Happy Birthday, Miss Priss!

Well, sort of. We celebrated Miss Priss' birthday yesterday, March 17th, even though her birthday is really not until the 30th. We had less than a week to plan and prepare the whole party, and I thought it went great! We invited 18 little princess friends from preschool, primary, and the neighborhood. I've heard that you usually can expect about half the number of people you invite to a party, and I thought 10 little 4 - 5-year-olds would make a great party. I was a little surprised when only TWO weren't able to make it. That's right, we had 16 little princesses (and two princes - cousins) here yesterday afternoon! It was crazy, to say the least. Luckily my sister and three moms stayed to help. And thank heavens for My Man!!! He saved the day! He was here helping with everything from rounding up kids for different events, to manning the bbq for lunch, being the photographer, and cutting the cake. I could not have done it without all the help.

The two of us had a late night on Friday, doing last minute preparations that we didn't want to rush through in the morning. I made the birthday cake, which I have to say turned out okay, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. It was a three-layer cake decorated to look like a castle. I couldn't believe I went through TWO POUNDS of frosting! It ended up slightly lopsided, but it was a big hit and everyone said it tasted great. Whew!

We also stayed up putting up balloons and streamers. I loved the way it turned out. And the girls could hardly contain themselves in the morning when they woke up to a decorated house.
In the morning The Man went to get some ice for the coolers, and came home with flowers for Miss Priss. (She's always a little jealous when he gets flowers for me and asks, "Daddy, why don't I get flowers?") It was a very nice gesture from him, and she loved them.
As the princesses started to arrive, we lead them into the kitchen to start making their charm bracelets. We used some super cute princess crown charms I had leftover from an activity days event a while back, and just used my other beads I already had. It was so funny to see them put their own bracelets together. Anyone with a little OCD would have died. No patterns, no color coordinating, just whatever beads they liked in whatever order they wanted. So fun!
Then we moved into the living room where I read the story of 'The Princess and the Pea' so we could play a game. The girls took turns leaving the room while someone else would place a "pea" (ball) under a pillow. Then they would come in and sit on each pillow to see if they could find where the pea was, because as the story goes, only a true princess has skin sensitive enough to feel a pea under all those mattresses and feather beds. And would you believe it; each one of them turned out to be a true princess!

I told a quick version of 'The Frog Prince' for our next game, where the girls were blindfolded and given lips to pin on the frog. The Man made our frog prince (thanks again, honey!), and there were plenty of giggles and screams when each princess places her lips somewhere on the frog.

We went outside for our royal feast in the backyard, but ended up finishing up our food inside the house. It was 90 degrees out there! Much too warm for princesses, so they only lasted about 20 minutes or so out in the sun. The girls dished up their own plates, and it made me laugh to see a few dining only on plates full of Oreos and chips. Hey, it was a party. No one says you have to eat the hot dogs and fruit at a party; right?


Time was running out (the games took a bit longer than I expected since we had so many kids - good thing I eliminated face painting, which I had planned on initially), so we consolidated eating cake and opening presents. We sang Happy Birthday, and Miss Priss began opening her gifts while the rest of the girls ate birthday cake.
We said goodbye as parents showed up, and sent each princess home with her very own purse filled with jewelry, gloss, stickers and treats. I was a little bummed that I didn't use my original idea of decorating plastic goblets with jewels, and writing their names in glitter paint, but so many girls called to say they were coming, I just didn't have the time to make almost 20 goblets. Plus, the goodie bags would have cost a fortune had I added that to them.

I was glad when it was over, but even more glad we actually went through with it. It was tons of fun, and I know this was a birthday party Miss Priss will remember ... at least until she's six.