Two Pink Parties, One Long Post!

While we were in Virginia for the holidays we celebrated Elizabeth's 4th birthday with my family. My brother's wife, Wendy, offered to make a cake and host a surprise party for her. She really went all out decorating with all sorts of pink and princess things!

Nate had Elizabeth playing at a nearby park and when we were ready, we all hid and they came in.

She was just chatting away (as usual)

and then she was surprised (and a little confused and scared).

Her little heart was beating so fast when I hugged her.

I think she felt pretty special.

Wendy had thought of all sorts of cute details, like these clip-on earrings, fit for a princess.

They decorated sugar cookies.

They played pin the tiara on the princess (princess drawn by Amy, Andrew's girlfriend.) Notice that the pillow pets were also in on the fun.

Harrison, Gwen, Emi and Elizabeth. We wish we could have cousins at all of our birthday celebrations. Cousin Max was being shy but we were happy to have him, K.C. and Suzanne there too!

Then we had the darling and delicious cake!

Look at these cute party-g0ers. Cousins, Blake, Beau and Johnny.

Thank you, Wendy for making such a fun family party! You really went all out and we appreciate it so much! It definitely could have sufficed, but Elizabeth has know for a year that she was getting her first friend party this year. So I had to deliver. I did push it off until the very end of

January (I'm glad I did, everyone was sick the weekend I had thought about doing it).

Elizabeth wanted a pink party and I was more than happy to make that happen. I LOVE having boys and there are some really amazing things about being a mom to boys. But let me tell you, I'd much rather throw a pink party than a Spiderman party!

The invitations went out (thanks Tamara for giving me your leftover triangles!)

And then the big day arrived. I spent all day making sure the house looked like it had been hosed down with pepto bismol!

(Thanks to Tamara for the banner too!)

One of these days I will learn to master party prep while maintaining a happy attitude. Unfortunately, this wasn't the day. And of all people to take it out on, it shouldn't have been the birthday girl when she didn't want to cooperate for pictures. But it was.

Thankfully she is quick to forgive and forget. (Thank you Brittany for letting us borrow the girliest, pinkest outfit ever!)

The little girls all looked so pretty in pink (as instructed on the invitation).

For almost an hour the girls quietly sat and beaded pink necklaces. I wasn't sure how long it would take and if I had enough things planned. Let me tell you, if you want an activity that is calm, make necklaces! Ten little girls focused and entertained! (Too bad I didn't think to take pictures until almost all of them were done.) I also had them make a shrinky-dink charm to go on the necklaces. I wish I hadn't done that part. They weren't that into it and it ended up being too complicated and time consuming on my part. Lesson learned.

While another mom and I slaved away on the charms, Nate entertained the girls in the other room. They played "Pink, pink, pinkalicious."

And pin the tiara on the princess made another appearance. (Mina, I needed you there as my photographer! I hardly got any action shots!)

Then it was time for the cake. Wendy really raised the bar of what birthday cakes should look like (usually my kids get a half-heartedly decorated 9X13). I don't know if she wanted to one up her last cake or if it was because she was 4, but she insisted on a "4 layer cake with pink skin and white polka dots." Well, I wasn't about to attempt that. So I hired a girl in our ward who makes cakes to do it. Kristina made Elizabeth's vision come to life and it was a big hit! Yummy too, strawberry cake with vanilla frosting.

This picture cracks me up because one of the other girls was trying to blow out the candle and you can tell that Elizabeth is perturbed.

We gave her another chance and she was much happier.

She looks so satisfied.

I finally had some time to take pictures. Here are all the silly girls eating cake!

So, you might have noticed that one of Elizabeth's friends looks like she could be her twin. This is a friend from Karate. The big brothers are in karate and these little girls play while we wait. She is half Japanese too and they seriously look so much alike, it's crazy!

I made each of the girls a flower clip for their treat bag. They are pretty easy. . .until you make ten of them!

They also got a pink pencil, a lip gloss ring and lots of pink treats that they picked out themselves.

They really got a kick out of making their own treat bag and actually took less candy than I would have given them.

At the end we got a picture of the fam. Don't mind Harrison's pose. That's his new favorite trick in pictures.

Our traditional birthday kissing picture!

This girl better feel loved after TWO great parties! We really do love and adore her so, so much! It is so fun having her in our family! And I'm glad to be done with birthday parties for 18 months until Harrison's 8th! (I'll post his Karate party from this summer next -- I really do have big plans for catching up on this blog).