Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for my sweet baby girl who turned 1 this week!

We find ourselves enjoying her so much. The kids love seeing her do new things and get tickled when she comes up with a new sound or a new word. They are each anticipating the day that she says their name.

We seem to enjoy each stage so much more than we did with the others. Maybe it is because the others were all little at the same time. Now, they really are enjoying having a baby in the house and they love helping out with her.

She has a sweet, infectious laugh and the cutest little baby talk. If she can find something that makes everyone laugh, she will do it over and over and over again.

We are having the best time with her and we love her dearly.
Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Nine

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Princess Pampering Party

The birthday party was a success!

Before the party we took some sibling pictures.

Go ahead and make fun of me for dressing the boys up in white and khaki. They actually wanted to dress up in some way and since I had not gotten around to making valient knight costumes, this was my best last minute idea.

The sisters picture almost makes me cry. I can't believe how much my girl has grown up. Until a year ago, she was my baby.

So, the invitations to the party were a little over the top. I'll admit that. When my husband saw them, he was a little concerned that the invitees might expect a more elaborate extravaganza than what was actually planned.
Maybe he was right.

But honestly, you need a royal summons if you are going to have a Princess party. And nothing says royal summons like a scroll invitation. I bought the dowel rods at Michaels and they also had the little dowel rod ends. We painted them pink and glued them to our paper.

They read:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye,
By order of the King and Queen:

Princess (indsert name of girl to be invited) is cordially invited to the (our last name) Castle to celebrate Princess (birthday girl)’s 6th birthday!!!

The royal celebration will begin at 3:00
in the afternoon on the 4th of September 2010.

The king asks that you come dressed as
your favorite princess in your most royal attire.
The royal cook has prepared a feast
of goodies for the celebration.

There shall also be pampering festivities for
the Princess including a royal pedicure, a royal hairstyling and fun for all. The excitement will heighten during the defeat of the royal piñata.

Have your carriage arrive for you at 4:30 in
the afternoon when the celebration commences.

Please RSVP with the Queen Mom at (phone number) or (e-mail) if you plan to attend this royal gala. It will be held at (street address) in the illustrious town of (insert town name) . This is a magical celebration not to be missed!

My daughter had us read it out loud to her quite a number of times and then she would just giggle and laugh and say read it again!

So our party started off with a Princess sign in sheet and once they signed in, one of our valient knights gave them a royal wand and a personalized princess booklet.

All the princesses went to the royal living room where they had royal chairs set up for them with royal pillows on top covered with royal satin and tuille ribbons cascading down the backs of the chairs.

We discussed the Qualities of a True Princess and then each Princess was crowned and we confirmed that they were a Princess of the King of Kings

Then the pampering began. On the inside they had 6 areas of things to do and when they were done with that particular activity, they got a princess sticker to put in the circle for that activity.

One of my friends and her 2 teenage daughters were very sweet and came over to help with all the princess pampering. They were so sweet and we couldn't have pulled off the pampering without them.

All the princesses got a royal updo.

A royal pedicure. A royal manicure, their royal makeup done and they each made a royal personalized bracelet.

The valient knights when around and presented the princesses with their choice of rings and princess shaped silly bands.

The time flew by and fun was had by all!

Their royal carriages picked them back up after the party and we gave them their royal party bags!

It was so much fun and I really wanted to go ahead and have a Princess party for her while she was still young enough to want one and to enjoy it thoroughly.

She spent the rest of the afternoon dancing around in her Princess gown with her royal updo singing, "I feel pretty,.... oh so pretty,... I feel pretty and witty and gay!" It was fun to enjoy her pure happiness.

Makes me wish for just a minute that I was 6 once again with a pretty pink princess dress to dance around in.

The Castle Cake Tis Finished

If I was Dora, I'd be singing.... I did it! I did it! Yeah, I did it!

The castle cake is finished. The princess party is in 5 hours. And I'm already worn out.

So I decided to post the pics of the cake so you could see it because I seem to need some sort of peer based approval.

I have to say, it was a wee bit more tedious than I planned on, but isn't it always? Somehow my perception of what I should easily be able to do always supersedes my actual abilities.

Anyways, there is it! I will be thrilled if the whole thing stays together without toppling until all the princess guests arrive. But my sweet girl is already tickled beyond belief and that's what really counts. Right?

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Girl

So, my girl just turned 6! It seems like just yesterday I took these pictures of her. She is really such a blessing to our family. She is sweet and kind, thoughtful and a tremendous helper. We are so thankful for her.

Grandpa & Grandma came down for a visit and it was $1 days at the Dallas Arboretum so we decided to take the day off and go on a field trip. We had never been there before and we absolutely loved it.

There are 66 acres of gardens and ponds and streams and wandering paths to explore.


I've always heard the best times to go are in the fall for the mums and pumpkins and in the spring for all the bulb flowers. I was a little concerned we wouldn't enjoy it as much going at the end of August, but it really was so very beautiful. There were flowers everywhere and enough shade that we enjoyed ourselves.

It's a beautiful place to go and take pics of the family!

Everyone wanted to take a picture with the birthday girl.

She really does have the best brothers.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Her Princess Spa birthday party is on Saturday so I'm off to bake a castle cake and get everything ready. Wish me luck!