Be sure to send out your invitations at least 2 weeks before the party date.

Party Tips
Our great party ideas are provided by our friends at http://www.bettycrocker.com. Stop by for delicious recipes today!

Celebrate your child's love of teddy bears with a Beary Good Birthday Party. When kids come to this party, they're sure of a big surprise--sandwiches and cookies in teddy bear shapes! Of course, there will be lots of other teddy bears! There also will be lots of "beary" wonderful things to eat and marvelous games to play.

Make It Special!

Beary Good Invites
The "beary" best invites have lots of bears. Ask guests to bring their "beary" favorite teddy bear.

Beary Good Food Ideas
Serve the Teddy Bear Sandwiches on an easy-to-make serving tray. Cover a piece of heavy cardboard with coated gift wrap in a teddy bear design, then cover the gift wrap with plastic wrap.

Tuck fun straws into fruity sodas to add a party finish. Look for them in party stores. Top off the sodas with teddy bear crackers placed on ring-shaped hard candies. Bears will look like they are floating on an inner tube.

Poke Bear Cookie Pops sticks in a plastic foam ball (slice off a section to make a flat base), and use as a centerpiece while kids eat the sandwiches and fruit. You can cover the plastic foam ball with gift wrap in a teddy bear design. Tie colorful ribbons into bows around each cookie pop.

Serve Honey Bear Dip in inexpensive small honey pots for a step-up from the plastic or paper cups.

Beary Good Fun
Play a game of Toss the Honey into the Bear's Mouth. Use snack-size resealable plastic bags filled with yellow jelly beans (or use yellow beanbags) for the "honey." Draw a large bear face with a large mouth on poster board using felt-tipped markers. Place the bear face on the floor. The object of the game is to toss the honey into the bear's mouth while standing behind a designated line. Each child gets three tries. Award a prize to the child who gets the most honey closest to the bear's mouth. All the kids can enjoy the "honey" jelly beans after the game.

Play musical chairs using teddy bear music such as "Waltzing with Bears," "Teddy Bears' Picnic" or other favorites. For a cooperative version of musical chairs, start with one fewer chair than the number of guests; when the music stops, all the guests must sit down. Two children will be on one chair. Take one chair away, and start the music again. When the music stops, three children will be on one chair. Keep going until every party guest is piled onto one chair.

Transform the favorite children's game Poor Pussycat into a growling teddy bear game. The child that is "it" pretends to be a bear and sits in front of another child and growls. The other child has to hug the "child-bear" and say "you're a teddy bear" three times without laughing. If the child doesn't laugh, the bear moves on; if the child laughs, he or she becomes the new bear.

Play Find the Honey Pot as the final game of the party. Make honey pots out of yellow-colored paper bags. (You can find them at party stores.) Fill honey pots with "honey" (yellow jelly beans), a bag of gummy bears and bear stickers to use as party-goers' loot bags. Hide the honey pots, and offer clues to each child for where to look for them.


This fun recipe is pictured to the right.

Bear Cookie Pops
You'll "bearly" get to ask, "What's your favorite cookie?" and kids will pop up with these "beary" best cookie pops!

1 pouch (1 pound 1.5 ounces) Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
12 wooden sticks with rounded ends
24 flat round candies (1/2 inch in diameter)
12 Kisses® milk chocolates, unwrapped
1 tube (0.68) Betty Crocker® red decorating gel


1. Heat oven to 375ºF. Stir cookie mix, oil and egg in medium bowl until soft dough forms.
2. Shape dough into 12 balls, using 1 1/2 tablespoons dough for each. Place balls about 4 inches apart on un greased cookie sheet. Shape remaining dough into 24 balls, using 1 teaspoon dough for each.
3. Insert stick into side of each large ball; place 2 small balls next to each large ball for ears. Press balls evenly until about 1/4 inch thick.
4. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
5. Add 2 flat candies on each cookie for eyes and 1 chocolate candy for nose, using gel to attach. Squeeze on gel for mouth.

Hershey's Kisses milk chocolates and the Conical Configuration are registered trademarks of Hershey Foods Corporation.

Game Ideas
- Egg in Spoon Race
Make a start and finish line, first one there wins.
- Water Balloon Toss
Team who tosses the most without popping or dropping wins.
- Spooning Cotton Balls
Two bowls & blind fold, each child spoons cotton balls or marshmallows from one bowl to the other in one minute, the one who does the most wins.
- Balloon Pop
Each kid gets a balloon to sit on, first one popped wins.