Teepees, pudgey pies & a campfire | Wren Elizabeth turns 2

My little girl Wren is an Indescribable Wonder.

The words I use to tell stories about her – to recount her latest antics, passions, funny sayings, impossibly mature thoughts and conversation topics – always feel more shallow than my experience of her day to day and moment to moment. She must be experienced in person and I can only imagine that if she is this captivating and engaging at 2 she has the capacity to be an unstoppable force of….whatever she wants when she grows up. And growing up is what she is doing.

I love birthdays and party planning and all things happy so I guess you could say I went all out for her second birthday, but really who wouldn’t? Wren also loves birthdays and parties and all things happy so anything less than “all out” wouldn’t do her justice. So on the first day of Autumn we gathered friends – hers and ours – and family and celebrated her two years on earth in Northwoods style. With Lake Michigan as our backdrop and a couple of teepees for shelter and fun we re-imagined the classic Wisconsin Pudgey Pie and served up gooey deliciousness DIY buffet style. Wren ran and rolled and laughed and tore into sweet, generous gifts and was totally unaware that she is the best gift of all.

Happy Birthday Little Bird.

For this party I got all kinds of crafty with the party prep and surprised even myself with what I made using adorable Wren-inspired fabrics and a little imagination. The following list of sources is a mixture DIY and store bought, but all very manageable or fairly inexpensive to do yourself. Thank you to Grandma for making the cakes, my friend Molly for taking a few pictures with me in them, all our family and friends who made the trip and Wren’s day truly special for us all. These photos show mostly the party as it was staged before we let everyone loose on the goodies, but I can assure you the pudgey pies were a hit for everyone, especially our transplanted family and friends who experienced them for the first time that day.

Adult sized teepee: handmade using a tutorial from  Rachel Denbow’s blog. We added turkey feathers found in our yard and bamboo poles we already had from my grandparent’s farm in Georgia. Also, hubby used a rachet strap to hold the bamboo together at the criss-cross point. It is cleverly hidden by extra drop cloth fabric wrapped around the poles at the very end of assembly.

Kids sized teepee: Land of Nod

Cake and cupcakes: Made by Grandma using a s’mores cake recipe from Betty Crocker online

Cake topper: Made by me with Materials from Michael’s using this tutorial from Kelli Murray’s blog.

Picnic blankets: Made by me using fabrics from Fabric.com. Patterned fabrics are all  by Michael Miller and backed with oilcloth sewn together simply using a zig zag stitch. I used these: Chevron, Norwegian Woods, On the Grill, Botanika (birds)

Menus: Made by me using extra fabric wrapped around edges of printed heavy card stock and sewn in place using a straight stitch on a sewing machine.

Milk glass: My personal collection (collected for our wedding and used for the centerpieces back in 2004!)

Pudgey pie irons: REI

Pudgey pie recipes: collected PieIron.com. Our favorite by far was the Cinnamon Roll Pie using refrigerated biscuit dough instead of bread. Yum!

US Mail tote: Pottery Barn

Kids gift bags: Assembled using party treats from target. Closure created using washi tape (Target) and stamped colored paper using materials from Michael’s

Invites: Minted.com’s wedding line