Anthony's Wild Things Party

Anthony turned 3 on Tuesday. I won't even let myself think the thoughts or feel the feelings about my baby being 3... So I will share the details of all the neat stuff I pulled together for his party. 

His current favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are, so we held a Wild Rumpus for him. Basically that meant inviting mostly family (a 2-year-old who doesn't go to school doesn't have a lot of friends yet) to come eat and play. 

For the invitations, I (or rather, Paul) cut out these wild thing outlines with my Silhouette Cameo cutter, then we used a pen in place of the blade to write out all the details. I love the way it turned out! (The pen ran out of ink on the last one, so I had to write in the date with black on the one we kept... The others were all metallic brown). 

I decorated the house with wild things made from tissue paper poms, a felt leaf garland, and lots of green and brown balloons and streamers all around. 

Anthony wore a "wolf suit", which was just a light gray fuzzy hoodie, light gray sweatpants, a fuzzy tail, and a felt crown (Of course I sewed the latter two).

I glued felt horns and fur onto headbands for our guests to be wild things too.

They played in the "private boat for Max," made with cut-up, taped-together, painted-red moving boxes we had stored in the closet from past parties. It was a hit!

The other thing that went over really well was the craft: make your own wild thing, with sticky back foam cut into horns and teeth and whatnot, googly eyes, and small paper plates. 

We stuck popsicle sticks to them so they could be used as masks. I love how they turned out!

The food consisted of Anthony's favorite foods: cantaloupe, blueberries, veggie tray, and MEAT. Paul smoked a brisket (which he is VERY good at doing), and we also had a few other BBQ staples (except I forgot the pickles!): bread, sauce, baked beans, chips and salsa. 

I added a few signs with relevant phrases from the book to connect the food to the theme, including labeling the blueberries as "terrible eyes" and some Bugles as "terrible claws."

Then, of course, there was the cake. 

I'm particularly proud of the faces; I think I was pretty spot-on in reproducing them from the book. 

The cake wasn't free from headaches; I had some structural issues with the arm Max rode on, and the fondant grass around the base never stuck all the way, and I ended up ripping them off.

Here are a few behind-the scenes pictures. The legs and arms were rice krispy treats; the body and head were chocolate cake. I covered everything in dark chocolate ganache, and fondant on top of that. People often ask how does one cut into a cake with structural supports. This is what it looked like after we ate some. The key is to know where the bars and boards are, and cut around them.

Our guests left with their headbands and crafts as well as kazoos (requested by Anthony), eyeball bouncy balls (to "roll their terrible eyes"), and a chocolate "wild thing" to eat up. 

Since Anthony's birthday is on Groundhog Day (thus the groundhog at the bottom of the cake), our groundhog photo op board had to make its appearance, this time sporting a king of wild things crown (in past years it has worn a sombrero and a hard hat). 

Anthony was a gracious host, escorting his guests to the door as they departed.

Our little wild thing had a lot of fun, and we are thankful to everyone who helped us celebrate him!