honey sticks.

Balas e mel.

The guests had fun shopping! They used the baskets they got before as shopping baskets and to take their stuff home.
The other Mercantile items - Taffy, hair ribbons, licorice and lavender sachets.

 As convidadas se divertiram fazendo compras. Elas usaram as cestas que ganharam antes como cestas de compras e para levar as coisas para casa.
Os outros itens da mercearia - balas, fitas para o cabelo, outo doce e saches de lavanda.

Brenda opened presents while the parents came to pick up their girls.
It was such a fun party, and I hear the guests loved it!
And my girl was so happy! It was a lot of work for me, planning and putting things together for this party, but was totally worth it!
I also made her costume. The apron was recycled from  her Alice costume I made a couple of years ago. Just had to add a ruffle to make it longer.

Brenda abriu os presentes enquanto os pais vinham buscar as meninas.
Foi uma festa divertida, e ouvi falar que as convidadas amaram!
E minha menina estava tao feliz! Foi muito trabalho para mim, planejando e fazendo as coisas para esta festa, mas totalmente valeu a pena!
Eu tambem fiz a fantasia dela. O avental foi reciclado da fantasia da Alice que fiz uns dois anos atras.
Eu so tive que por um babado para ficar mais comprido.


Have a good week!

Ana Paula.

Ivy Letter Topiary

Hi!
I wanted to make a big initial  letter to display on a shelf , and when I found this cool idea
on  Family Fun magazine, I  decided to give it a try.
Great gardening craft to make with kids!

My problem was to find a rectangular pot that fitted inside a pretty container. Good luck on that!
So, I got two small ivy plants on two pots,and put inside a loaf bread pan as you see above.
When it is on the shelf, nobody will see inside, right?
I made the letter using sticks and twine. The magazine asked for 12-gauge covered floral wire, but the sticks worked better for me.
Now I need to be patient and wait the ivy grow and cover the letter. As it grows, I will tie it on the sticks.

Let me tell you, next time I will start with longer ivy plants. :)

If you don't have the magazine and want to make it, you can find the directions at the Family Fun website.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

Pom-pom Spring chicks on recycled mini pots

Hello!
I love Spring! Like many moms do, I try to teach my child about the wonder of planting seeds.
Last  year we got some cute polka doted  egg mini pots with seeds at Target's dollar section.
The seeds were great : daisies, zinnias and sunflowers. The daisies survived the snails...In a couple of weeks or so I will have daisy flowers  in my little garden patch.
I got the same kind of seeds this year. Looking good! The little plants are getting bigger and bigger now.

I saved the empty little pots from last year.
Here what I made: a little spring craft ... pom-pom chicks!

I used Bernat Sofiee Baby yarn, but any baby yarn will do.
I made two different sizes of pom-poms using Clover pom-pom maker from Joann.
The package includes two sizes: 1-3/8'' and 1-5/8''.

Of course you can make pom-poms the old fashioned way...will work the same.
I used beads for the eyes and felt for the beak.(just cut a little diamond shape on orange felt, fold in half and tuck in place with a little dot of glue).
Now, place the little guys on the egg pots, and you are done! 
This is a great spring craft to do with the kids.
 Adult supervision always!
 A cute addition to your spring / Easter decor.

I am linking to  these great parties:
                                                                

A Christmas update and a blog party!

Hello!

I know it is the end of January, but I forgot to show off this little elf that I made with the kids at my daughter's class.
I got the idea here . I made some changes to use what I had on hand.
I had wood beads with only one hole. So, I made the hat complete with jingle bell and hanger and glued on the bead.  I made little kits for the kids using  ziploc bags. They had the heads, pipe cleaners, pony beads, a big wooden bead for the body and a pre cut felt scarf.
They only had to thread the beads, fold the ends of the pipe cleaners and put the scarf on the little guy.
The kids followed the directions pretty well. We had other Moms helping at the class. The kids loved it!

Anyways, no more Christmas for now. Now the blog party!
SJ, at The Homemaker on a dime is hosting a great party to help you to get more followers and make new friends. She is a pretty cool gal, and very clever. I can say that because I know her personally. :)
Please check it out.






Thanks for stopping by.

Ana Paula