Winnie the Pooh Party–Activities and Decorations

We threw Silas a “Winnie-the-Pooh” themed birthday party on Labor Day. I knew that people would have other plans, but it was the only day that worked. Silas’ actual birthday is next weekend, but we have our church retreat then, and the following weekend is only a week before my due date, which seemed like a bad idea. Several of Silas’ grandparents (and one great-grandparent) came to the party, as did his godparents and their daughter, and a friend from church. I felt a little silly throwing a Winnie-the-Pooh party for a group that was mostly grown-ups, but I think everyone had fun.

Because Silas is so young, I didn’t really want to have many structured activities. This is just a nice way of saying that he rarely does what I tell him to anyway, so why look for trouble? 😉 Instead, I set up areas to explore.

First, we got about a dozen blue helium balloons and stuck them all over the yard. Kids + balloons = win.

One young guest asked why all the balloons were blue, so I pointed out that Pooh uses a blue balloon to raid the bees’ honey tree. She seemed skeptical, but accepted it.

JC took a lot of the wood that came down in the derecho and built an Eeyore house. I guess that’s one good thing we got from that storm. He used a combination of zip ties and string to hold the whole thing together.

Luckily, it’s sturdier than it looks…

Another station I set up was a washtub with sudsy water, a clothesline, and a few cloths to scrub around in the bubbles. This was inspired by the story where Kanga forcibly bathes Piglet, who is posing as Roo.

One activity that I planned, but didn’t act on, was a “search for Small,” inspired by the story where Rabbit organizes a search for his friend-and-relation, Small, who is a beetle. This was my sister’s idea, and a pretty neat one. I found a little wind-up beetle, and was going to have the kids play hot-and-cold with it (where one kid would hide it and then everyone else would try to find it), but I think that Silas and his friend from church are just too young for this kind of game. I originally thought we’d have a few more kids in the four- and five-year-old range, who could handle it, and that the two-year-olds would enjoy running around and following along in the game.

Silas has six grandparents, five great-grandparents, and around a dozen aunts and uncles. He’s also the first grandkid on both sides, and the only one on my side. This kid will never hurt for presents. I asked guests to bring a book that they had enjoyed, to do a book swap in lieu of presents or party favors. I think this is a tradition I’d like to continue for my children’s birthdays.

An unplanned activity, but one that ended up being very popular, was the play kitchen my mom and stepdad got for Silas (see what I mean about the grandparents?). All of the children really enjoyed “cooking” together. I’m going to assume they were making a Smackrel of Something.

I can safely say that a good time was had by all. Everyone went home happily tired, and all that was left was half a honey cake and the balloons bobbing in the gloaming.