I threw this Woodland-themed birthday party for my 4 year old daughter back in January and never posted the details. So here they are!

It all starts with the invitations, of course. Lucy and I decided to make them all different and we had a lot of fun doing it! Lucy used colored pencils, while I prefer ink pen and watercolor. They were very cute and featured different woodland creatures.

I decorated the house with these birch “trees” which were so easy! I used a roll of white paper that I cut to the length of the wall space, then cut vertically into about four pieces of varying widths. Using vine charcoal I just made alternating lines to give them a birch feel. I hung a large branch feom the ceiling using fishing line and on the branches I hot-glued pine cones and paper leaves. The paper leaves I cut from old paper grocery bags, dyed in water with green food coloring and then dried on a cookie sheet in a 200-degree oven. I made extra leaves to use as name tags for goodie bags.

The chocolate “stump” cake was four layers of yellow cake with a dark chocolate frosting. I used a fork to create the “rings” of the tree and covered the outside of the cake with chocolate “bark.” I made the bark by melting seminsweet chocolate in a couple Tablespoons of heavy cream then spreading the chocolate on a piece of parchment, covering with another piece of parchment, rolling up, and freezing. Once frozen, it unrolled to create broken pieces of slightly curved chocolate. 

For snacks we had things like nuts and berries (PB&J,) fruit, veggies, seeds, pretzel “sticks,” and “pond punch,” which I made using frozen blueberries, lemonade, and sprite. It was delicious!

I made the garland with twine and leftover pine cones and paper leaves and later after this pic was taken, I clothes-pinned  pictures of the birthday girl to the garland. Above, you can see the banner I painted. I wanted something we could re-use, so instead of “happy birthday” I wrote, “Wild and Free.” It now hangs in her bedroom! 

This is what the goodie bags looked like on the outside…

Inside was:

1. A unique, wood-burned necklace made from a slice of birch branch and twine. (I really am having a love affair with my wood burning tool!)

2. Trail Mix, made by Lucy. 

3. “Pixie Dust,” made by Lucy.

4. A plastic woodland creature ring from the party store.

Finally, we had a few party activities including Woodland Bingo, a scavenger hunt, and name that animal baby. Lucy organized all of this and also set up a play area for the littlest party-goers featuring a teepee, a fake fire pit, a log for sitting, and all the woodland stuffies she could find. 

This party was a huge hit and it was so easy to put together, mostly because my daughter did half of the work! We had a lot of fun planning it together, and the guests had a great time.