Happy Birthday Running Deer!

Meet Running Deer. This is the Native American name that Andrew and I chose for her a few months ago. If you've ever seen her run, you know why. She turned 6 this week and requested a Native American celebration for the theme of her party. We love this girl! What a unique party theme and it was so much fun putting it all together. It all started with the teepee (or tipi, or tepee).

After looking at a couple of blogs on how to set up a teepee, we thought it would be a breeze. It started with cutting down bamboo. I found a member in our ward who had the pesky stuff creeping into his yard and I volunteered to take some away. I could cut down a few bamboo stalks, how hard could that be? Andrew said to take his saws and I was sure he was just trying to get my goat. Clippers would do just fine, thank you (I took the saws just in case). Whew! After two hours of itching and cutting and sweating and swearing, I took home 12  10-foot stalks of bamboo. And I broke one of Andrew's saws. Screw the clippers! We spent 4 hours trying to make the teepee work. By the end of it, Andrew had diagrams spread out over the back patio while we erected and took down the teepee a 3 times before getting it right. Good nthing he remembers how to calculate the circumference of  a circle, I sure didn't. We should writet a blog about 3 ways NOT to build your teepee. In the end, I'm glad we put in the effort. I think it was a huge success. Literally huge; it fit 13 kids and 2 adults comfortably!

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There were too many kids at Eden's party, but it all worked out. A couple of moms stayed to help and we couldn't have done it without them. We began by having them make their own Native American headbands with faux eagle feathers. Yeah, no pictures of that (precutting and organization on this one really would have been to my advantage). Then they all headed out to the teepee where Chief Buffalo Head told a Native American story to all the children. Then he handed out some Native American names: Running Deer, Creeping Fox (guess who that was), Running Water, Star Catcher, Red Cloud at Sundown, etc.-- these were some of my favorites, and with the exception of Eden's, a couple of other moms and I came up with them on the spot while Andrew told the story.

Then we played a chasing game that Native Americans would have played. I found these animal hoof rattlers online that were perfect for the game. All the children formed a circle around three children inside. One was blindfolded while the other two each held a rattle. They had to shake the rattle while the blindfolded child tried to catch them. The other children kept them all in the circle. It was a lot of fun and of course all of the children wanted a turn being blindfolded. Since there were over a dozen kids, this meant we played the game about a bazillion times, but nobody seemed to mind.

Then we headed in for the crafts and that's when things got a little bit crazy. We had three different things going: Andrew was showing a group of kids outside how to use the bow and arrow while two crafts were going inside: making a star quilt with paper cutouts and making a rainstick. Everyone rotated so that they all got to visit each section. The crafts turned out really great; not that I got any pictures of them (except for one) but I think the kids enjoyed it.

Next up was the cake. How do you make a Native American cake? Yeah, I had no idea, so we improvised. Eden has a wonderful wooden fairy village that Grandpa Burton made for her. We just used the wood pieces from that to set up a landscape and placed some Native Americans throughout it. Then we made cupcakes in wildflower paper and decorated them with green sprinkles for grass and some daisies. I think it turned out well enough and she was pleased.

The kids were all pretty excited to see Eden open her presents. She told me later that this was the best part of her party and you can tell by the look on her face.
A couple of days later was her "real" birthday and we made her wait to open her presents until Andrew got home from work. She got some pretty awesome gifts this year. I love the picture of her and Fox after he gave her his gift.
The teepee will remain up for the next couple of weeks and it's been fun having playtime, picnics and even family home evening inside it. Happy Birthday Eden!!! We love you.