The Indian In the Cupboard

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

Book Review: This book is a winner! My boys absolutely loved it! The story is about a little boy who receives an old cupboard and skeleton key for a birthday gift. One night he puts a plastic indian in the cupboard and locks the door. In the morning, he finds out that the toy indian has turned to life in miniature form. He (as any young boy would be!) was thrilled with the idea of having his very own live Indian, but soon finds out that it's a lot of trouble and a lot of work trying to keep a miniature person alive and secret. During the adventure, his friend with whom he shared his secret, turns a plastic cowboy to life. The Cowboy brings fun comic relief to the very serious and demanding Indian character, and although they're enemies at first, it ends in heartwarming friendship.  It's no wonder that this book is a classic!, It is so well written and I could see my kids imaginations lighting up as I was reading. My four year-old especially loved Boone (the cowboy), and they way he talked. Definitely a family favorite!

Book Party

Supplies from your craft kit

popsicle sticks

Scrap felt

Feathers

Thick elastic banding

hot glue gun/sticks

craft paper

Green tissue paper

twine

stapler

scissors

Supplies from around the house

Old flat sheets

Rope

metal hanger

Dental Floss

Q-tips

Long skinny box that has the general shape of a cupboard

door knob or handle

Lock and key

Tape

red ribbon

small cellophane bags

Cowboy costume if you have one

Food Supplies

Mini hot dogs

one can of refrigerated dough

wooden skewers

24 sugar cones

melting chocolate pieces

candy sprinkles

pretzel sticks

1 recipe cake and cookies and cream filling (see below)

aluminum foil

1 recipe sticky carmel corn (see below)

Supplies from the craft store

knob or handle if you don't have one around the house

lock if you don't have one 

skeleton keys (they have these pretty cheap online if you need a lot of them. You can also get them at craft stores)

small plastic cowboy and indian figures

cowboy pistol squirt gun (I ordered this online)

8 ft pieces of lumber- I used 11/4 x 1/2" pieces. You'll need a total of 2 1/2 8 ft pieces for EACH tent you make.

Teepees

You're going to hate me, but I forgot to take pictures while I was building these cute little teepees. BUT, they were so crazy easy, that I think you'll get the idea without me having to post pictures of step-by-step. I went to the hardware store and bought some lumber. I ended up getting 11/4 x 1/2 " 8 foot pieces. I made that decision based on the price of the lumber. They were sturdy and cheap. Perfect! I also picked up some cheap rope while I was there. I considered using my husband's rope, but figured I might get in trouble for cutting good rope. For the fabric, I just got rid of a bunch of old sheets before we moved, so I had to find some. I went to the second-hand store and bought these beauties for $2-3 a piece. 

I used a saw to cut the 8 foot lumber in half. Once they're all cut, drill a hole in the top of section of each piece of wood. It should be big enough for the rope to go through easily. Once that's done, I threaded 5- 4 ft sections of wood together with the rope. Stand the pieces of wood up in the basic shape of a teepee. I'm no boy scout, but I managed to kind of weave the rope around and through the wood pieces until the wood was stable, and then tied it off.  For the fabric covering, I took the old sheet and cut a little X shape in the middle. I put the sheet over the teepee shape and put the poles through the X. I pulled the fabric tight over the wood and hot glued the fabric to the wood pieces starting from the front and working around,  pulling it tight as I went. Then I cut the fabric up the middle of the front, stopping about two-thirds up. Cut the extra fabric around the bottom. To tie the front flaps back, I cut a little slit in the fabric behind the front wood poles. I took some scraps of fabric I had, put it through the slits I made, and tied it around the fabric and the front wood poles. Viola! Cute little teepees that the kids really loved. Plus, you can keep these and use them whenever the kids want a little hide out.

The Cupboard

I didn't have an old cupboard to use in my party. But I did have a box that gave me the idea to make my own. I had a box from a steam mop I bought a little while ago. Usually I don't keep boxes, but I still had this one, and it was the perfect shape for a cupboard. So here's what I did: I cut a door in the front of the box. In order to make it more stable, I didn't cut right to the bottom of the box, I left some space between the bottom and the door.  You're going to want to also cut a small door on the back of the box. This is what's going to make it "magic" later on. Then, get some craft paper and cover the box- like wrapping a present, only more difficult.  Trace the bottom of your cupboard box onto another piece of cardboard and cut it out. This is going to be the bottom of the cupboard. Now you can take something heavy (I used two 5 lb hand weights) and put it in the bottom of the cupboard in order to make your box nice and stable.  Then put the piece of cardboard over the weights to make the bottom of the cupboard. 

Now for the hardware. My mom happened to have a bunch of knobs and handles and also a cool looking lock, so I didn't have to go buy one. But, they have them in craft stores or hardware stores for pretty cheap. Get a lock that locks with a key, so the kids can "unlock" the cupboard. I didn't want my handle to pull off from the weight of the lock, so I went andbought some tiny sized bolts and nuts that fit into the holes of the handle. I poked some holes in the cardboard where I wanted the handle and attached it using the bolts. It turned out being really sturdy. In order to keep the door closed, I attached two little pieces of velcro to the door and the side of the box with hot glue.

At the end of the party I wanted to do something fun with the cupboard. So I made some little favor bags with cowboys and indians inside. I tied a piece of red ribbon to an old skeleton key (You can find these at craft stores) and tied it to the bags. Then one by one we had each kid come up and unlock the cupboard. While they were unlocking it, my husband was behind the cupboard and would put a gift bag in the secret door in the back. The kids would open up the door and be AMAZED at our magic cupboard!! So cute!

Headbands
Feathers, thick band and a little hot glue.

Miniature Bow and Arrows
I stole this idea from pinterest. BUT, I added a little quiver to hold your little bow and arrows. First, I took a bunch of popsicle sticks and soaked them in water for a little bit to soften them up. Do more than you need, because you're going to break some of them. Then make small notches on both ends to keep the string in place. Carefully bend the softened stick until it resembles a bow shape. Hold for a minute. Then, take a piece of dental floss and tie one end to the notches you've made. After you have the first side on, wrap the other side in dental floss and pull super tight. This is what's going to hold your bow shape when it dries. 

I thought that it would be fun to have a quiver for all the little "arrows". So I grabbed some scraps of felt, cut it into strips, and rolled it into a little tube. Then I took a stapler (easy!) and stapled to hold. Then I folded the bottom and stapled shut. To dress it up a bit, I stapled on a feather and a "strap" out of twine. 

These really work! It was hard for the little kiddos to do it, though. Because they don't want to let go of the "arrow" after pulling it back on the bow. With a little help and patience, the older kids got it. And the younger kids got to watch the adults shoot them! :o)

Shoot the Indian Game

In the book, the Indian and the Cowboy are enemies at first. And they try to shoot each other. This game is so simple! I ordered a cowboy-looking squirt pistol online, set up some toy indians on a stool, had the kids dress up in a cowboy outfit I already had, and had them squirt away!

Lasso the Bull (or Horse!) Game
I wanted to make a lasso that they kids could loop over the bull (horse). I started with a hula hoop, but quickly discovered that to cover a big hoop like that, it takes a LOT of rope!! So, I went in the closet, grabbed a metal hanger, bent it into a hoop shape, and covered it with rope. I tied it off and left some loose rope around the end that they could swing around. Yee-Haw!

Food

Boon Dogs

Mini Hotdogs
Canned refrigerator biscuit dough
skewers

Put skewers through the mini hotdogs. Cut out strips of dough and wrap around hotdog.  Bake to directions on the biscuit can. The fun part was that the kids would pretend to roast the dogs over the pretend fire in the teepee circle.

Cookies and Cream Cupcake Teepees
So I had an epic fail on these at first. Which is funny, because I was looking at the pinterest "nailed it" photos just the day before. I was cocky enough to think, "What were these guys thinking? How could they have failed so completely?" Trust me. I was humbled. This is what I came up with on the first try:

FAIL!!!
I had to take a step back, and tried to come up with a solution to this mess. I'll post my solution in detail to you here so that you don't have to do what I did. Not only was it a mess, but the cake also spilled into the bottom of my oven, causing my house to smell like burning for a couple days. Ugh.

What you'll need:
1 cake recipe (see below)
1 filling recipe (see below)
24 sugar cones
Oreo cookies, crushed coarsely
cupcake pan
aluminum foil
melting chocolate
sprinkles

Step 1: Prepare cake batter
Step 2: Cut off points of the sugar cones, fill tips of cones with coarsely crushed Oreos (so the batter doesn't run out)
Step 3: tear strips of aluminum foil and make little donut shapes around a few of your fingers, small enough to fit into the cupcake tin holes. Place aluminum foil donut into pan, and then place sugar cone, point side down inside the hole of the donut you just made. shape aluminum foil around cone slightly so that the cone is securely  standing up.
Step 4: Fill sugar cones with chocolate batter, leaving some space at the top for it to expand. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or so. Check for doneness by lightly touching the top of the cakes with your finger. If it springs up, your cake is done.
Step 5: Cut tops off the cakes down to the cones, as well as any drips you have on your cones with a serrated knife.
Step 6: Make filling according to directions. After cakes are cool, put some filling in a pastry bag and cut off the tip. Insert the tip into cake and squeeze some of the filling into the cake. After you fill one, I'd recommend cutting it in half to make sure you've got enough filling in and you can adjust accordingly. Plus, YUM! Test cake!
Step 7: Break pretzels in half. Melt melting chocolate chips in microwave. Pour some sprinkles on a small plate and spread out.
Step 8: Dip bottom of teepees in chocolate. Roll in sprinkles. Dip top of teepees in chocolate and set on wax paper.  When chocolate has set a little bit, put three pretzel pieces in chocolate. Done!

Carmel Maze
This sticky carmel corn recipe I've been making since I was a kid. It's awesome, and addicting. I don't make it nearly as much as I want to any more, because I don't want to be 300 lbs. I'm just warning you, its yummy.

You'll need:
1 carmel corn recipe (see below)
plastic wrap
Light green and green tissue paper
twine

After you've made the carmel corn, let cool for a couple minutes so you don't scald your hands. Take a handful of carmel corn and shape it into a rough cob shape. It doesn't have to be perfect. Put on a piece of wax paper to cool. Once cool, wrap each "cob" in plastic wrap. Cut your tissue paper into strips. Offset the dark and light green, wrap around the "cob" and twist at the bottom. Tie with a piece of twine.

Cookies and Cream Cake Recipe:
This recipe is from a cookbook called "Your Cup of Cake" by Lizzy Early. It's a cupcake recipe book, but I now make all of my birthday cakes using these recipes. They're almost as easy as a cake box, but much yummier.

Cake:
1 box devil's food cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 C. oil
3/4 C. milk
1/2 C. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 C butter, softened
3-4 C powdered sugar
12 chocolate cookies

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl, set aside
3. In a large bowl, combine oil, eggs, milk, sour cream and vanilla extract.
4. Stir in cake mix until smooth.
5. Follow directions stated above.

For filling:
Comine cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar; beat until smooth. Using a food processor, finely crush the cookies. Stir into cream cheese mixture until incorporated. Follow filling instructions above.

Carmel Corn Family Recipe

1/2 C. Butter (1 stick)
1 C. Brown Sugar
1 C. light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 giant bowl of popped popcorn, or two large bowls

Melt butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in saucepan. Bring to a boil and hard boil until carmel has reached soft ball stage (maybe three minutes). Add sweetened condensed milk and heat for another minute. Pour over popped corn.