THIS is just the party for the country when the buttercups seem to be
nodding their yellow heads to you and saying, “Come and pick us!”
The invitations for this party may be neatly printed with gilt paint
upon a white card, or else written on note paper which has a buttercup
decoration.
You will need to have ready a number of little yellow baskets—as
many as you have invited children—two or three pounds of “buttercup”
candies, and a sheet on which mother has drawn in yellow crayon, a
large buttercup without any stem. Cut out of pasteboard or cloth a stem
to fit this buttercup.
It would be a good idea for you to wear a white dress with yellow sash
and hair ribbons.
After your guests have come, first of all you can have a buttercup
hunt. Give each child a yellow basket in which to collect candy
buttercups. Mother has hidden the buttercups for you, having first
wrapped each in paraffine paper. (They would be sticky if she didn’t
do this!) After you have filled your baskets, and if you choose, have
given a prize to the one collecting the most buttercups, you can
announce a buttercup contest. This is exactly like a donkey party,
except that the blindfolded one must pin the stem on the buttercup. It
isn’t as easy as it would seem!
Next you can play “Buttercups and Farmer.” This is a form of blindman’s
buff, for the “farmer” must be blindfolded. Take a space on the lawn
about twenty feet square for the “field” and place the “farmer” in the
center. The “buttercups” (who are the rest of the children) may take
their places anywhere in the field. When ready to begin, the farmer
says,
“The buttercups are in my way,
I’ll mow them down when I make hay.”
He is then allowed to take eight steps, while the buttercups must
not move. If he touches a buttercup, and names the child who is the
buttercup, that one becomes farmer. If the farmer fails to touch a
buttercup he must be led back to the center of the field again.
When it is time for refreshments, the table can be set out under
the trees, and if mother is willing, your girl friends will enjoy
decorating it with buttercups. For refreshments you can serve chicken
sandwiches, lemonade, little cakes iced with orange icing, and ice
cream in yellow paper cases. A little girl who gave this party said
that it was a great deal of fun.