K is obsessed with pioneers and life in the 1800's. She's read through most of the Little House on the Prairie series, and took particular interest in all the open-air history museums we visited this past summer in Europe. K requested a "Pioneer Party" for her birthday this year.
I'm not sure what possessed me, but in the weeks prior to the party I thought it a fine time to teach little K to sew. She'd been begging to learn how to use my sewing machine for years, so together we made 10 aprons, so each girl could choose an apron to wear for the party and take home. I only had to buy a couple yards of fabric, because I had plenty on hand from previous, long-ago sewing projects. It was good to make a dent in my stash, and also fun to see those prints again that I had used 13 years ago to make baby clothes, bibs, and bedding with. In the process of making these aprons K also learned how to use an iron, and somehow we managed to break my old sewing machine (thankfully on the LAST apron). Now I need to decide if I should put $200.00 into repairing it, or just get a new modern machine that has dozens of fancy stitches and is much easier to use.
K's best friend and her dad also helped prep for the party by spending an afternoon bringing K's idea of a covered wagon to life.
Throughout the room I set up "stations" with various toys and crafts. Here we have wood puzzles, building blocks, marble maze blocks, wood colored pencils and paper, and at the last minute K added buttons that she'd been collecting, to which she'll add string to make "button strings." We'll get rid of that 20th century plastic bag!
More wooden toys and puzzles. The wooden "village" is from Germany and is probably 60 years old. The ball-in-cup game K bought at an open air history museum in Denmark this past summer.
Toss the ring onto the bottles.
As the girls arrived they settled in to an old-fashioned game of marbles.
Many hands helped with braiding of the hair for the rag dolls.
I thought wide-woven cloth would be good for cross stitching, but rigid mesh would have been better for these beginners. They tended to pull the stitches too tight, bunching the fabric.
My mom brought an old fashioned apple peeler-slicer which all the girls had a turn at using. We made quick work of about a dozen Honeycrisp apples picked fresh from my beloved tree out back.
I poured cream into canning jars with lids screwed on tightly, and the girls shook them (and danced with them) until the cream became butter.
They had cider to drink out of canning jars as well. Different colored yarns tied onto the jars helped them identify their own.
Instead of a traditional cake, we had snacks and pastry. Homemade applesauce, sliced apples, pumpkin bread, apple turnovers, apple cranberry gallette, coffee cake, and bread to go with that fresh butter.
I found this great prairie dress for myself at a thrift store for $3.99. Eight girls was the perfect number for this little party.
We had an outdoor egg hunt toward the end of the party, while waiting for parents to come pick up their girls. It was a great party and Little K was thoroughly delighted.
We've had fun at other events leading up to this, such as this 