Princess Palooza

Well, the Princess party went off without a hitch. There was one point around 12:30 when I thought, "What am I going to do with all these girls? I've already used 2 of my 3 activities!" Luckiy, most of them don't have a backyard (welcome to life in DC) and Ella has a great swing set, so they were very content to play outside at "Ella's park."

We threw Ella a huge birthday party when she turned 1. She doesn't remember it, obviously, but we really wanted to throw it as a way to celebrate her life and thank all of the incredible people who did so much for us in the first year. They were the ones that deserved a party! We rented out the basement of a local pizza place and I bought cupcakes, Joe wore his Mets Hawaiian shirt and we had a great time. You can see the pictures here.

After that party I swore we wouldn't have another one until Ella was old enough to actually know what was going on. I wanted the next party to he HER party and to invite HER friends. I assumed she'd be 5 before that happened.

Throughout the year Ella was invited to several birthday parties of her friends, which got her to thinking. One day she just decided that she wanted a Princess birthday party, and that was it. She started telling Joe, Metti and me all about it. She even invited her BFF Ginny, and Ginny's mom informed me that Ginny had been telling her all about Ella's Princess party and that Ella had invited her to attend. Then, GiGi and PawPaw bought her the most magnificent Cinderella dress straight from Disney World, and I knew it was time. A Princess party would take place.

I visited 4 different stores in search of the most fabulous pink decorations. Metti and I spent all Friday afternoon decorating. Metti is a saint...she single-handedly blew up 40 pink balloons. I used 2 rolls of streamers and had 2 more rolls that I was itching to use. I asked Metti where I could put more sreamers and she looked around the room, then said in her casual way, "Maybe you could save them for next year." That was her way of saying there were plenty of decorations and I should stop. Here's the living room.

The party began at 11 am. Ella and I got dressed in our princess attire (I was the Queen Mum) and Joe put on his Met's Hawaiian shirt.

I would like to thank the fabulous Mary Jane for loaning me the most perfect Queen Mum dress on the planet. Please note the rhinestone sleeves. I think I look more like Glinda the Good Witch, so I gave Joe the full crown (as King) and I wore a tiara.

Princesses started arriving and the house was all a buzz. I wanted a lot of balloons so they could throw them up and bounce them around, and that's exactly what happened. Ella's preschool class only had 3 girls (including Ella) so we were able to stick to a small party with her 2 friends from school and 2 of her good friends Ginny and Lizzie (since she had already told Ginny all about the Princess party and invited her 4 months ago).

We started off with a necessity for every Princess party...tiara decorating.

Next came the food...pizza, every princess' favorite food. We did have a bunch of pink chocolate and Princess candy, which the girls were more than happy to eat.

Then we had the Princess Ball...oh yeah, we were getting our boogie on!

We moved outside to play on the swingset. It was a beautiful day and the Princesses loved running around in our un-mowed grass. (PawPaw, the next time you come visit we need to get that third swing fixed.)

We eventually came back inside for the birthday song and cookies. Princess Ella and the Queen Mum have one very big difference in them. The Queen Mum LOVES cake! I always have...probably always will. I will never turn down a piece of cake. Princess Ella, on the other hand, sort-of likes cake, but she usually just eats the frosting off and maybe takes 1 or 2 bites of cake and that's it. So Ella made a special request to have cookies at her birthday party instead of cake. When Grammy Janet was here earlier in the week, she and Ella made the frosting for the cookies (don't even get me started on the deliciousness of Grammy's frosting). I stayed up until 1 am Friday night (Saturday morning) baking and decorating the heart shaped cookies. Let me just say that they were delicious!

After the cookies we headed to the basement where the girls played and watched Snow White, and the mom's sat around and talked.

It was a great birthday party and we all had a lot of fun! After everyone left I immediately got out of my Queen Mum dress, Joe laid down and took a nap, and Ella downed 2 more pieces of pizza while watching the end of Snow White. You can see the rest of the pictures and video from Ella's Princess birthday party through the June 2011 link on the right.

The evening was spent with the fantastic Maryland Eagles...but that's another post.