Dorothy!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Catherine's seventh birthday.  She has been obsessed with the Wizard of Oz for at least six months, so that was the theme she chose for the party.  I made cupcakes and decorated them with icing Yellow Brick Roads and little plastic picks of ruby red slippers.  Here is Catherine looking at her seven cupcakes:

As a complete surprise to Catherine, we invited Dorothy to come to the party:

 Can you tell how thrilled Catherine is?

We had planned a "Yellow Brick Road" game in the playground next to our neighborhood pool.  Catherine and Dorothy led the way:

We picked up a few "extra" kids along the way from the people at the pool.  Toto was a complete hit.  I had no idea Dorothy would bring her dog and I was thoroughly impressed that Toto stayed in the basket for about an hour and a half.  No dog I ever owned was that well behaved.

 Dorothy talking to all the children:

 Heading to the playground:

At the beginning of the game they were in "Kansas" and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow together.  Not all the kids knew the story, but Catherine and Sabrina know every single detail of that movie.

 Then a "tornado" flew by and everyone spun around, across the bridge:

They landed in Munchkinland.  Catherine pretended she was Glinda the Good Witch and changed Dorothy's boring black slippers to ruby red slippers.  At each "stop" of the Yellow Brick Road Game we had a box of treats for all the kids (and the adults).  Here we had Munchkin donuts.

In the corn field Dorothy handed out potato sticks, which are similar to the Scarecrow's straw.  I couldn't think of anything else more appropriate.

 The kids running along the trail (we had spray painted a yellow line on the grass):

In the Apple Orchard all the kids put on Tin Man hats (basic party hats which we spray painted silver).  They acted like they were rusty and Dorothy squirted pretend oil on them from a purple plastic watering can.  For treats they got Hershey Kisses, which are sort of like miniature Tin Man hats.

 In the Spooky Forest the treat was Animal Crackers (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!):

In the Poppy Field everyone fell asleep.  I could not figure out how to get snow to land on the kids, so Catherine said we could blow bubbles instead to wake them up.

 Then the kids ran to the Emerald City:

But the Wizard told them they could not get the Emerald City prize until they brought him the Wicked Witch's broom.

So they ran to get the broom (I tried to figure out a way that they could melt a witch but could not think of an easy way to do that):

 The Emerald City prize was green bead necklaces:

 Then Dorothy clicked her heels three times and we all ran back to Kansas:

It wasn't until I looked at all the pictures that I realized how often Catherine was holding Dorothy's hand:

Catherine also loved Toto (she asked me why his fur was not black like in the movie - I told her that Toto spent so much time in the sun this summer that his hair was lightened, just like hers becomes blonder by the end of the summer):

After the game, while everyone was swimming, we went back through the game and took some clean pictures of Dorothy and the girls at each stop:

 Munchinkinland:

 The Corn Field:

 The Apple Orchard:

 The Spooky Forest (Catherine helped me raid my scrapbook collection to decorate the signs):

 Another nap in the Poppy Field:

 The Emerald City:

 Dorothy helped sing Happy Birthday to Catherine:

 I love this shot because she looks so happy and healthy:

We had very few actual Wizard of Oz decorations because they are hard to find and I really do not like shopping over the Internet.  But, we did have ruby slippers on the Yellow Brick Road napkins, which Catherine showed Dorothy.

When it was time for Dorothy to leave, Catherine gave her another hug (love that smile of genuine happiness!):

 And Catherine walked Dorothy out of the party:

The party was a few weeks ago and Catherine still talks about it all the time.  She tells everyone we meet that "Dorothy came to my party."  She told me a few days later that it was "a miracle" that Dorothy came to her party.  I explained that a miracle requires God's intervention and Dorothy came because we called her and asked her to come.  Immediately Catherine said "You have her cell phone number!!  Can we call her and invite her to a play date?"

When she sees friends who were actually at the party, she asks what their favorite part of the Yellow Brick Road Game was.  So far every one she has asked has said "the food at all the stops."  We knew we were taking a risk because a lot of the kids may not know the story.  But at least the sweet treats were appreciated! 

It was a great party and very special for Catherine.