Maileg Mouse Birthday Party – Part 2

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Welcome back to Mouseland! Could we offer you a cheese cracker or a strawberry mushroom? Perhaps you’d prefer a confetti cupcake? If you’re new in town, you can refer to my first blog post explaining how I made the decor for my daughter’s Maileg mouse-themed birthday party. Part two is all about the food & favors! Let’s dig in!

SNACKS

Hattie wanted to stick with the mouse theme and requested homemade mac & cheese for dinner. We always have snacks out in the afternoon and I prefer to stick to healthy snacks, so the veggie tray is a staple at our parties. I like to include fruit as well so I turned to Pinterest for ideas. Once I saw these strawberry “mushrooms”, I knew we had to make them. We are big fans of Annie’s Organic snacks, so we added a bowl of their square cheese crackers to tie in the mice’s favorite snack.

To make the strawberry mushrooms, you’ll need fresh strawberries, mini marshmallows, and wooden skewers. After you’ve washed the strawberries, slice off the tops. We used long skewers so that they could go inside a mason jar, but you could use shorter ones or even toothpicks. Once you have your skewers, add two marshmallows and push them down about an inch or so. Then, add the strawberry (flat side down) and place them on a plate or in a jar. The kids loved these and kept requesting more!

Cupcakes

Hattie’s cake request this year was a vanilla rainbow confetti cake with chocolate frosting. Her mice love their macaron set and I thought it would be fun to include a mini macaron on the top of each one. Most of my family is gluten-free and some have allergies to dairy and various other things so we typically go vegan and gluten-free for the cupcakes. Our favorite GF cake mixes are King Arthur. They’re so good, most of the guests can’t even tell they’re GF! My go-to butter replacement is Earth Balance. I use it for the cake and the frosting. Hattie and I are both sensitive to dairy so we limit our intake. I recently stopped using cow’s milk in my morning coffee and went on a mission to try a variety of almond milk to find the best one. The clear winner was Califia Farms. I prefer their unsweetened almond milk and have used it in my cake and cupcake recipes for years. Highly recommend it!

LINKS: King Arthur GF cake mix | vegan buttercream frosting recipe | Annie’s Organic cheese crackers

 

Party Favor Bags

These are a hot topic these days, so my encouragement is to do what you feel is best for your family. If that means skipping them altogether, I encourage you to do that. If you feel that you need to include them, go for it! My personal stance on favor bags is that they can be a lot of fun as long as they are kept simple. The last thing I want to do is add clutter and frustration to a parent’s life, so I try to include things that add value to their play.

Mouse Ears

Another request from Hatte was the mouse ears for everyone. We didn’t want furry mouse ears that you can find at costume shops because the Maileg mice aren’t furry, so I decided to modify a template I found for Minnie mouse ears and it worked great. I purchased the felt at my local craft store and followed this mom’s tutorial for the ears. I used hot glue to adhere them to these adorable fabric headbands I found on Amazon. You can use whatever headbands you can find at your local store, but we decided to take the design a little further and use a cute floral headband so that it went along with the Maileg theme.

Play Dough Sensory Jar

This year, we included homemade playdough sensory bins. We made green glitter play dough and put it in a plastic mason jar with some mushrooms and little plastic flowers. The inspiration for this idea came entirely from Mother Could. I’m a huge fan of hers and took note when she made play dough sensory boxes for one of her daughter’s birthdays. We used her recipe for the dough and found that one batch is enough for 3-4 jars of play dough.

Links: play dough recipe | mushrooms | flowers | plastic mason jars | mouse ears tutorial | fabric headbands

I had so much fun making her Maileg birthday party dreams come true. I’m not sure who loves the mice more – me or her! My best friend and I often joke about starting our own collections because we think they are just the cutest. If you’ve done a Maileg-themed party, let me know. I’d love to hear all about it! And don’t forget to check out Part 3 for your free game printable!