So here's the recount of the party. Tess wore a dress that my mom made for us when we were little. I think this dress dawned the stage of a 4H performance as well as an award winning appearance in the Chicken Show Parade. Likewise, my dress was made by my mom for a musical I was in, in 8th grade...still fit (sorta)! The bonnet that I am wearing belonged to my Grandma, who recently passed away.
Tess' friends came dressed in prairie costumes and we made cornhusk dolls and 'Sunbonnet Sue' quilt squares (using glue instead of stitching.) Here is the link to the corn husk doll instructions and here is the link to the Sunbonnet Sue pattern. (I cut one apart and traced it on cardboard to make a few sets of traceable pieces for the girls to use.)
The party was as authentic as I could make it. We got the Little House Cookbook and I made "Laura's Wedding Cake" from the recipe in the book. I also made the homemade frosting recipe for this book. We made homemade ice-cream (which I admit I made with an ice cream maker rather than salt and ice in a bucket). I also made lemonade using a Little House recipe - just sugar and lemons! The cake was a heavy cake - like pound cake. And the frosting tasted much like the powdered sugar it was mostly made from. The girls loved the ice-cream and, inmost cases, appreciated the cake. :) The baking of the cake took a lot of time, so the decorating of the cake took a back seat.
After the party was the requested birthday dinner. Still staying with the theme, I made biscuits from scratch using the recipe from the book. (This took a lot of prior planning for the dough to raise and to eat the bacon for the drippings I needed.) Titus tried his hand at rolling out a biscuit too. Turns out the time was worth it. They were yummy!
As with any child's birthday the theme was great fun - and so was the present opening. Here are a few shots from the party and later that night:
This was a really fun party to plan and participate in. Just right for our 'little' girl. We are so amazed at her growing personality, and helpful heart. What a gem, this one. What a blessing.
Happy Birthday Tessie!
PS - My how I earned more respect for our pioneer sisters! What a full time job just getting a meal on the table was! And my forearms from stirring and whipping egg whites...ouch! (In the interest of full disclosure - I did resort to a mixer after a few minutes of whipping!) It sure was a fun experience though, especially knowing how the recipes fit into the story of the books.
