A Very Royal Party

Princess Maddie - The Birthday Girl with her castle cake
Please don't judge my cake too harshly.  I know the towers are leaning
and the top tier is crooked, it was a hard cake to work with.

The Invitation

Party Favors

Decorations!  My favorite part! Streamers, balloons, pink tulle, and tissue paper balls; cheap but effective!

Plant the Kiss on the Frog game - By the way my husband freehanded that Prince Navine (Sp?)

Present Time!

Cake Time!

 So Madalyn had been planning her birthday party for 365 days and went back and forth between princesses and ponies and puppies.  I finally a few weeks before her birthday made her commit to something.  I was so glad she chose princesses.  We had such a good time.  We had 9 little princesses in all and they were all dressed up in their fancy dresses.  We decorated crowns, which was a bit messy for this young age but they loved their crowns.  They were just gold and silver poster board cut out to look like crowns with jewel stickers and gems that I had them glue on.  We played plant the kiss on the frog which all the girls thought was hilarious.  They played "Find Cindrella's Slipper" with a slipper ornament I found at Walmart (bonus for Christmas stuff coming out so early).  Instead of hot and cold I had them say Prince Charming when they were getting closer and Wicked Stepmother when they got farther away.  They would have played this all day!   One of the princesses asked me, "Wait, so Prince Charming is hot?"  I about died laughing.  Then we opened presents, ate cake and played with the presents until moms and dads came to collect the very tired Princesses.  From the review I heard from the guests I'd say this party was a hit! 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

We love you so much for all the good

you do and the friendship you give so

willingly!

Lorelei's 7th Birthday Party - Woodland Fairy

I planned this party in my head while I was laid up in bed this summer after I had knee surgery.  With the help of pinterest and my talent as a copycat I turned our backyard into a fairyland.  I loved it and more importantly so did Lorelei.  The pictures don't do it justice and simply don't show all the detail.  I wanted to take more pictures but I had a couple of very punctual guests and I didn't have time.  I had a headband made for each guest and we did a little face painting.  I made them little treasure bags and as they were waiting for their turn to get their face painted I had them looking for little treasures we had hidden in the yard (clay ladybugs, glass beads, jewels, etc.).  They took these treasures home to make a fairy garden in their yard.

My husband is a genius.  I told him I wanted him to hang a hula hoop from the tree branch and he made it happen.  He also got those stumps from our neighbor who was cutting down his tree.  So convienent.  I wrapped the tulle and flowers around the hula hoop and then hung yarn globes (much trickier to make than you think) from it as well.

 Never mind the fallen cup...I won't complain about the breeze it was 105 degrees outside.  We needed the breeze.  Inside the moss are more clay ladybugs and toadstools and butterflies. 

 The flowers in the watering can came from my garden. 

 The birthday girl.  She was so excited!  I made a path leading from our front sidewalk to the back gate. 

 My welcome banner.

 Paper flower straws  They were a lot of fun to make and they added so much to the table.

 The menu included: Ladybug apples (just add black frosting dots to apple halves)

PBJ Sandwiches cutout into flower shapes

Twigs (pretzels sticks)

Sparkling morning dew (Cherry 7 up)

 Acrons (Hershey kiss, with mini vanilla wafers and a chocolate chip on top, held together with pb)

The cake I made!  I was so proud of it. 

 Snail Sandwiches (Tortillas with ham and cheese and toothpicks for antennae)

Toadstools (Cheese sticks, cherry tomato halves and cream cheese spots)

  Fairy Lorelei

Pixie Dust (glitter in little bottles) as the party favors, along with the wands they decorated and their headbands.  I had a couple of games planned but after face painting, eating lunch, wand decorating, cake and ice cream and opening presents we were out of time.  The girls sat at their little table eating and giggling for  the longest time.  I think they all had a good time.  I didn't want to have to take everything down but we were leaving for vacation the next day and so down it came.  It was so lovely.  

Happy Birthday to my Fairy Lorelei!

 

My Little Ballerinas

 Lorelei and Maddie had their first ballet recital last week.
They both did so great!  I was so proud of them, mostly because my own stage fright would have paralyzed me.  Lorelei was a little scared but handled it like a champ.  Madalyn loves to have people watch her and to perform, so she was right at home.  Don't they look adorable?  I took the picture of Annabelle a couple of months ago and had forgotten about it until just now.  Greg put curlers in her hair one night while I was gone and the result was this wavy frizzy hair.  It looked so cute pulled up in ponytails.  She is such a ham!

Pinewood Derby

It is so amazing to me that Jacob is old enough to be in scouts. And with that comes the most exciting event of an 8 year old's life--The Pinewood Derby. Dad got more excited about it than Jacob did I think. I can't believe the lengthy discussions between fathers about the tricks of the trade. I wish everyone would just stick the wheels in and take their chances and level out the playing field for the boys. Anyway Jacob's car didn't come in last, which was Greg's goal. Jacob was glad when he won a couple of races, I don't think he really understood that he could win overall. So he was perfectly content. Jacob even wrote a Valentine for Greg, it said: "You are clean, you aren't dirty. I like your cars from the Pinewood Derby." I love this kid! Here are a couple of pictures.

A Merry Christmas to you...

Wow, it has been forever, but I just haven't had a whole lot of things to blog about. But I got my Christmas cards done today and I thought I would send them virally as well as through snail mail. We hope that all is well with you and yours and that you have a very Merry Christmas!

This is Halloween!

Here are the kiddos on Halloween. We almost didn't get pictures because we were in such a hurry to get out the door. It was windy and cold but it always amazes me that the kids don't really care. They just want candy and boy did they get candy. So we have Rapunzel, ballerina, Cat in the Hat, and a fairy. Aren't they so cute?