It's here!

My precious, sweet middle child turned 3 on Friday. It was her first birthday party so I wanted to make sure it it her perfectly. She's not the typical girly-girl. She's a little rough and tumble from being second to her older brother. At the end of May, however, we had the chance to visit Disney world.

Even though she fell in love with princesses, she still loves to play in the dirt and mud. I wanted her to have a girly party, but not completely over-do it on pink frilliness.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to hire a photographer and I didn't have time to take so many pictures. So, I'll show what I have and describe the rest :)

These lovely pom poms were at the entrance of my house. There were also 2 light pink pom poms. I hung them from our porch. (They're now hanging in my girls room. I love double duty decorations!)

The littler counter parts hung above our kitchen bar. This bar also housed the gifts when the guests arrived.

Because I never got a close up of the "before" cake/ food table, this will have to do. I'll try to explain what you may or may not see in this picture. Behind the table is the castle that I worked on. It's also now in the girls room. Next to the table I drew free-hand a few of the princesses, and framed them. In front of the castle, in glass jars, are different color-coded bead necklaces. They added a really cute sparkle to the table.

Princess crown cupcakes and frog prince cupcakes. I love cupcakes for a many reasons. First, portion control. Second, when it comes to blowing out the candles, kids tend to spit. This way, everyone can enjoy a cupcake without wondering if my child slobbered all over them! (And you can see the beaded necklaces in the background.) 

My intention with the heart garland was to have a few hanging on all windows in the castle room.  They took a lot of time though. These few were cute, and they especially looked cute from the outside. 

My sweet little birthday girl (right) and one of her party guests. I guess  this  picture doesn't show very well the  castle that I built, but you get the idea. It's a one-room castle, but the kids loved it. I wish I could have spent more time on it, and made them bigger (there were 2), but what really matters is what my child thought, and she LOVED them.

Over all, Caedence loved her party, and I think her friends liked it too! A few more decorations I'd like to share:

Behind and around the castles I hung white wedding lights. I also strung twine in front of the castles and hung 2 metallic bronze curtains on it. I drew the curtains back and tied them with tulle.

Speaking of tulle, no princess party would be complete without a little tulle. In the corner of the castle area, I set up a child sized table with a tea set on it. Above the table was bunches of tulle attached to the ceiling and draped in the corner.

The kids loved making their own crowns. The girls decorated wands and the boys had swords.

The goody "bag" was a princess paint set and a tulle dress-up skirt for the girls and toy story paint set and shield for the boys.

If I had to do it over again, I would have taken more pictures. And although I see ways I could have made it better, that's not what matters.

I felt so blessed to actually have some family (Phil's mom, Caedence's grandma, was able to come visit) and my daughters friends celebrate with us. I'm beginning to realize that her party would have been perfect if we'd only had food and no decorations, or games, or gifts. God is so good to us, that we not only had food, but a bunch of extra stuff to share. If you allowed your children to share in the celebration of my child's life, I sincerely thank you!