Max and Ruby, those adorable fat white bunnies with their own Nick Jr. TV show, have gathered quite a following among children, especially preschool age kids. So when my own child was choosing which character themed party that she wanted to celebrate her birthday with, she had little trouble deciding on a Max and Ruby birthday party. However, I was dismayed to find that there are virtually no Max and Ruby ready made birthday party decorations available. Fortunately Nick Jr.’s printables and Rosemary Wells’ website offers some ideas for do-it-yourself DIY decorations which I used as a starting point in the party planning process.
Ruby always loves throwing a party-she’s quite the party girl (or shall we say party rabbit?). She has tea parties, beach parties, surprise parties, and birthday parties…And another thing Ruby loves is baking. My daughter is always pretending to make an “Angel Surprise Cake with Raspberry Fluff Icing” with her little Step2 kitchen oven. (Thank goodness she isn’t equally as enamored with Max’s worm cake or mud cakes.) There are many Max and Ruby episodes and DVDs devoted to Ruby’s baking and party throwing escapades with little brother Max in tow.
I decided to use some of the videos where Ruby has a party for ideas on how to to throw a Ruby style birthday tea party for my daughter. There even is an episode called “Ruby’s Tea Party” where Ruby is trying to have a tea party and Max only wants to play pirate. I thought dressing my son up as a pirate was a little extravagant, though and just decided to go with a simpler theme.
Since Ruby loves all things girly, I decorated my dining room with lots of flowers and garlands. We made some butterflies to hang in various spots to give it an outdoors feel. I draped some purple streamers around the room since it seems Ruby likes purple streamers for most of her parties. And of course I had bunches of balloons. I used an old quilt as a tablecloth for the dining table and paired it with some pretty yellow napkins for a sophisticated feel. I made fancy place cards too. My wedding china had never been used and I saw it as an excellent opportunity to pull out the dusty cups and saucers. I didn’t have a tea pot that matched my china so I purchased a plain white one at Bed Bath and Beyond. I figured since I was using the cups and saucers for the party I might as well use the plates too so I had six little girls using my china for the very first time, thinking they were royalty with all the fancy dishes. Yeah, it was probably a big risk to use my fine china for a four year old birthday party but I figured as long as they were only sitting at the table enjoying the party and not up running around there was little chance anything was going to get broken. I also set out the stuffed plush Ty Beanie Baby Max and Ruby dolls that we have as part of the centerpiece. There are very limited amounts of Max and Ruby toy merchandise available.
I sent invitations asking all the girls to come dressed in their fanciest special party dress and royal party jewels for a super fancy tea party to celebrate my daughter’s fourth birthday. I made the invitations myself on the computer and included that it was going to be a Max and Ruby themed tea party. I let my daughter pick out which fancy party dress she wanted to wear and let her wear one of her princess tiaras as a birthday tiara party hat.
I have seen some beautiful Max and Ruby themed birthday cakes online, especially those made with fondant and gumpaste Max and Ruby figurines. Unfortunately I am not gifted in that area, though I would have loved to have made one for my daughter. So I had to stick with the basics. Thankfully there are lots of other alternatives out there besides a gorgeous fondant Max and Ruby birthday cake. I decided on an Angel Surprise Cake with Raspberry Fluff Icing with birthday candles, silver stars, buttercream roses, and sugar hearts-at least that’s what Ruby fixed for Grandma’s birthday in the Bunny Cakes episode. I made a yellow cake and decorated it with pink icing and assorted confetti. It was a big success with the girls. Another alternative to these cakes is a buttercream icing image transfer of Max and Ruby onto a sheet cake. I didn’t have the patience to try this but there are lots of internet sites that provide instructions if you google it. I made pimento cheese and chicken salad finger sandwiches and “cookie” teacakes. I made tea for the teapot but also provided other kid friendly beverages.
The girls had lots of fun having their high tea and then we moved into the living room to play a few games. In the episode Ruby’s Birthday Party, the bunnies all play three games: musical chairs, stick the tail on the bunny, and red light, green light. At rosemarywells.com there is a download for everything you need to play Pin the Tail on Max. The girls played the exact same games that Ruby and her friends did in the episode about Ruby’s birthday party.
Of course there was also present opening and my daughter was especially delighted by that since she was the recipient of all of the gifts. She was very excited to be able to celebrate her birthday Max and Ruby style with all of her friends at her very own fancy tea party! And I was delighted that it was pretty easy to throw the party without a spending a lot of money and by using what I already owned.
