Princesspalooza

On Saturday we braved the un-plowed streets to have Lily's fourth (what? four years?!?!) birthday party at Tumbling Tykes. I would have to be insane to host an at-home birthday party so close to Christmas so for the past two years we've had her party at Tumbling Tykes. They do a wonderful job here - they play games with the kids, organize the presents, cut and serve and the pizza and cake, and there's no mess for me to clean up! They even have a helper who makes a gift list for when Lily is opening her presents.

Another good reason to have the party there is that it is right next to the airport. So Jamison was occupied the entire time by the airport plows and the flights departing and arriving.

Yes, we all see the airplanes. We will stop the party and all come over to look at the Air Canada flight going to Toronto.

Our party planner, Liz, was leading the kids in a lovely version of "Happy Birthday." It scared the begeebers out of the little ones but the four year olds thought it was hysterical.

Notice the princess dresses on Lily's friends. Notice that she is not in princess attire for once in her life. What are the chances that we would have a princess birthday party for her and that would be the one and only day she REFUSES to wear a princess dress? 100%.

Brian and I decided to take two cars to the party just in case Jamie had to go home for a nap. So I left for the party before he and the kids to pick up the cake and to decorate. When I left the house she was decked out in Little Mermaid garb including a red wig. (pictures of that in another blog - I wouldn't want to cause blindness to the few readers I have).

When she arrived at Tumbling Tykes she was wearing the red dress below. The only thing that Brian had to say was "drama" and I completely understood. Apparently she had gone through two costume changes before coming down the stairs entirely naked. At that point Brian just wanted her dressed and any attempts to get her in a princess outfit was abandoned. (why can I flash forward to 12 years from now and hearing her cry out "I have nothing to wear!!!"? I am slightly scared of her teenage years)

Of course, when I had put her Little Mermaid wig on her I had plastered her hair to her head (per her instructions) so that "no yellow" would show under the wig. So when she came to the party her hair looked HORRIBLE. And then my husband walks in like a knight in shining armor with a comb, a red bow, and a bottle of hair spray. Now that is love. Now I can't work miracles so it didn't look perfect but at least it was presentable.

Here is the group doing some crazy dancing some late 90's techno music. It made me want to get out my exercise tape from college and run the track at Harding. If only I still had my walkman...

And then she was more than ready for the pizza and cake. She calls this her "funny face". I'm wondering how funny she'll find it when I show it to her prom date.

"Give me my cake for crying out loud!" I actually have no clue what she was doing here but it looks pretty funny.

This is the princess cake that she saw at the supermarket back in June. And we have visited it every week since. If I had to run in and grab a gallon of milk we had to swing by the bakery to see her cake. So it was quite devastating when we went to order the cake and it wasn't in the display case anymore. She turned on the waterworks and actually got the lady behind the counter to come around and give her a free cookie. Lily was under the impression that the cake in the display case was the only castle cake in the world. Luckily the supermarket baker was smarter than that and could make another.

I love this picture.

I like how her friend Grace is lending a supportive hand.

I will refrain from posting the pictures of all the princess gifts she received. And by "all" I really do mean "all". Every single gift had something to do with a princess. I am contemplating writing a letter to Disney asking them to pay me for all the free advertising we do for them.