Daphne's Mo Willems Birthday Party

On June 5, Daphne turned 4 years old!  I can't believe how much she has matured in the past few months and while in many ways it is so nice (way less tantrums, she can buckle herself into her carseat, etc...), it has also been so sad to me to see her completely leave the toddler years behind.  What a wonderful time she and I had together.

The morning of her birthday she came out in utter amazement to see streamers from the ceiling and a horse in the living room!  (Least you think we are major spoilers, that horse was hand-me-downed from Marie, who got it from Nellie, who got it from a neighbor!)

As she has been hugely into bugs for months, she was also gifted with a bug catcher which she immediately put to use, collecting about 12 rollie pollies in a matter of minutes!

Burke also had been hard at work that week, after the girls went to sleep, making Daphne a sandbox out in a shady corner of the garden.  Really, the sandbox was a bit of a selfish gift as I knew that it would serve as a great distractor while I weeded and watered the garden during the summer.  Also, every time we go to Alan and Marie's house, Daphne and her cousins are magnetized to their giant sandbox out back.  She loved it and the next day at her birthday party, it was a huge hit with all the kids too.  The only problem we've run into with the sandbox is that every.single.time. kids come over to play and get in it, they immediately start bailing the sand out and throwing it all around the garden.  Drives me nuts!  

And gifts for Daphne would not be complete without a set of books (the "Bear and Friends" series).  She is our voracious little reader.  Kellie also sent Daphne a letter/postcard writing kit.  I would have never picked it out for her myself, simply because I would have thought she was too young for it, but I cannot tell you how enamored she has been with that letter set.  She spent a good two hours at the table "writing letters" and carefully placing stamp stickers on each love note.  Such a great gift - thanks again Kellie!

That night, we had a coupon for a free birthday meal at Wingers, so we went out to eat as a family.  Daphne thought the popcorn appetizer was the greatest thing ever.  Give that girl a fizzy pop and a few fries and she is on Cloud 9.  It was a pretty chill day as we knew the next day would be a bit nuts with her cousin party.

A couple of months ago I had asked Daphne what kind of party she wanted to have.  She enthusiastically responded, "A Piggy and Gerald Party!"  For those of you unfamiliar with the Piggie and Elephant books by the brilliant Mo Willems, you absolutely MUST look them up.  They are one of those wonderfully unique children's book series I have come across that are entertaining for both parents and kids and we read A LOT at this house.  Mo Willems has also created the sassy Pigeon and Ducking characters in the "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" series and the adorable stories of himself and his daughter Trixie in the "Knuffle Bunny" series among several other humorous books such as, "Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs" and "The Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed".  With so many fun characters and books, we decided that we would do an entire Mo Willems themed party and I had so much fun getting things ready for an afternoon party with Daphne's best friends...her cousins!

We went to the library and checked out every Mo Willems book we could get our hands on.

Next, I stayed up late a couple of nights listening to general conference talks while painting giant pictures of Piggie and Gerald and the Pigeon and Duckling onto the cardboard box that our card table had come in (so glad I hung on to that!) and turning it into a giant book.

I also took a cardboard diaper box and with Daphne's help, I painted the outside and cut holes to make a Duckling Cookie Toss and Pigeon Hot Dog Throw (which are food items these characters love in the books).  The hot dogs and cookies actually took forever to make because I couldn't get them weighted right.  I finally had to hot glue popsicle sticks inside of them to give them enough weight that they would go where you threw them.  Then I made a back side and laminated them so they would last longer.

The day of the party we read, "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog" and then ate a BBQ lunch with hot dogs for the kids and Piggie cupcakes instead of cake.

Next we read, "The Duckling Gets a Cookie" and then played the Hot Dog/Cookie Toss game.  I was going to have the kids play duck-duck-pigeon and pin the tail on Piggie, but in the end, they were all having so much fun playing that I just read one of the Piggie and Elephant books and called it good.

It was super low key and I think everyone had a great time.  Parties are so much fun for us to host, especially when we can be out on a gorgeous day enjoying good food and great company!