Grace's 5th Birthday Party

Every year, we have only done a family party for Grace. When she was 1 and 2, we did a small party with mostly adult friends, but after that, she was just too shy to have a party where everyone focused on her. She is so sensitive and the last thing I wanted was for her to have friends over and get embarrassed and not enjoy her day. And she has happily enjoyed our little family parties and feels like the most important person on that day! However, this year, she started talking about wanting a friend party. We talked about themes and I really quizzed her to make sure and she finally decided on a Princess themed birthday party. I got on Pinterest and made a plan and decided to have her friends come to the house on Saturday, March 10th for her party. It's a tough time of year because her birthday will likely always fall on Spring Break. But, thankfully, all but one friend we invited got to come on that Saturday, the first day of Spring Break! It had already been a busy and stressful morning with her first t-ball practice (see the post about that little adventure), but by the time we got to party time, she was in good spirits and ready! And it was one of my favorite parties to plan for and watch happen! I am not sure there is anything to make a person more excited than watching a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds giggle and squeal and laugh and play in their little princess dresses! I'll explain everything below in pictures!

 Vic made this fabulous backdrop for the party and I embellished with this princess dress banner. He took a refrigerator box and painted it and we added some trim work. Grace decided she wanted to wear her Tiana dress for the party.

Oh my beautiful almost 5 year old!

 I love a theme, so we made some themed food and added some Chick-Fil-A nuggets and a cake to it!

Oh and before the party, the kids made station signs and colored princesses - so cute and fun!

Friends started to arrive and they immediately got to playing while we waited to start the party! This first thing we did was make princess necklaces with colorful beads and crowns!

 Then we played princess games.

Our first game was Snow White themed. The girls gathered in a circle and passed a poisoned apple around while Snow White music played. When the music stopped, whoever had the apple had to "die" and the only way to come back to life was a Hershey kiss (or True Love's Kiss). Oh my goodness. Little girls are SO much fun! And Grace has some friends with big personalities so they were so into this and loved it! I was a tad nervous about games because you never know how they are going to go and of course I had an audience of adults as well, ha! But, these girls made the games and this entire party so fun for Grace!

 Passing the apple...

 And Grace was poisoned! She told me she liked this game!

 By the end, only Juliette and Hallie were left passing it back and forth between the two of them! So fun!

 Then we played a Magic Carpet game like musical chairs where the girls moved from placemat to placemat while music from Aladdin played, until only one girl was left standing!

Then, we played a game based on Rapunzel. Grace told me this was her favorite game. We had rolls of yellow crepe paper (to look like hair) and the girls took turns wrapping each other up with the "hair" because it was too long! They giggled and laughed. I wish I had the entire thing on video!

 Then we played a game of Kiss the Frog, of course because of the movie The Princess and the Frog. The funniest part of this was that I didn't want to put any little girl on the spot to put on lipstick, so I had lipstick, but I also had lips cut out with tape on them. Well, this was a game that Grace did not want to do (my little one who doesn't want to be put on the spot), but EVERY other little girl who played went for the lipstick. And I think they knew how to apply it better than me! So so cute!

 

*Notice the little picture of Tiana colored above the sign. Atticus and Grace made so many of these to mark the stations and I should have taken pictures. So cute! Even cuter because Atticus didn't mind doing them and got into it, which makes Grace feels so special!

 

 Then, we took the girls outside for our last game - a scavenger hunt to find things like Ariel would find in The Little Mermaid. These boys hid lip gloss, tiaras, wands, jewelry and a magic mirror!

 

 

 

The Magic Mirror at the end was from Snow White and they had to say "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" And I would say "you are!" haha! That's about as creative as you could make that part.

Then we went inside for cake! 

 And everyone sang Happy Birthday! But, Grace only blew out half the candles and she immediately asked Atticus (who loves to do this) to help her finish and was so proud! You'll have to watch this video of it:  https://youtu.be/KAME8fmLoro

 After cake, we let the girls decorate their own crown cookies (you know - from Aurora's birthday party on Sleeping Beauty when the fairies make her cake). These girls went to town - sprinkles and icing galore, but I don't know if they even ate their cookies! ha!

 Katherine and sweet Olivia!

 It's a beautiful cookie, Grace!

Vic was the official birthday photographer and helper today, whether he wanted that job or not! I'm not sure, now, what this face was - was he thinking about the mess we had to clean up later? Was he overwhelmed with having so many girls in this house? Could he not hear from all of the squealing? Hmm....we will never know!

Next - a photo of all of our princesses!

Pictured are: Ellie K., Ellie W., Juliette, Grace, Hallie, Olivia, and Dani. *All of these girls except Juliette who is 4 and Olivia who is 3 will be in Kindergarten with Grace at Pebble Creek this year! She already has her squad!

And I forgot to mention how much fun this castle was - they danced and danced inside at the beginning of the party!

Then came presents.

 The cutest thing about gifts was HOW EXCITED each girl was for Grace to open her present immediately. They crowded around and couldn't wait for Grace's reaction. Grace was so funny because I could tell she actually loved this and the attention from her friends.

Grace got Barbie sets, an American Girl style bunk bed for her dolls, LOL dolls, a hairstyle kit, toy purse and cell phone, a cute Nike outfit, and had the very best time at her first friend party.

My favorite moment might have been when Grace opened Hallie's present (a hair styling kit) and Hallie exclaimed "Grace! I have one too and now we can be twinsies!" She was so excited and then she brought out her card which was just doodles and letters and read it to her and while I do not have it verbatim, she read it like it very seriously as if it had real words written on it: "Grace, you are my best friend in the whole world and I hope you have a happy birthday and you are the nicest and you are my best friend." So. Cute. 

 Also - how cute is this gift bag? It's the same kind of thing I used for the banners. Pinterest is the best. I can recreate, but I am not good at coming up with creative ideas on my own. I LOVED this part of crafting for the party!

That was the end of our party. We gave out princess fruit snacks and Little Golden Books for their favors (plus their treats they accumulated at the party). Grace was exhausted by the end. She opened all of her toys that night and played and played. 

I was so so overwhelmed with how sweet her friends are and what good families they come from. It makes me so glad we will all be together navigating Kindergarten with our girls this year. I was also so relieved that Grace had the best time and never got embarrassed or felt put on the spot. Her friends made this the best party!

Happy 5th Birthday Party Gracie Bug! We love you!