For our girl’s second birthday party, I decided to do a Peter Rabbit theme. It’s one of my favorite childhood stories, and it works so well with the outdoor setting at the lake house. Since this may be the last year that she doesn’t choose the theme herself, I went with it and had such a fun time with the details. I think the menu is just as much a part of the theme as the decor, so I put a lot of time into choosing and baking the party food.
I took from the story line and invited guests to enjoy lunch from Mr. McGregor’s garden (just like Peter did!). I used a little imagination to come up with the menu: gooseberry eggs (aka deviled eggs), rabbit pies, garden salad, fresh baked bread, and blackberry cake. Everything included an element from the story! And if you’re wondering, the rabbit pies were actually ham and cabbage pie, and chicken, bacon, and apricot pie. All of the recipes I used are linked on my Pinterest board which I created when I was planning the party!
For the decor, I used gardening tools placed around to create the setting of dining in Mr. McGregor’s garden, where all the action of the story happens. I copied and printed pages from Merritt’s Peter Rabbit book and taped them to tree trunk slices, and used bowls of extra fresh-picked garden veggies to decorate the tables as well. The other kids at the party each got to take home a small metal gardening pail with a seed planting kit with various flowers and herbs.
A delicious three-layer vanilla cake with blackberry lavender jam filling was dessert after everyone filled their bellies with lunch from the garden. I used a paleo recipe to make the vanilla cake layers healthy, but balanced it with full sugar buttercream icing and this jam recipe, which I’ve made many times since then for using as topping on everything!
The weather and setting were so lovely to celebrate her happy day! I take a lot of joy in planning all the details for a really special occasion. Even at such a young age, I hope she remembers the happy emotions of the day. She’s brought so much love to our life and all we hope is to make her feel surrounded with love, too.
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