My daughter recently turned 9, and for her birthday, she wanted to have a Brave/Princess Merida theme. So, I went perusing the Internet via Google and Pinterest to get some ideas. I don’t have all of the original links, and unfortunately, I don’t have the pictures of all of the food, but I will try to add links where I can find them.
Food
1. Bear Paw Cookies: There were several sites that talked about this. It was very simple: just make dough for a basic chocolate cookie. I used a recipe that I normally use at Christmas time with crushed candy canes, but of course, I left those out. You shape the dough in more of an oval than a circle, and you put four slivered almonds in one end to become the bear’s claws. It’s that easy.
2. Mince and tatties: The husband found the recipe we used, so I’m not sure where the one we ended up with came from, but it included onions, carrots, and beef broth cooked in with the ground beef. The potatoes were mashed.
3. Scottish/mince pies: To make things easier, I used the meat for the mince (minus the carrots) and added a little nutmeg for the pies. The rest of the recipe is this: http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/175301/scottish-meat-pie. I used a muffin pan for the pies. In hindsight, I should have actually added some gravy or a little more beef broth to the meat to make it moister as the pies were a bit dry inside. I’m sure if I’d used the full recipe, everything would have been fine.
4. Scones: I used this recipe: http://www.cooks.com/recipe/2w5ky5bw/scottish-scones.html. They were messy and sticky to form and bake, but they tasted wonderful. I suspect I will make them again. My daughter added extra cinnamon sugar when she ate them, but the rest of the family ate them as they were.
5. For those who are less adventurous in their eating, we had chips, chicken nuggets, and other more American fare.
Party Favors
For our party favors, we made bows and arrows, of course! We used the tutorial found here: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2012/07/24/diy-pvc-bow-and-arrow/.
Bow and Arrows
Instead of using foam for the grip, you can see I used electrical tape. Some of them were curved the way you’d expect, but others were less curved. They all bent fine for shooting, though. I think I must have held the nylon cord more taut when I measured it for some bows than others, which lead to the slightly looser stringing. The arrows have batting inside the fabric to make it less likely they would hurt anyone, but I had to use a bit of school glue to keep the fabric and batting secure to the wood; the ribbons did not secure it tightly enough so that it wouldn’t slide off. My husband used a box cutter to notch the other end.
The bows were a big hit. Two of the girls even went into the woods with their uncle the next day (who had a real bow) and brought their bows and arrows with to practice. Their cousin wanted to make his own, so I passed the link on.
Overall, the party seemed to go well. Everyone seemed full and happy, so I consider it a success!
My Creative Side 