Once Upon a Time...

The Princess, Ballerina Room

Once upon a time, there was a princess named Lilly.  And she lived in a magical land where everyone danced and wore pink!  And Today, was Princess Lilly's 3rd Birthday party.  So her crazy Queen mamma and really nice babysitter--Lady Michelle, put together the most grandest party there ever was. And the kingdom rejoiced.

(Ok.  Here are the pictures.  It really was a "grand" party.  That tu-tu table cloth alone cost me about 340 yards of tulle and 3 days worth of my time.  But hey...anything for my little princess! ((enjoy))

First of all, I need to send a shout out to Joreen at Bon Vino's Bistro and Bakery .  She made this cake for Lilly.  She's the best because she did while in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy.  And it looks AMAZE-balls.  Let me attach the picture that I got the idea from.  I can't remember the actual website unfortunately.  But I took a screen shot of it on my phone months ago.  So here it is.  I love how Joreen puts her own twist to the cake, making it her own work of art. She's a talented lady.

Joreen does Lilly's cakes for us every year.  It's sort of a tradition.  She has a special place in her heart for Lilly because they are both from Holland.  Let me clarify:  Joreen is "literally" from the country of Holland and she makes all kinds of Holland desserts from recipes passed down by her grandma.  AND Lilly is "figuratively" from Holland.  Meaning, she has Down Syndrome.  If you're new to the Down Syndrome world check out this poem "Welcome to Holland" by Emily Perl Kingsley  It'll explain why we say that Lilly is from Holland.  Joreen brings back all kinds of jewelry and trinkets for Lilly whenever she goes to Holland to visit.  She's a pretty neat lady.

Ok.  Onward!!!

So, did I mention that this dang table skirt took me forever to make?????  Why. Do. You. Even. Do. THIS. TO. Yourself.  you ask?  I don't know why?  I have some weird addiction to planning parties for my kids.  I don't do it for anyone else (anymore)...just my kids (and my husband, occasionally---ok, and my babysitter too.  She does the grunt work for most of these parties, so she deserves a little party of her own every couple of years. I'll be doing her wedding one day).  Anyway, don't go getting any ideas. I'm not making this into a day time job or anything.  Here's the link to the Pinterest pin that I got the idea from for the table cloth. Called "Oh One Fine Day"  Theirs looks better, I think.

I don't think there's a tutorial on how to make this table skirt on her blog, so I'll just tell you how I did it.  I basically safety pinned a rope onto a table cloth.  Then looped strips of tulle around the rope, just made sure there was enough safety pin reinforcement so that it didn't sag in the center.  I probably used three bolts of tulle and about 100 safety pins.  That thing is NOT coming off.  We might have to use it for Daisy's birthday too.  ((Tinkerbell party--in June)) 

You can see the safety pin here.  But I found that it looks better if I put the safety pin in back of the material, behind the table cloth, so it's hidden. You'll get lots of pin pokes if you're not careful. 

Here's the front.  I did it in sections.  And would pin about every 5-8 loops of material. 

So here's the invite that I sent out.  Like all my ideas, I took this from a party that I saw on Pinterest. So I made my own invite using the same concept.  I bought the little carriage image at VectorStock .  Then I just changed the colors to look more gold-ish.  Photoshop is my friend.  Probably my best friend at the moment.  OK, I am in love with Photoshop.  Then I just found free fonts that I liked at dafont.com and made it look all princessy.  Turned out cute.  Here's a pic of the final product:

And here's a picture from the party on Pinterest that I got the idea from. Celebrations at Home blog.  Again...their stuff is ALOT cuter...but hey.  I'm getting there.

Oh, and while we are talking about the above blog...we also stole some other ideas from it.  Just freakin' visit this blog, that's all I'm saying.  It is like an explosion of eye pleasing images.  I die everytime I visit that blog.  SO. STINKIN'. CUTE!!!!!  Just go and you'll see what I mean.  Here's the link again: Celebrations at Home .  

The party girls got to wear tutu skirts from Lilly and Daisy's dress up closet. Tanner helped with that.  What a guy.  Always surrounded by women...and has no problem with that.

Jaxon decided to dress up as a "prince" to get into the party mood.  He just came as the Prince of Darkness.  No prob.  Lookin' good!

Clockwise:  Party goers getting their food while Lilly was playing dodge the camera; The inside of the cake as Mariel (Lilly's little Holland buddy) and Charlie looks on; All party goers got a crown.  Found the ideas from this pinterest link: DIY lace crowns .

We even had a dance class, taught by a professional dancer.  ME! (hahaha)  Well, yeah...it wasn't that great of a class.  But the kids look cute in this picture.  We used these to dance with.  Michelle made them from another pinterest pin.  Imagine that.  Here's the link:  Party Craft Secrets

Yep.  There I am in all my glory.  Thanks Cori, for this shot!  I'm actually demonstrating a very important move in the world of dance.  And that is the "Popcorn" step.  So basically you crouch as small as you can on the floor, count to 3, then jump as high as you can and yell "Popcorn".  The kids actually love it.  Believe it or not.  Except for Jane, who's frowning over there to the right.  She was too busy being princess Jane and didn't want to get involved.  Love ya Jane!

Ahhhhhh...cake time.  Yes the candles were "Trick" candles.  Lilly got frustrated.  Because she prides herself in being able to blow out hot things.  But they were the only candles I had.  I'm always forgetting some small detail.

Yey!  Candles!!!!  Wait a sec...these things aren't going out!  daggumit!

1. Present time!  I love how Lilly opens presents.  So intense!  2. She loved looking at her homemade cards from friends back behind her wardrobe when most of the guests left.  She was so content.  3. "Ooh! Look at my pretty new crown!  Thanks Charlie!" and thanks to Solomé and Mariel for the cute hair clip!!!!!!!

  

And this shot is sooooooooooooooooo precious!!!!!!!  She really loves her crown. Looking at her self in the mirror.  What a princess! Thank you Cori, for capturing this beautiful moment.  What a doll!

Bye Everyone!  Thanks for coming!!!!

Then Mom-mom and Papa called to sing happy birthday to Lilly!  Look at her expression.  She is not impressed.  Even though they did harmony and everything. Long day, I suppose.  By the way, that lady singing in that picture is my mom.  And she is the one that does all the "vinyl" stuff for me, for parties.  She's a genius with that stuff.  So, I'm gonna throw in a plug for her business: More than vinyl .  She'll do anything you want!  She's super good at it.  Here's a picture below, of one of the princessy things we did for the party.

The End.  Whew. This post was long too....  It's cuz Cori took so many amazing pictures.  Wow.