A Molly Goose Soiree

*Okay, so I haven't updated in forever. But that means that this one is gonna be a mile long, so there!*

Well, the time has come for us to have a THREE YEAR OLD in the family!  Molls turned 3 on a Saturday this year and had lots of fun doing it!  We started the day with some gifts and a special birthday breakfast at Marietta Diner complete with a candled pancake (if that's a thing).  Amazing how one day you just look three:

See what I mean?:

(Birthday outfit courtesy of her sweet friend, Ella Bella.)

After breakfast, a bit of playing, some gift opening, and a good nap, it was time to par-tay...

For quite some time Molly has been asking for a Mother Goose birthday party.  She's really into nursery rhymes...like LOVES them.  Then for a bit she thought about having a Blue's Clues birthday and then she went back again to Mother Goose (maybe next year, Blue!).  Well, as expected, I didn't have quite the time to plan things as thoroughly or as early as I have in the past but our party guests took the theme over the top all by themselves!

Our Cast of Characters:

Lemme break it down for you.  First we have Mother Goose herself, holding one of her works (and a duster, oddly enough):

And here's MG with her father, Old King Cole.  He's a merry old soul and would have liked nothing more than to be decked out in some steampunkery getup but alas, this is all I could come up with on the fly ("the fly" being 5 minutes before party time).  In hindsight, that red curtain in the background would've been perfect as a makeshift kingly cape...next time.

Then we have Sammy as "The Butcher", Jonah as "The Baker", and Marci as "The Candlestick Maker".  I'm loving the accessories...Sammy has a lovely string of sausages around his neck and of course a knife tucked by his butcher apron.  Jonah's wielding a rolling pin in addition to his hat and apron.  And Marci, who looks like she just stepped out of a time machine, has a lovely courting candle holder and a sweet little basket of candle remnants, too:

Ah, and here we have two peas in a pod, Jack & Jill:

Jack is dutifully carrying his pail for water-fetching.  Get a load of that hat feather and contact paper lederhosen (I must say I would've spelled it leiderhausen...you learn something new everyday)!  LOVE!  And Jill is donning a vintage Roach girl dress and darling braids.

And then we have Twinkle.  You know, the Little Star?  A stellar costume if you ask me.

And finally here's Peter Peter and his well-kept wife.  I just realized I am assuming my audience knows these rhymes.  But in case you've forgotten...

Peter Peter, pumpkin eater

Had a wife and couldn't keep her

Put her in a pumpkin shell

And there he kept her very well!

B-t-dubbs, these individuals are portraying fictional characters.  Any resemblance to the rhyme is purely coincidental.

You may spy another pair of legs behind Peter and his wife.  That's Mary and her little lamb.  We might see her appear in a later picture:):

What about you, Ashleigh?--you may be asking in your head.  Well, I had visions of a gypsy-esque take on the "fine lady upon a white horse" you know, at Banbury Cross?  I got as far as the rings on my fingers and stopped...didn't even make it to bells on my toes.  This was in the same five minutes where I cut a King Cole crown out of contact paper...c'est la vie!

The Mother Goose menu was sandwiches and fixins.  There were "this little piggy had roast beef sandwiches" and "this little piggy had none (chicken and turkey) sandwiches" which were make-it-yourself on "hot cross buns" with a "cheese stands alone" tray.

There was a "mary mary quite contrary" garden vegetable tray with Little Miss Muffet's "curds and whey" dip (guarded by the spider himself).  There were "humpty dumpty stuffed eggs" and "peter piper's pickles and peppers"...

Some "cow's in the corn salad" (from little boy blue, "the sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn") and "a tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket of chips":

Molly requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles for her cake.  I translated that into Baa, Baa Black Sheep:

We also had "over-the-moon cow patties" (of hey diddle diddle fame) and "little boy blue haystacks" (under which he fell fast asleep):

For decor I was going to do a cutout of Humpty on a wall but then I had the idea of marrying decor and entertainment and making a pinata instead, especially since an egg is the easiest shape to make in the world of pinatas (sorry, don't know how to get the tilde over the "n").  We started on Wednesday (the same day I started painting my kitchen as you'll notice in the background) so we only had time for three layers.  Molly had a grand time helping with her first paper mache (again with the special characters!) project (I'm sure there are many more in our future).

Here she is smoothing out the paste in her hospital gown:

And placing it, just so, on the balloon: 

His loop fell out when I went to paint him on the day of the party so we left him sitting in a tub on the "grown ups" table instead:

I had planned to go to the library to check out some nursery rhyme books but once I started looking on our own shelves I was amazed at how many we already had so I pulled those for table decor.  

We had three kids tables.  Each with a book and a puppet.  Here's the Jack and Jill table:

The Rub-a-Dub-Dub table:

And the Mother Goose and Mary table.  See, told you she'd show up later...even if it is sans lamb.:

Aunt Karma and Aunt Kara:

MiMi, Pop, and Daddy:

We had a late joiner of the party:

 Funny, Jack is aptly named for a Mother Goose party, what with Jack Sprat, Jack be nimble, Jack and Jill, Little Jack Horner, but I decided to forgo the obvious and use Little Boy Blue (after Kara's suggestion) for simplicity.  Unfortunately, there is no picture of him under the haystack fast asleep.

After supper it was time for a costume change into her Bo Peep attire.  Best pic I got (we forgot the bonnet):

Here was the dilemma:

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them.

She left them alone but they haven't come home so now it's your job to find them.  (yes, I realized I rhymed find with find. Oh well:)

I put Ryan in charge of this game and he made and hid cute little colored sheep cards for everyone to hunt.  Here's Uncle Ryan explaining the sheep hunt:

Let the hunting begin:

Little Bo and Pop (and Gertie):

Then it was time to do the Humpty-hump (remember that song fellow '90s kids?).  Here's our egg friend pre-beating (that's an egg pun there).  Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:

That was almost everybody...here's everybody:

Molly's first pinata! (It was not traumatic.  I thought it might be.):

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall  was taken out by seven kiddos:

Jill, a.k.a. Sophi, gives a thumbs up for the loot:

Twinkle, twinkle left her star:

And Pop, he went and found it:

Here's our big girl:

Let them eat cake.  I love those little chocolate fingers, those sweet gray-blue eyes and those twirly little pigtails.  I could eat her up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Isn't she yummy?

Sadie came down to join the party and was welcomed with open arms by the world's biggest dog lover:

Here's Molly gingerly examining her new necklaces made by MiMi.:

Molly sent her guests away with pails (Jack and Jill) filled with Humpty Dumpty silly putty, Do you know the muffin man muffins, rub-a-dub-dub washcloths, and some wheels on the bus trail mix:

It was a sweet time of celebration with family and we have a new little three year old to show for it!  And what a beautiful, smart, tender little thing she is.  Happy Birthday, Molly "Mother Goose" Sunshine!