Princess Party- Pink and Purple and Royally Fancy

Natalie turns 4 tomorrow. Hurray! Here’s what we did to celebrate. I was instructed to make a “Disney Princess Fancy Birthday Party.” I tried to go for Glittery, Fancy, Pink, but not overtly Disney Princesses- there were boys coming, after all.

Invitations:

I did simple shapes on Make the Cut to make a background castle, with separate triangles/towers to glue on in differing colors. See picture below. On the back I included party information (not pictured)

For decorations I put up banners and pom poms from past parties, streamers and balloons. Here’s the entry way table with some flowers, our silver candlesticks (baking soda polish works great, if you’re wondering!)

Signs:

I made one that said “Royal Banquet Hall” and “Royal Ballroom” and “Welcome to Natalie’s Castle”- then I started thinking of all the other cute signs you’d see in a Fairy Tale Land. I felt like a writer on Shrek, making Lord Farqwa’s perfect kingdom.

Royal Banquet Hall

Castles

So as guests arrived we stuck a Tiara on the girls, glittered their hair, and set them off coloring a cardstock castle- you can see them on the tables above. Here’s a png of the cut:

They had heart and star stickers to decorate. This took up about 15 minutes, then I glued the tabs and folded over. Then they look more like this:

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with this craft. Everything else on the internet for castles involved toilet paper tubes and paint- and I wasn’t about to have everyone paint in their Cinderella dresses. Plus, if it’s going to be made out of paper and trashed in a few days, I don’t want to spend a huge amount of time making it or having them make it. So this worked better. I included 1.5” character cutouts in their goody bags so they could cut and glue more and play with the castle.

Then we played games!!

First up: Walk like a princess and prince- balance a bean bag or book on your head, and try to make it all the way across the floor. Then try to dance with it on your head.

Then everyone followed me doing some ballerina dance steps. I put on the Disney music and had them pair off. There were only two boys, so we found out who the most assertive girls were- Maddie edged her way into dancing. These two’s parents work together, so I have a feeling this will be the first of many awkward dances through the years!

Next up we played: Who Am I? Disney Version. Everyone got a character taped to their back. They were supposed to go around and ask questions to figure out who it was. It worked for some kids. Best suited for over 4 years old. Some of the kids didn’t know the movies or were too shy to ask questions. Maybe for younger kids have the adult have it on their head, and ask the kids questions? I don’t know. We did Disney pictionary at Sophia’s party of this theme, with just me drawing the pictures, I think that worked better than this game. Win some, lose some.

Then we played Sleeping Beauty Musical Pillows. Like Musical chairs, only you lay down when the music stops. Also, we never eliminated pillows, to avoid some kids with tantrum issues (ahem, party girl Natalie).

Speaking of Natalie, she only played two rounds then decided Big Buck Bear needed a Cinderella dress and tiara. And time for tough guy Jonah to hug a pink girly pompom.

Then we were onto the food!

(See the disney megaphone up above? Dollar store, great buy. Kept the kids’ attention when I needed it).

We had some cupcakes- with glass slipper shoes (wedding section from dollar store) and mini castles.

And some other random food- Magic Wand Chocolate covered Pretzels, fancy pink cookies, Snow White Apples and Caramel Dip, Pink Lemonade. Excuse the camera strap .

Natalie turning her cousins into shoes with her magic wand.

For goody bags, everyone took home:

A cd of Disney princess and adventure songs (vellum flower cd envelope, google it!)

Bubbles (wedding section, dollar store)

Disney Pens (Cars for the boys)

Necklace

Candy Princess Lollipops (Wilton Fairy tale mold)

Tiara for the girls, sword for the boys.

Hooray for Princess Natalie! We’re honored to have her as our girl!

Snow day

We didn’t have a day off school, but we did find some time in the afternoon to play in the snow. Miraculously Leo fell asleep right when the girls were putting their snow gear on. Even more miraculously, I didn’t over book my self and I was all done getting ready for the party today. So outside we went!

Rudolph!

Snowboarding down the ditches between the yards. Every trip down the hill ended with me in the snow.

Look Mom, no footprints in the snow!

Hooray for snow!

Christmas Crafts

Family Calendar! I was so late this year on this one, but next year will be different!

No, we didn’t make poop for Christmas. More like teething biscuits for Leo. Equal parts flour and baby rice cereal, apple juice to make it pliable, bake 350 until they’re dry. I turned my oven off after an hour and came back 5 hours later and they were good and hard!

Hair bows and flowers for the newest little lady of the Daley family.

And my latest baby gift, for all the new babies, once they’re born- I am a Child of God frames.

Truffles for the visiting teachees and home teachees. Coconut Crème, Chocolate Chip Cookie dough, Chocolate Peppermint, Chocolate Truffles with Sprinkles, Buckeyes

Last but not least, we did a card swap through Kids Craft Weekly. We sent cards to 10 random people, and got 10 cards in return. Here’s some of the ones we made with fingerprint snowmen.

Snowman in a row, Snowman Christmas, Snowman Parade, Rudolph Family Reunion.

Giving is the best part of Christmas- the part I get more and more excited about every year!

12 days of Christmas, Dating Your husband style

 

So for Christmas I did 12 days of Christmas for John. All the presents included time together after the kids were in bed. This was the point of it all- to spend time together doing something fun. Some of them we never did because of other activities. Some of them I spiced up a little bit more than mentioned here, because you know, we’re married and all, but I’m not going to blog about my bedroom affairs (sorry y’all) .

I made up 12 cards with the numbers on the front in scrapbook paper, then wrote inside what the date was, if there was no concrete present to give.

Here were the days, as planned:

1- Pear Crisp

2- Turtles Chocolates and Dove Chocolates

3- French Hens- French Toast with gourmet Maple Pecan Syrup (this was his birthday)

4- Calling Birds- Board Games together (with no “name calling”)

5- Gold Rings- Golden Popcorn and Lord of the Rings

6- Geese- Big Feather and Six Eggs with things I love about him

7- Swans- Bubble Bath, hand Towels and Bathroom items he needed.

8-Maids a Milking- Ghiradelli Hot Chocolate and reading time together

9- Ladies Dancing- Time spent learning Salsa in a new cute dress I can finally fit into

10- Lords a Leaping- Basketball game on Tv

11-Pipers Piping- Peppermint Oreos and Ice Cream

12 Drummers Drumming-Massaging Showerhead, Hand held massager from Stocking stuffer aisle

It was fun to have a date every night and fun to have a gift to give every day. (The girls would give him the card or box at lunch everyday). I highly suggest this if you want to shower your husband with some love next year!

Leo at 8 months

Took some pics of Leo crawling and standing up in the tub, trying out my new camera and trying to get a feel for it. Here’s a good shot of the teeth coming in:

Yelling at me about something…

The monster coming out of the deep..

New trick: tip toes!

Thwap! Thwap! ‘

Natalie’s diligence at getting in the picture paid off (like the short hair? I’m still on the fence about it, and I cut it! )

Other recent accomplishments of Leo:

Being able to get up about 5 times a night, but still nap for 2 hours during the afternoon.

Ear infections continuously for over a month!

New found interest in everything smaller than a pea (which reminds me, I need to sweep the kitchen floor he’s about to crawl on)

New ability to yell at us and really sound like he’s saying something

Two new teeth!