The Birthday Party Where the Mama Worked Herself To (near) Death

I can't explain why, but for some reason, I love to make Mattie's birthday parties as hard on myself as possible. I’m into hand made and custom things (which would explain my Etsy addiction), and I like a birthday party that reflects that. I know I'm not the only mama to do this (I'm looking at you, Kennebeck!), and I think deep down it's only because we want the day to be perfect, and special, and memorable for our little ones. I’m all about the details, and will be the first to admit that I sometimes take it overboard. BUT, my little girl has loved all her parties, and that makes it worth it. On to the party recap:

Mattie is currently obsessed with the Disney Princes. Not the Princesses, but rather the princes that star in the Princess movies…Prince Eric, Prince Phillip, Prince Charming, etc. So, when I asked her earlier this year what she wanted her birthday party theme to be, she said “Prince Phillip”…he’s her current favorite. Hmmm…I don’t think BirthdayExpress.com has Prince Phillip party supplies for little girl birthday parties…WEIRD! I had to explain to her that it would be completely inappropriate for a four year old little girl to have a birthday party theme based on a grown man, so we needed to think of something else. Once she got over her disappointment, she chose Ariel. Ok, I could work with that.

I spent the entire week prior to the party working on making Mattie’s dress to wear. This was the first dress that I’ve made all by myself with no help from my sewing mentor, mom (other than a little instruction on cutting out the pattern, and a tutorial on putting the hem in). It wasn’t extremely difficult, but it wasn’t fast work for a beginner. I worked on it right up until Friday night when I put the hem in in and called it done.

Especially for You did the monogram, but the rest was all me and my Singer Simple:

I will say that I washed and dried it just today, and it held up through that process, so I’m calling it a success.

I debated about whether to do the party at mom and dad’s again or find another location. Our house just isn’t big enough to host that number of people. I was so glad I planned it for their house because they have since sold and will be moving, so this was the fourth and final birthday party of Mattie’s to be held there. Special. Below is the party table:

I did the cupcakes as kind of a backup in case my cake flopped. I think I’ve done that every year.

And here is Ariel in cake form:

I had in my head what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of making it happen, which proved a little harder than I expected.

At 10:00pm on the night before the party, my first attempt at this cake had failed and gone in the trash, and I had burned two pans of cupcakes. I was in a bind with only 12 hours till party time. So, I decided the best thing I could do was go to bed and get up early the next morning and start over. Which is what I did…made a flying trip to Wal-Mart at 6:00am, got more supplies, came home and flew into high gear to be ready by 10:30am. I literally finished this cake right before walking out the door, which is why if you look close, the tail is kind of sloppy. Ang drove while I held the cake as steady as possible on the way to mom’s, and we had an Ace of Cake’s moment as Ariel’s water base tried to crack along the bottom.

We knew with having more kids invited this year that we would need some activities to keep them busy. Sooooo…Matthew watched a few videos on the internet on how to make balloon animals, and learned how to do a sword and a dog. And a hat apparently:

And Aunt Gigi volunteered to do face painting, but she did not watch any online tutorials and instead choose to wing it. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Papa volunteered to go first since the little girls were being timid:

This was supposed to be a monkey, but we thought it looked more like a vericose vein, or birthmark:

Mattie got a pink snake…she has kind of an obsession with snakes:

Rylee got a hula girl…I love the look on her face here:

Mackie got a zebra that she LOVED:

Here is Mattie tearing into her presents:

And, in all my attention to detail, I forgot the candles. So Mattie had to blow out a votive, which was surprisingly OK with her.

Here’s Mattie on her new scooter from Sadie:

Here’s all the kiddos together:

Mattie, Sadie, Holden, Lex, Mackenzie, and Rylee

All in all a fun party, and Mattie loved it all. And she’s already started talking about planning her 5th birthday party. Yea! We’ll just have to find a place to have it first. And pick a theme that does not involve adult men.