For Lily's 2nd, 3rd and 4th birthdays, we had big birthday parties with lots of friends and family, and they were always fun. Lily kept saying she wanted a princess party for her 5th birthday, so we were trying to figure out the best way to do that. As we started to plan the party, we realized we were running into a problem. If we invited her new friends from school, we are required to invite the entire class of ten kids. If we invite her friends from church, that's another dozen or so kids. Of course, the adults usually stay too because they are our friends, and we like hanging out with them. It was just getting to be too big. Lily really doesn't like being the center of attention, and she can become pretty shy when there are lots of people around. So, we decided on a different route this year. Instead of a big party, we decided to give Lily and her best friend, Anna Powell, a "princess day." I told Lily the plan about two weeks ago, and she was thrilled with the idea. The day didn't go exactly as planned (mental note...Lily really still needs to take a nap during the day), but overall, it went really well and Lily said she had a great time. Here's what we did:
Ryan, Lily and I picked Anna up at her home about 10:45 this morning. My dad came by our house earlier and picked Mia up. They had a fun morning at the playground and Barnes & Noble before picking up Meme and meeting my mom for lunch at OK Cafe. Thanks for hanging out with Mia so we could have some time with just the big girls! The four of us drove over to Powder Springs to a cute little tea room called Tea at Seven Springs; all princesses love a good tea party. Everything was decorated so nicely, and there were only a few other tables in use which was nice. They have lots of old-fashion hats around the restaurant that you are welcome to try on and wear during your tea. We convinced the girls to put these hats on, but they were not interested in wearing them for very long.
While Ryan and I both had hot tea (his was an ice wine tea while mine was called cranberry autumn), the girls were treated to pink lemonade. It came in a little teapot, and they each had a little tea cup to drink from. So cute! We went through two tea pots of pink lemonade because they enjoyed it so much. Here is Ryan helping Anna fill her tea cup.
Ready to enjoy a spot of tea!
Yum!
Lily couldn't get enough!
The girls really loved using "the tweezers" to pick up a sugar cube and put it in our tea for us. We finally caved and let them each put a sugar cube into their lemonade too. They were thrilled and found it delicious!
Our meal started with a cup of soup for each of us. Ryan ordered a tomato bisque while the girls and I enjoyed baked potato. Anna and I wolfed ours down, but Lily didn't eat much; she's not much of a soup eater. Again, theirs came in miniature cups, and it was just so cute.
After the soup, the three tiered plates arrived. The girls had the children's tea plate which included two sandwiches of their choice (Lily ordered one ham and one turkey while Anna ordered one ham and one PB&J) cut into a butterfly and flower shape with a couple of jelly beans on top (she the picture below). Their plates also included for each of them: a peach slice, grapes, small scone, brownie bite with a cherry on top, small flower-shaped sugar cookie and a little cup of goldfish with a couple of M&M's mixed in. Both girls really enjoyed all of their selections.
Ryan and I also had a three-tiered plate of goodies. For each of us, there was a large scone with curd and cream, peach slices, grapes, small triangle-shaped finger sandwiches (chicken salad, pimiento cheese, cucumber and tomato with bacon), peanut butter mousse, lemon triangle, brownie and small caramel apple bar. Almost as soon as they sat the tier down, Anna said "That's a vegetable on that sandwich! Can I have it?" We were all too happy to give her the cucumber sandwiches and tomato sandwiches which she happily gobbled up. Lily wanted to try the pimiento sandwich, and she ate about half of it (in addition to her two sandwiches). This really was a delicious little meal. Both girls thoroughly enjoyed their tea party.
When our meal was over, we walked around outside for a little bit because it was "Powder Springs Day" so they had a little festival going on right outside the restaurant. Both girls wanted to go into the bouncy house and then into the inflatable obstacle course. We were able to get them to pause for just a moment as they climbed up one of the walls to snap this picture.
Such sweet friends!
After enjoying the festival for a little bit, we headed on home and got there pretty soon after Mia and my mom returned. I had planned on doing a "princess craft" when we arrived, and we had several cute options. However, Anna had given Lily a fun craft project as a present, and Lily really wanted to do it. It was a neat little set that lets you paint a puppy dog and then decorate it. There were three little puppy dogs included to paint which worked perfectly for us, so we decided to go with this project since the girls really wanted to do this one. We put down some newspaper, and the girls went to town painting their puppy dogs with the bobble heads.
Lily was determined to carefully paint her dog a realistic dark brown with pink ears.
Mia and Anna took an imaginative approach and made their puppy dogs a little more colorful. They all had a lot of fun painting as you can see by the smile on Mia's face.
While the puppies dried and Mia took a nap, we put in The Little Mermaid for Lily and Anna. My thought was they would enjoy a princess movie, and it would allow them some time to rest even though they weren't taking naps. Here they are settling in on the couch to watch the movie.
We also made some "Treasure Island Trail Mix" for them to enjoy while they watched. It included popcorn, pretzel sticks, mini chocolate chips, vanilla chips, dried cherries and honey roasted soy nuts. It was a big hit all around. About 20 minutes into the movie, after the snacks were finished, the girls decided they didn't really want to watch the movie after all (throw a big kink into my plan here); instead they wanted to lay on Lily's bed and play with her new Leap Pad Explorer that Grandpops and Grandma Jan had given her for her birthday. I decided to go with this because they were happy and resting while playing on the Explorer.
Just as they finished playing with the Explorer is when Mia woke up from her nap. Perfect timing. The girls gathered around the kitchen table and we colored wooden princesses.
Lily always loves to color, so this was a great craft for her.
It was such a beautiful day outside, so we decided to go out and play for a little while. We took some sidewalk chalk and bubbles out for the girls to enjoy. They had a good time with these on our driveway, and the girls also had fun skipping and hopping along the stones that lead from our driveway to the back deck.
Anna was partial to the bubbles; she blew a ton of them.
Lily had a great time running in circles around Mia and Anna popping the bubbles they blew.
After about 30 minutes of that, Ryan came outside and had lots of fun playing in the front yard with the girls. They brought out their big, oversized balls for Ryan to kick and them to chase. While they did that, I went inside to get dinner together.
I wanted to make Lily something a little different for dinner, and I tried to give it a princess theme by making things from her three princess cookbooks that she loves to look through. We enjoyed Sea Foam Floats (scoop of raspberry sherbet in Sprite topped with whipped cream and raspberries), pink jello cut into dolphin or seahorse shapes, Sugar and Spice Sandwich Swirls (cinnamon cream cheese and strawberry jelly rolled up on bread with sprinkles on top), and Fairy Queen Quiches (individual flower-shaped quiches with mozzarella cheese). Mia, Anna and I had diced tomatoes on our quiches which looked like seeds, but Lily doesn't like tomatoes at all, so I didn't put them on her plate (you don't have to "try a bite" on your birthday!).
Lily asked if she could say the prayer before dinner. She says it often for us, but she always says the sweet "God our Father" song that she learned last year at Mommy Morning Out. Well, this time, she said "Dear God, thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Lily and Mia. Thank for letting Anna come over and have a princess day with me." At this point, Anna interrupted and said "Say, thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for us." Lily paused, and then continued "Thank you for our friend Anna and letting her come over. Amen." So precious all around!
Mia and Anna were big fans of the Sea Foam Floats! Lily said it was a little spicy; she says this about anything with carbonation in it, so she didn't drink too much of it.
Isn't Jello always a hit with kids?
After dinner, the girls watched a Cat in the Hat cartoon and played together for a few minutes while I put our dessert together. We had cake and cupcakes earlier in the week in other birthday celebrations, so I decided on something a little different that Lily was excited about. I made Sea Maiden Sand Cups (trying to stay with a princess theme) which was rainbow sherbet with crushed nilla wafers and a few shark gummies on top. We sang Happy Birthday, and Lily was thrilled!
What a great way to wrap up our sweet Lily's 5th birthday! Happy birthday Lily!
