Goodnight Moon Birthday Party

This was my all-time favorite birthday party theme!  Goodnight Moon is Heidi's favorite book and inspired this book themed birthday party.

It was SO EASY to take all the elements of the book and throw an awesome 2nd birthday party for my Heidi-loo-who.  She absolutely LOVED it, and so did I!

• Head over to my family blog for more pics of the birthday girl and guests.  
  
• Read on for the full details in the decor, food & activities :)

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Argh!  At the last minute I forgot to add the clothes drying rack and mittens.  imagine:
"And a pair of mittens".


Present, but not pictured:
And a comb and a brush

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Party Details:

TABLE/ BED

• I used two striped tablecloths (that I already had) to make my table into the bed. 
• I laid the blue pillow against the "headboard" window and tucked in Heidi's first gift, the Goodnight Moon bunny, which is stuffed with the blanket that I folded at the end of the bed. (affiliate link to purchase bunny/blanket is -->)
• For the curtains, I intended to simply hang yellow and green crepe paper, but due to Easter weekend, ALL of the yellow crepe paper was sold out in FOUR stores.  So I gave up and went with Plan B, which I think was better anyway!  I split a yellow plastic table cloth in half, taped it to the top window frame and taped strips of green crepe paper to the table cloth.  I tied it back with a little crepe paper and my husband declared "I like those, let's leave them up for awhile".  Classy, no.  Bright & cheery, you betcha!
• The red balloon was a bit of a mistake.  My local store was out of plain red balloons and filled the foil stars without asking me.  Thank goodness the star shaped went with the theme and I was able to roll with it :)
• For the stars, I used various star die-cuts.  Check out a scrapbook store or simply cut your own.  My dear Father-in-Law stuck them all on the window and hung them from the ceiling for me.  That'll teach him to show up early ;)
• The "Quiet old lady" was simply a stuffed bunny on a kids rocking chair, holding some knitting that I never got around to finishing.
• My FAVORITE PAGE in the book is the "Goodnight nobody", so I simply took the picture out of one of my frames and moved it closer to the tablescape.  
• My talented husband used a large green foam board that we had on hand and using a grid technique, copied an enlargement of the cow jumping over the moon illustration.  He did a great (and speedy) job!  My one regret, is not taking the time to make a fanciful yellow border for the picture out of yellow cardstock.  

FOOD & DISPLAY

• "Three little bears sitting on chairs" were teddy grahams!  I also had out some Annie's cheddar bunnies trail mix for some pre-party snacking.
• In honor of the bunny, I served chicken salad in croissant roll carrots (tutorial is in the works.  Please sign-up for emails to be notified.)
• I also made personal pan pizzas and used pepperoni and red peppers to make clock faces.  Though not photogenic, they were tasty!
• The bowl full of mush was a Lemon Trifle, adapted from a Pampered Chef recipe.  Email me for the recipe.  I topped it with blue crystals and a lemon slice for a moon.  Next time I would use food coloring in the top layer of cool whip to make it a darker sky.  However it was DELICIOUS and since the filling is lemon pudding/ THRIVE sour cream/ cool whip, I didn't need to bother with ice cream. 
• I used two knitting needles and scraps of paper from the books used for the large banners to make a tiny pendant birthday banner.
• I made the childrens' book banners out of damaged books.  I LOVE them and plan on rehanging them in our play room.  Tutorial for that is also in the works :)

Activities:

• I try to follow the rule, only invite as many friends as their age.  So, since Heidi turned 2, she had her sister and our friend Sloane over.  It was perfect!  We also had 2 sets of grandparents, a great grandma, an Uncle, an Uncle's girlfriend/mom of Sloane, and our dear pseudo-family member/ Sunday School teacher.  It was crowded, but not crazy and the festivities were over in about an hour... which is really all the Birthday girl (and her mama) can handle.
• I brought up our art table/ picnic table and I set-out some open invitation activites for the kids, which was a nice grounding space for them (and you know, distracted them for about 10 seconds).  It included:
• Goodnight Moon coloring pages & crayons
• Punching Balloons and matching candy bracelets
• "Sand" sifter.  I cut out pictures from the book (found here) and taped them to the bottom of trays and covered them with cornmeal.  The girls had fun uncovering the shapes... and making a mess!

That's a wrap!  What is your all-time favorite party theme? 

Please share any Goodnight Moon pics in the links or email them to me :)