Party: Scarlett's Woodland Picnic Birthday (Printables)

When I was thinking about Scarlett's birthday party this year I felt strongly about one thing: I wanted to have all the food prepped and ready about fifteen minutes before my guests arrived so I could wipe the sweat from my brow, take a deep breath, and just enjoy the party!

As much as I loved playing hostess it seems that often the event wraps up and I feel like I spent more time with food and clearing than with my guests. I think it's always the predicament of the hosts. It's an art to be sure to throw a great party with tasty food and interesting details and have some great, full-length conversations with your guests too. I can think of some fun ways (I've read, and seen, and tried) to do this and most of them involve not cooking everything yourself. I'm learning...

So Scarlett's party this year was designed to be casual: I invited our family to a Woodland Picnic. A pack-your-own picnic to be specific. And it worked perfectly! It was such a fun way to throw a party!

I was, in fact, able to have everything prepackaged and ready to go a few minutes before start time (which also gave me time to take pictures of Audrey and Scarlett in the wrap skirt and apron wrap dress I'd made for the occasion) and the guests had the fun of picking, choosing and packing from a spread of picnic foods.

The only thing that wasn't as perfect as the idea was the weather. That's how it goes in the Fall. It was warm enough to pack a picnic outdoors but not warm enough to sit and eat it there! So even though I'd gathered wood stumps for stools and made an over sized picnic blanket (imagine how fun that would have been!), this picnic was eaten indoors! Oh well. We all still had a great time.

Click to read all the details about the food, favors, printables and a surprise visitor!

This Woodland Picnic party had some hallmarks of a classic picnic including plenty of red and white gingham. This graphic print just doesn't get old for me! I loved combining it with some organic elements for this party including a faux bois tablecloth from Scarlett's first birthday, these great banana leaf individual picnic baskets (UPDATE: these baskets are no longer available, but these wicker baskets with handles would be cute) and a natural wood bowl for holding napkin and fork bundles. I used waffle dishtowels purchased from Target and bamboo forks inscribed with "Enjoy!" in red marker.

It was a lot of fun coming up with ways to package the menu. I bought a lot of supplies including kraft boxes, glassine bags, gingham fabric tape, and gingham cupcake wrappers from Jilly Bean Kids. Then it was a matter of figuring out what food went best with the supplies! I opted for lined kraft boxes topped with a round sticker for the Caprese Salad,...

...white round hot/cold containers purchased from this Etsy shop for the traditional three-bean salad (I actually purchased and spruced up with some fresh parsley),...

(I loved making the labels for these with a 3.5" round punch and the printables I designed! So many possibilities for this type of packaging...)

...glassine bags and my own gingham DIY washi tape for potato chips...

and larger glassine bags tied with twine and a hang tag to distinguish the...

...Muffaleta sandwiches (recipe here) for adults...

...from the PB&J sandwiches for the kids. (Although I certainly didn't mind if the adults took the PB&J or vice versa!)

Instead of birthday cake I served a more "picnic" dessert: chocolate marshmallow cake I cut into squares, nestled in gingham cupcake liners, and stacked on a natural wood round cutting board atop an enamel cake stand I had from Audrey's birthday.

I wanted my picnickers to be able to eat the cake without a plate and fork. I topped the stack of desserts with a gingham and floral mini bunting with number "3" to celebrate Scarlett.

Water bottles and cane sugar sodas were set out on stumps for guests to grab after their baskets were packed.

 (you have to indulge at a party and nothing beats the real thing--cane sugar soda!)

I set up an eating table with faux bois runner I sewed, ...

...some beautiful over sized yarn pompom "flowers" displayed in glass spice jars (sea salt and peppercorns purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond I believe), and...

...candy, of course. Glassine favor bags filled with white gumballs for everyone and for more immediate snacking, an assortment of old fashioned candies in the right colors: mustard yellow and brown!

I also made something else for my nieces and nephews: faux bois mini clipboards with a stack of patterned paper and a twig crayon for doodling. I made the clipboards with my own faux bois paper (part of the printables for this party) referencing a how-to in this gorgeous book and added glass magnets with their initials on the clip. The magnets were a great find in the Michael's clearance section.

The clipboards were a big hit! I threw some stickers in the mix too and all the young guests were entertained.

Until the real entertainment arrived:

Cute Scarlett had been telling me for months that she wanted various fictional characters to come to her birthday. Winnie the Pooh and Smokey the Bear were frequent mentions. I wasn't keen on a lot of Winnie the Pooh images at her party and learned the rigors of the Smokey the Bear brand management (good for the Forest Service but I'm sad to learn Smokey doesn't make many appearances these days!), so having him visit wasn't possible. Luckily I found the perfect brown bear locally. Big and furry but still friendly, though Scarlett wasn't so sure at first! He brought Scarlett a woodland owl, red balloons for all the kids, and gave out big hugs. 

It was a fun picnic birthday party!

(If you are interested in the printables I designed for this party they are available in my Etsy shop at 50% through November 30th 2011. Use the code PRINTABLES50.)