Since Sarah's birthday is in the middle of summer vacation, and most of her friends will be gone then, we decided to have her party a little early. She wanted a princess party, and I tried my best to make fun for her and the kids. Some of it didn't turn out like I had hoped. The cake was an ugly, hideous mess, although she told me she thought it was pretty. Sweet girl. The pinata was all right, and they all loved the crafts and games, so I guess I would call it a success. Chris helped me set up, then he and the boys disappeared upstairs. This was a princess party, not a prince party. Alexandra managed to wiggle her way in to the party for part of the time, but she pretty much stayed out of the way, so we didn't send her back to exile with the boys.
We had a table set up for them to decorate their tiaras as the guests were arriving. One by one I would pull them over to the royal salon and paint their toenails and fingernails, and also applied a little eyeshadow for those that wanted it. They all came dressed in their fanciest princess dresses and looked SO DARLING! One girl declined to dress up and at first it bugged me a tad, but this party wasn't about me, it was about the kids, so I just let her be the odd-girl out. I got some great ideas for games off the internet, including Princess and the Pea, Pin the Crown on the Princess, and Princess Walk. We also made Princess Scepters and busted open the Pinata.
I only planned two hours for the party, and for the one parent who was here on time, that wasn't quite long enough. Fortunately, the other mothers know how kids parties usually go, and they didn't have to wait as long. :) As usual, none of the Swiss kids liked my cake with it's strange colored frosting, but they took a few bites to be polite. The candy in the pinata was a big hit, though, as well as the candy bracelets and necklaces we passed out at the end. The funniest part to me was that Sarah got the same box of stickers as a present that we had bought to put in all the girls' treat bags. She was quite excited that she didn't have to share these ones!
It was a lot of work getting everything ready, but it was totally worth it. Sarah thanked me several times, without being prompted, for her party and that she just loved everything. "It was the best princess party I ever went to, Mama." Aw, so sweet.
