A Party for Monkey

Monkey's birthday was at the end of November, and due to holidays, the party was scheduled for the start of December.

 Then we *thought* we had the chicken pox, but it turned out to be a contagious fever paired with rashes from a new detergent.  But at any rate, due to illness we postponed the party to the start of January.

Last weekend I finally got to do Monkey's Madeline party!!  Here's the rundown:

As each girl arrived she got a capelet and hairbow from the Boutique.

Once dressed they sat down to color pictures to put in the Louvre Museum, while we waited for the other girls to arrive.  The pictures were an assortment of Madeline images and famous paintings (with the emphasis on french, or that are on display at the Louvre).

Once they'd all arrived and gotten dressed we lined up in "two straight lines"
 (Miss Clavel must have really had those girls TRAINED, because straight lines are NOT easy)
and walked to the "museum" and admired the artwork that they'd done.

Then we all settled down and I (dressed as Miss Clavel, btw) read "Madeline" to them at the "bookstore." 

After we'd read the book we went to the Eiffle Tower and they each got to take a turn playing mini-golf.  I didn't get any pictures of them playing, but it was a hit : ) 
Here's a picture of the Eiffle tower that I made.

Next we went to the Flower Shop.  Marie, the flower shop lady, helped them assemble their bouquets.  They were so cute!  I'd made a simple striped awning, and we used twinkle lights, and silk flowers in mason jars.  The girls got to pick a few flowers, and we taped them with colored electrical tape.

After they had made their bouquets we played musical chairs...set to the Madeline soundtrack.

Monkey had her meltdown moment when she was eliminated.  She'd been pretty clingy at times during the party, and I think it was all just too overwhelming for her. 
Thankfully my SIL took Monkey and calmed her down while I got out the food.

Then we dined at the "Patisserie."  We served Chicken salad on Croissants (as well as croissants with just butter), grapes, cheese, and lemonade with strawberry ice cubes.

(table decor on the card table)

And then cake and ice cream, of course. 

I'm really happy with how the cake turned out.  I had taken an actual picture from the book, covered it with a sheet of wax paper and traced the outlines with black gel writer icing stuff.  Then I transferred the image to a solid green frosted cake, and colored in the picture with the appropriate colors.  In retrospect, the picture was so simple that I could have freehanded it easier (the wax paper stuck to the green icing a bit)...but it was fun to try a new process.

After they'd all eaten we went to the "Toy Shop"  and Monkey opened her presents.  She got really nice presents, and we've had fun playing with them in the last couple of days : )

And then I turned on a Madeline video,
which they sat and watched while we waited for the parents to arrive.

Only a few moms stayed for the duration of the party, and they were very appreciated.  However, the girls were all SO well behaved, that it all went great and it was fine that there weren't many adults! I had been nervous about having "12 little girls" (though with the postponed date, one little girl couldn't make it...so I put a wig on Moose and he became our "12th girl"...I foresee therapy in the future!!) 

 The girls were polite and sweet and calm, and appreciated everything. 
The timing worked out perfectly, too.  It really was a dream party. 
When I was making things for it I kept thinking how it would be wasted on such a young crowd (mostly 3 yr olds) but a lot of them love Madeline like we do, and in the end I didn't regret any of the prepwork and effort.

Anyhow, the girls got to take home the capes, hairbows, bouquets, and a set of Madeline blocks that HH & I made.

I can honestly say that I couldn't have done it without the help of these two wonderful women: my Aunt and my Mom.  My Aunt played the part of the flowershop lady.  My Mom came the day before the party and helped with last minute prep & childcare, spent the night, and helped with everything (food prep, Moose, etc) before and during the party.  THANK YOU to both of you!!!!