Her 3rd Birthday Princess Party Part 1

After my little one's party was over I wanted to smack myself. I really dropped the ball from a photography standpoint. I didn't capture the decorations, the cake (thank you mom for saving me!), the food table, the balloons outside, the ceiling or floor swarming with colorful balloons etc. I didn't get a single posed picture with my little girl at her party...that made me sad.  On the other hand I was present in the event.  That is always the challenge for me.  Do I want to get swallowed up by picture taking or do I want to sacrifice getting the pictures that I'd like so that I can enjoy my daughter and her party more.  I could have asked a friend to photograph the event for me but, I didn't think I would really care.  Well, I guess you live and you learn:).  hehe.  

I still managed to get some great pictures and I am thankful for what I do have and far more important than pictures is the fact that my little one had a great time and it was a wonderful day of celebration with our friends and family.  

I had been hoping that we could have an outdoor party because kids love running around in the sunshine and it is nice to have a bigger area to set up but, it just wasn't quite warm enough in the morning to put everything out.  By the end of the party it was beautiful out and the kids went out back and ran around which was nice.  We ended up setting up the entire party in our living room. I moved all of our furniture as far out as possible and created a nice big play area in the middle.  It was wild and loud but, a good kind of loud and wild.  And yes, the carpet got dirty but, I was anticipating that also.  We have a carpet cleaner so after the party was over, we pulled that sucker out and whalah we got our carpets back in working order. lol

Party favors for the girls consisted of a lot of cute princess things; wands, necklace, bracelet, ring, hair clip, stickers, candy and bubbles.  The boys got totally different goodie bags with cars, bubbles, stickers, candy and little boy toys. The goodie bags are from Wall-Mart and they worked out great.  It was cute to see how excited the kids got about their goodies bags which we handed out at the end of the party as each child was leaving. 

My hubby's Aunt volunteered to make the cake and I am so happy that she did!  I absolutely loved her Princess cake creation and Daisy did too.  So girly and cute and it tasted delicious.  Thank you so much Kathy!   It gave me one less and very huge thing to think about and plan for.  Thank you Mom for actually getting a picture of the cake.  What would I do without so many wonderful helpers:). I love how this little craft table turned out.  This was one of our activities that I thought would be really fun but, not too many of the kiddos spent a whole lot of time here.  Mostly because they really are so young and they don't have the attention span for a lengthy craft yet.  They did all enjoy the stickers and the jewels though.  That's all that matters.  I was dying to make my own crown or shield but, didn't have time.  Someday! :).  The shields are not shown in these pics because we hadn't finished cutting them out of a brown box yet.  My mom made them and they turned out great! I thought a tea party would be a great activity to have out for the kids.  I sanitized the set the night before (just thought you all might like to know that haha) and set everything out in the morning with a pitcher of water (yes it spilled all over but, I was okay with that) and a plate of mini muffins on the quilt.  The kiddos loved this activity! They would run around and play and then come back to the tea party to sip some tea and gobble up another muffin.  The cutest thing was that Daisy kept going to the food table and piling more muffins onto a little paper plate to restock the supply at her tea party station.  Her little hosting skills are pretty precious!  We also had some princess music videos on the TV above this station and the kids would watch the video a little bit while sipping tea.  So sweet. I bounced back and forth on how I wanted to decorate for Daisy's princess party for a little while. I spent hours looking at beautiful princess parties that didn't actually have the Disney Princesses in the decor on Pinterest and the web but, I concluded that Daisy wouldn't enjoy a princess party unless the actual Disney Princesses were present.  I don't like character parties very much but, I am getting softer and softer the longer I am a Mom.  Whatever makes my kid happy, makes me happy.   So with that motto in mind, I sacrificed my "party decorating pride" and bought simple posters and decorations from the party store and Wall-Mart and kept things very low key.  Unfortunately because I didn't capture the decorations very well I don't even have any pictures of the posters and signs that we got but, basically there were a lot of Princesses all over the walls in our house.  My mom and I made the tissue poms during two nap breaks.  They always add a nice pinch of color and sweetness to a party.  I got the castle below because I wanted another activity that the boys attending could enjoy. I didn't want the party to be so girly that the boys were neglected. lol  In fact I think we had more boys in attendance than girls.  Only one little guy actually scribbled some color on the castle but, they all seemed to love running in and out of it and playing with the musical instruments that I hid inside.  I would say that the castle was a hit and was worth the investment.  I bought it on sale from Amazon but, I've heard that Wall-Mart sells these periodically as well.

I didn't capture the food table but, basically we served fruit on skewers to look wand-like, finger PB&J and cheese sandwiches, chocolate, banana, and pumpkin mini muffins, individual chip bags, capri-suns, waters and cake. I kept the food super simple. I wanted all the foods to be finger foods and it turned out just fine.  The mini muffins were a big hit as were the fruit wands.  Though I cautioned the parents not to let their children run with the sharp skewer spears! lol.  

Daisy LOVED helping Daddy blow up the helium balloons in the morning before her party started.  I even caught her blowing a balloon up by herself after Daddy had gone to the store. lol. She was actually helpful with a lot of little tasks.  She went outside with me while I tied 3 balloons onto the mail box and I didn't even pay much attention but, evidently she remembered what colors they were (pink, purple and white) because one got taken by a neighbor kid and Daisy knew exactly what color was missing later in the afternoon.  Pretty smart cookie if I do say so! :). 

 Though Daisy will probably never remember this party aside from reading this post in a few years in our printed blog books, I do want her to know that a lot of love goes into her parties and she is so worth it:).  Her birthday brings so many people together that I don't get to see nearly enough.  I am thankful for that! 

My mom was such a tremendous help this year in many ways.  It was so much fun to prepare goodies bags, cut out crafts and even prepare food the day of with her by my side.  I am SO thankful that she was here to celebrate with us this year.  Such a treat for us all.  Thank you Mommy for everything!  The only reason I am in a picture is because my mom likes to capture things as much as I do:).  Below I am cutting out lots of little paper shapes for the kids to stick on their shields and crowns....while texting evidently? Don't remember that. haha Good times. hehe

Well, stay tuned for part 2.  A Princess Party in action!