It's my Birthday, and I can throw myself a party if I want to...

Ok, so it is my birthday today, and what am I doing? My last children's program of the fall session, actually! Since they fell on the same day I decided to make an occasion of it and throw myself a party -- me and fifteen 3 yr olds! ;) It was hilarious fun; all the moms and grandmas also got into it and we had a wonderful morning. Here's the treats I made (vegan chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) but I adapted them to child-size servings.

And if anyone is interested, here are the books I ended up reading in between all the singing and dancing.

1. Happy Birthday, moon / Frank Asch.

I find this series of books by Asch, featuring Bear and often his friend Bird, always work with this age group. And they are highly adaptable to many themes. Plus I really like them!

2. The Surprise / George Shannon; illus. by Jose Aruego & Ariane Dewey.

This one tells us about Squirrel who wraps himself up in a series of nesting boxes as a birthday present for his mother. It is really cute and all the boxes are different shapes and colours which is useful for interactive questions with the kids.

3. The Surprise Party / Pat Hutchins

Another old book, but one I enjoy reading. Rabbit is going to have a surprise party, but as the message gets passed along it gets increasingly garbled. It is a fun take on the game of Telephone, but all the animals get the invitation by the end and they have their party.

4. The Party / Barbara Reid

This one is a rhyming story about a big family party for Grandma's 90th birthday. It has the amazing illustrations of Barbara Reid; made with plasticine and really, really colourful.

5. Happy Birthday to you, Blue Kangaroo / Emma Chichester Clark

And the final story, from one of my absolute favourite series, about Lily and her Blue Kangaroo. Here Lily is having a birthday party that is ALL about pink (and funnily enough every single little girl present today was wearing pink). Poor Blue Kangaroo feels neglected and wanders off to wrap himself up in a sock and feel sad. Lily ends up by saying that she loves both pink AND blue. It's adorable.