Well over a month ago, our big girl turned 4. If I think about that fact too much, I just about start to cry, so let's focus on the happy things and talk about her birthday party!
After going through the (75!) pictures from that afternoon/evening, I concluded that there's more to tell than show . . . not too many winners in that batch of photos.
Back in the summer, I shared a picture on facebook of Gemma cleaning my baseboards with a toothbrush, and John's cousin suggested that her next birthday should be Cinderella-themed. Perfect idea! Cinderella is actually Gemma's favorite princess, for the simple reason that the Disney Cinderella wears a blue dress! (Gemma's favorite color is blue and other than reading a few fairy tales, she doesn't really know the stories.)
I had some ideas for the party brewing for a few weeks, but actually threw it all together in just a few days. With two daughters born in December, that's the way things seem to happen . . . maybe I'll get better at the planning as the years go on.
Four other little girls arrived on a Saturday afternoon to a table set up with jewels, sequins, and glitter-glue to decorate crowns I had traced onto posterboard and cut out the night before. It was a good little activity to keep them busy while everyone else arrived. Lesson #1 learned: Glitter glue takes forever to dry! I had wanted to the girls to be able to wear their crowns later in the party, but that didn't work at all. One of the party guests had brought some glitter markers, though, and if we'd only used those (and maybe stick-on jewels), then that probably would have worked.
We moved to the living room to do our Cinderella chores. :) I had a basket of dusters waiting for them, and we cued up the "work song" on youtube. This kept them busy for about . . . 2 minutes :) while my sister, Heidi, and I frantically tried to transform the dining room into a ballroom by taping dollar-store plastic tablecloths to the ceiling!
We then improvised a little bit. Heidi threw on a blanket, one of the Elsa wigs, and found a fairy wand in her car(!!) and made an entrance as the fairy godmother, directing the girls to hunt for the four little pretend mice (from John's childhood knick-knack collection) and two mini pumpkins (leftover from autumn) which I had hidden around the living room. Another fun acitivity, during which we cued up "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!" Lesson #2: Put together the youtube list ahead of time!
At this point, I had envisioned the girls getting into their princess dresses and crowns to be all ready for the ball, and I had set up Gemma's little princess tent in a corner with the extra dresses we had (and some of our guests brought), but let's face it--all the girls showed up already dressed up, including my own daughter. ;) Despite the lacking "transformation" element, they all seemed to enjoy dancing around the dining room. There were some daddy/daughter couples, some circling, and some freestyle ballet moves, all to the dance song from Cinderella and some Bach thrown in for good measure.
(Apparently I forgot to take my apron off!)
When they tired of that, we pushed the table back into the middle of the room, sang "Happy Birthday" and served the uber simple menu of cupcakes and fruit wands. The fruit wands were dowels with star fruit on the ends, something I'd seen on Pinterest. Afterward, there were several princess plates with cupcakes that merely had their buttercream licked off and Gemma was the only one who chowed down her star fruit, but at least the birthday girl was happy!
Honestly, that probably wasn't enough activity for a party, since this whole sequence lasted under an hour, but the girls free-played and changed dresses a lot while we waited for their parents to come and started making dinner. At the library a few days later, Gemma magically picked out a Disney CD called "Happy Birthday Princess" which had a musical chairs game and fun Belle pretending game on it. They would have been great additions (Though maybe they would have been a bit beyond some of our little guests.)
Now for the pancakes part! When I asked Gemma Grace what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she repeatedly requested pancakes, leaving me a bit befuddled. Pancakes followed by birthday cake? What about vegetables and protein? What about filling up the tummies of her daddy and uncles? (Gemma was privileged to have four aunts and uncles and two cousins within driving distance and able to come for her birthday! Now, the army has moved or is in the process of moving them all away, so it was a very special birthday!)
Many folks gave encouragement and suggestions on Facebook, and I eventually settled on this menu:
Spinach salad with pomegranate, apples, and carmelized almonds
Buttermilk pancakes (I use the recipe from Southern Living.)
Homemade chunky applesauce
Cottage cheese
Bacon (We made a big tray of it in the oven.)
I wish I'd made her special Mickey pancakes or something, but we had 10 at our table and it was a little crazy. Thankfully Heidi and Liz helped me with the dinner immensely--I heated two cast iron pans on the stove and mixed up a double batch of batter, but Liz cooked all those pancakes for me! And Heidi did the bacon, salad, and generally helped me not to feel overwhelmed.
We all felt satisfied with that meal, especially the birthday girl, whose opinion mattered the most that day. ;) Then we brought out the cake--chocolate with "white" buttercream. :) I'd just made one layer, using the rest of the batter for half a dozen cupcakes for the princess party.
And that funny kid took forever trying to blow her candles out. She even tried using her nose for a while! But she eventually got them all by herself!
Then it was time for giggles and presents and cousin-love. :)
Everyone else delighted Gemma's heart by giving her very on-theme Disney gifts--a Frozen paint set, "glass" slippers, and even a birthday ball book!
But from mommy and Daddy she got some boring clothes (including a pink Duke shirt!) and homemade bunny slippers. ;)
And Daddy gave Gemma a new little stuffed Minnie that she'd wanted from Walgreens but couldn't have. She'd been disciplined for throwing such a fit over being told "no," but then he went back and bought it secretly to save for a gift.
That was Gemma's 4th birthday-to-remember! We love you loads, big girl!!
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