In our home, on this birthday morning, the birthday child gets dressed and heads right over to the dining room. The birthday ring, birthday crown, and a birthday gift awaits him there. The birthday boy gets to don his crown as we sing to him. After blowing out the candles, he gets his gift and may enjoy it while breakfast is being made. (This is all from January 1st. Never mind that I’m just getting around to posting it twenty days later.)
I did get some funny looks when I told others that my plans were to have my New Year’s day baby’s birthday in a local wooded park. Shouldn’t it be cold?! Well, this is Houston, so maybe not. We’ll see. Somehow, everything fell into place and the weather was gorgeous. How could we honestly have a gnome party without some woods to romp around in?
The first thing that all the kids wanted to do was eat. So, we went ahead and sang to Ollie and passed out the ‘mushrooms’ (pumpkin muffin cake with white icing and red dots) for everyone to enjoy. I do think that Ollie enjoyed them most of all…
After cupcakes and snacks, the kids all volunteered to help the gnomes with their winter work by making pinecone bird-feeders. I pre-tied each pinecone with some yarn for easy hanging before the party. Using wooden craft sticks, each child was able to slather their pinecone with peanut butter before rolling it in birdseed. Then they were placed in a zip-loc baggie for safe keeping until they got home.
Once their hard work was done, each child received their honorary gnome hat and beard before setting off for a nature walk. I stamped a little muslin pouch for each of them to carry their treasures in, and gave them a few extra treasures along the way (a tiny gnome, colored glass stones, and an acorn necklace).
My mom crocheted some adorable acorn necklaces for each of the children to get during the nature walk. I swiped an extra one for myself!
Happy, happy birthday to my youngest little gnome.
