The Fancy Birthday Party

Oh what a fun and fancy time we had at Nin's 5th birthday party! My mom and aunt went above and beyond decorating for the fancy fête! Here are the tables where we ate cake and ice cream.

The Cake table. Boop did a wonderful job decorating this table!

The goodie bags. The guests got one of each bag. The Fancy Nancy bags contain candy. The purple bags on the left contain a silver mini Friendship Ball which has a sterling silver bracelet and ring in it; a bottle of bubbles and a few pieces of candy. The purple bags on the right contain lavender soap petals.
The cake on the cake plateau. Definitely not a professional job, but Nin loved it and thought it was "the most beautiful cake, EVER!"
Our fancy cake knife/server and Fancy Nancy napkins - and we were definitely tres, tres fancy girls!
The fancy - and French! - birthday sign.
The Fancy Birthday Girl
The chairs that "look like they're getting married" to quote one of my girls.
A view of the party room.Here is the gift table before it was laden with gifts.
Sweet Sister-Friends
Nin blows out the candles on her cake. Notice the earrings? That's an accessory tip from Fancy Nancy - Christmas ornaments on a loop of fishing line hooked onto your ears. The girls loved them!!
Annie applauds Nin's blowing-out-the-candles skills.

Looking forward to a Fancy Party!

I have no idea what all my mom and aunt have planned - but Nin's birthday party is next weekend (May 9). The theme is Fancy Nancy - Nin's favorite books. Nancy loves all things French - which is what inspired the birthday invitations. Trust me when I say the scan doesn't do them justice because the paper isn't as glittery and the little jewels aren't as "blingy" in the scan as they are in hand. Nin chose the ribbon I used to make the tab at the top. She loved the black, pink and white.

The cake is going to be light purple because "Nancy yuuuuvs yight purple, Mommy!" I'm going to use silver pearl dust on the decorations. We're going to do a fancy two-tier cake - 10" and 8" inspired by this one though I promise you my version won't be *that* fancy! :) (and on a side note, I notice the price of her Fancy Nancy party has dropped almost $150 - it used to be $795 for 8 kids)

I know that Mom and Bippie have picked up chair covers, tulle for the cake table, fancy little goodies for the goodie bags (and I mean *fancy!!*) but they won't really tell me everything they're doing. They've hit the Alda's Warehouse closing sale *several* times buying goodies for the party. I can't wait to share pictures!

And speaking of parties - Annie has decided that she wants a Tinkerbell party when she turns four instead of having a froggie party.





Invite wording:
Bonjour, Madamoiselles!
(that's French for Hello Ladies!)
Please join us for
a fancy time celebrating
Katherine Egg's
5th Birthday
Saturday, May 9, 2009
1:00 - 2:30p.m.
a la maison {last name}
(that's French for at Bippie's house)
{address}
{address}
RSVP: Gina
{phone number} or {email}

My Baby is One! (photo-laden)

Harrison's birthday was Sunday. We had his party on Saturday. We invited family and a few very close friends. I chose a froggy theme - including the birthday boy's clothes (Gymboree had a frog line in December before he was born and we got a shirt and hat then...yes, really).

I searched Wilton's website for frog cakes and decided to do this one. After I did Elizabeth's and didn't lose my religion, I decided I'd try to do Harrison's cake, too. Even though it's not perfect, I think it's pretty cute. It was fun to do, too.

He does really well walking behind his push toys and he's becoming more confident in taking steps, though he still won't take more than five or six steps at a time.






Here's the birthday boy loving that we're all singing to him. He's being held by his birthday buddy, Mr. Joe.











What is that silly man doing?! Apparently watching Joe blow out the candles was pretty funny.

This was Mommy's favorite moment from the whole party. I got the sweetest hugs and kisses while we were opening gifts!

The birthday boy in one of his gift bags. Yeah, the bag really was that big.












Playing with a birthday balloon during the post-party clean-up. (sigh) I love this boy!!!

The Hannah Montana Birthday Party

A week later - here are photos from the party.

Strawberry cake. Ignore the fact that the "strings" are broken.  The icing was a little too stiff.  She loved it, though and I didn't lose my religion making it!  :)

Striking a pose.  Annie cracks me up here.  She was trying so hard to be like her big sisters.

The walkway from the driveway through the garage into the party.  Decor by Bippie.  Each guests' name was written on the "purple carpet" welcoming them to Elizabeth's "Secret Star" 6th birthday party.  It was cute.

We made mini tote bags for our craft at the party.  Here's Nin working on hers.  She had been at a classmate's party that morning - where they'd done her hair and painted her nails. She was our little party girl that day!

Love this photo of these two.  They're best friends (and sometimes worst enemies).

Here they are at the end of Musical Blankets.  Everyone trying to pile on one the one remaining blanket.  They loved playing this game!

Elizabeth chose sparkling candles and then she hated them once they were lit.  The "sparkling" part scared her.

Planning birthday parties

I think one of the most fun things about being a mom is planning my kids' birthday parties.  I love doing that. 

So today, Elizabeth found a page I'd torn out of a magazine in May.  The page had several different cakes on it.  She pointed to one made from this pan and said, "Next year for my seventh birthday I want to do these cupcakes and have a 'sweets' party. We can do these cupcakes. Everyone can decorate their own.  We can have goodie bags of candy and decorate with candy and cupcakes and stuff. What do you think, Mommy?"  So, I'm thinking next year I'm going to be stocking up on candy so we can do a candy buffet (google it and you'll see what I mean - it's apparently all "The Rage" for weddings these days).  I think it's an adorable idea.  She's proving to be my girl!  :)

The birthday party

Elizabeth's party was two weeks ago and I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and reflect on it. This was her first "friends" party and she loved every minute of it. My aunt is just a saint. She opened her home since I knew mine wasn't going to be big enough for the group we'd invited. She has a "studio flat" upstairs at her house that was recently vacated by my cousin. So, she suggested that we do the painting up there and then go downstairs for cake, ice cream and gifts. Great idea! And then, she suggested that we make a sign pointing upstairs to "Elizabeth's Art Gallery". She made the adorable sign that we hung in the garage (where the staircase is) and we lined the stairwell with various pieces of Elizabeth's artwork from preschool - and believe me, there is a lot of it - which is a good thing since the stairwell had a whole lot of wallspace!!

The kids seemed to have a great time painting their turtle banks. Everyone ate cake and ice cream, which was a surprise since Elizabeth had chosen strawberry cake. After we cut it one of my nephews said, "Oooh, it looks like turtle guts!" Only a pre-teen boy... Elizabeth and her friends had such a good time. We got a great shot of them on the back porch swing (not shown in order to protect the privacy of the kids - but trust me, it's an adorable picture). I just wish I'd thought to have them get back out there or on the front porch after Ella arrived so she'd be in the picture, too! Elizabeth and her little Sunday School classmates are such a sweet, close group of children. The moms of the class often remark to one another that we hope they carry this closeness into their teenage and adult years. And we have to laugh - Connor, Elijah and Zach are the only boys in a class of 13 or 14. Lots and lots of little girls!

Turtle ideas

Elizabeth is having a turtle-themed birthday party and it's her first "friends" party so she's very excited about it. Initially it was going to be sea turtles and dolphins - so we were going to do a beach thing - she'd chosen this cake and we were going to add some turtles to it and eliminate some of the fish:

But, she's since chosen another cake (no photo on the Wilton website since it's a cake in their 2008 Yearbook) and the craft/favor she's chosen isn't beach-related either. It's a very, very cute little paint-your-own ceramic turtle bank.

So, now I'm searching for wording for her invitations. Any ideas? I'm completely drawing a blank!!

Birthday pictures

Oh, oh, oh how cute was our baby girl last night at her party! Here are my four favorite photos from the night (we took 101!!)

Sweet baby girl! I can't believe it's been a year but in other ways it seems that she's been here for so long that I can't believe it's only been a year!

Christmas Card Photo Reject #3 and other stuff

That Annie...she just makes me laugh. The big girls were cooperating but Banannie wasn't having any of it. Still, so stinking cute. And no, we're not having a charismatic moment there. I love it for *me* but friends who rarely see your kids want to see their faces, and full on is best if you ask me. My sister and I have had this conversation - when she got a picture of some friends' kids looking out at the ocean. A great 'mom' shot, an awesome scrapbook page photo, but not a good idea for your family Christmas card if you ask me. And yes, by reading my blog you DID ask me, as a matter of fact. ;)

I've got to get on the stick with birthday party planning. I'm totally dragging my feet. I imagine I'll be at Party City on the afternoon of Annie's party trying to buy all the paper goods because I'm so not in the party mood. My SIL's mom is going to make the cake. Yippee. Susan makes great cakes. We're going with the Pink & Black polka dot theme - and Annie is wearing a sweater with pink & black polka dots on it.

Elizabeth wants another Princess party. Since most of the people who will be invited to her Princess party will be at Annie's party, I think we're going to do scrolls and hand deliver them. She'll be all over that. She wanted to do something like what I did last year; but since my family has bailed on me in doing Family Craft Days, I haven't had an opportunity to get anything like them done. The entire invitation was handmade, got the idea from DIY Network. The invites were printed on white parchment looking card stock, I printed seals with little crowns on them to be the seals, the "flaps" were purple. We mailed them like that, I'm not sure why DIY shows that lined envelope as part of the same project.

The Jermain Taylor fight should be on in just a few minutes...I'm ready. The sooner it's over, the sooner my husband gets home. We've had a busy day today. We have a busy day tomorrow.