If You Give a Moose a Muffin Party

These dull, gray and cold days of winter seem long and unending. Fortunately, our family was able to escape the dreariness and celebrate a birthday this month. For our daughter's second birthday we hosted a moose party themed after the cherished book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, by Laura Numeroff. My siblings and I grew up reading this funny story and listening to the book on tape. The silly tale is about a hungry moose who follows the smell of fresh muffins. He enters the house and asks the boy for a muffin, but this is just the beginning of many comical requests. The amusing complications that ensue will entertain youngsters (and adults). 

Since I had such a hoot planning last year's caterpillar party, I was eager to start collecting/creating the decor for the moose party. The book was acquired (for free!) when I posted an "ISO" in the local Facebook sale page.  I'm hoping to do another post featuring this book with photos of the illustrations. 

Our "Moose Munchies" set out for our birthday guests.

The decorations for the party were easy-peasy. I delayed taking down our Christmas fir trimmings and it gave the house a "woodsy" look. My friend works at the distribution center for St. Vincent de Paul's and was able to find mini trees to use as table decorations. Our evergreen garland that drapes across the china cabinet added a nice touch.

A moose in the midst of mini muffins.

Birthday banner for front door

Couldn't bring myself to fork out the money to buy a birthday sign. I designed my own. Tied a few pinecones on either side of the sign with red and white twine. BAM. Birthday banner.

For lunch, we served pulled pork sandwiches (ingredients called for Dr. Pepper, Yum!) The slow cooker recipe from Serious Eats is SO GOOD! Moose Munchies (berries, nuts and muffins) were parceled out in fun polka dot snack cups. Tin cans were decorated with burlap and houndstooth ribbon to hold the plasticware.

Ok, I'll admit it. This moose head was a last minute party decoration idea --found on pinterest. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to make my first taxidermy thingy. The moose turned quite a few heads at the party and for that reason-was moved to our living room for us to enjoy a while longer. ;)

Taxidermy Moose Decor

Moose sans party hat.

It was a good time to reuse our moving boxes; my cardboard supply was at it's fullest. Each moose piece was cut out using an exacto knife. The template I used was for a faux deer taxidermy, but I redesigned the antlers and the neck to make it look more moose-like. Surprisingly, there were many other DIY templates for cardboard moose heads on Pinterest (huh, must be a "thing" now), but the amount of pieces for those DIY examples were excessive and the process would be too involved for my skill level.

This taxidermy moose took 8 pieces to put together vs. the 15+ pieces for other DIY moose crafts. My hands were starting to cramp after finishing the antlers. Eegads. Cutting rounded corners with an exacto knife it rough. No glue needed. Each piece slid into place (with some wiggly and careful measuring to adjust for cardboard thickness.) 

Moose cupcakes for the party

While our guests were arriving, I was in the garage busily frosting and decorating the birthday cupcakes. Feeling the pinch of time, I asked my brother to help. Thankfully, I had the foresight to make the eyes (white chips with melted chocolate dot) and noses (vanilla wafer with chocolate chips for nostrils) the night before. HUGE time saver, right there. All in all, I was very pleased with the cupcake design this year. My first go at pinterest cupakes was, shall we say, lamentable.

We forgot about the "Moose Tracks" ice cream in the freezer, oh well. 

The finished moose cupcakes. Here they are in all their glory! I can not be held responsible for the constipated moose faces. My brother is guilty for those. ;)

An impromptu birthday kiss from big sister

We've always done cupcakes for birthdays. They keep well and are easy to plan for large groups. Hershey's chocolate cupcake mix was the way to go. The mix came with a packet of chocolate filling for the middle of the cupcakes. Yum! 

Happy Birthday, little one!

I had planned a craft project for the kids to work on during the party, but we never got around to it. We invited friends over for a playdate the following week and took part in another "moose party day" by reading the book together and making moose puppets. The moose face and antlers were designed in Illustrator as well as the muffins.

My 3 year old was captivated by the mechanism of using a scissors, ergo she didn't finish her moose. While she was busy accumulating mounds of paper tidbits, our friends created these wonderfully girly moose puppets.