Teddy Bear Picnic

We don't do "friend" birthday parties every year for the kids, but Whitney started planning about two months ago for her big day, so we had quite the shindig here at our house.  The bad part about being the hostess is that I slack on my photography duties.  So, the pictures are limited, but I still wanted to document the fun.

She wanted a teddy bear party.  I remembered my mom doing "Teddy Bear Picnics" with her kindergarten classes a few years back, so we went with that theme. 

She invited several of her friends and they all brought a favorite stuffed animal along.  We started off just playing in the backyard while we waited for everyone to arrive.  Then we went inside to make teddy bear pizzas.

I bought canned biscuits and had these "bodies" ready along with toppings so each child could make their own pizza.  I made sure to get sliced olives and mini pepperonis, thinking that they could use them to make eyes, ears, and paws...but they didn't really go for that.  Six year olds care more about how it's going to taste than the aesthetics of the pizza.

While the pizzas were baking, Andrew was in charge of leading them in a Teddy Bear Treasure Hunt.  He came up with the clues and hid the prizes.  The first prize was a bucket for each child.  They put the rest of the prizes in the buckets and these were their goody bags to take home.

Next up was one of Whit's ideas:  Pin the nose on the bear.

It must have been harder than it sounded because several of the noses missed the bear completely and landed on the wall of the shed.  :)

While the kids were enjoying their pizza,

I filled in certificates for the teddy bear contest

(another one of Whit's ideas.)

Everyone got to show us their bear,

received an award,

and got to pick a prize.

Then we got to eat Teddy Bear birthday cake.  I prefer to just buy my cakes, but Whit requested a homemade one.  Yikes. I used my springform pans for the first time. (They were a wedding gift--almost 13 years ago!)  It is obviously not professional, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

And Whit was, too.

That's what matters.

She got some awesome gifts.

It was like Christmas all over again.

One of her favorites:

This guitar with headset microphone.

Her and Brandon have decided to start a band.

We had about ten minutes left by this point and Whitney organized a game of "Cub, cub, bear."

She is quite the little party planner.

We had a blast.

And I was completely exhausted by the end.

Before she went to bed, she was already mulling over ideas for her 7th birthday party.  

I told her she might need to save them for her 8th.