maddie's princess party

madeline's long awaited princess party was today! (i know i share the sentiments of every mother that has ever thrown a party for their child when i say thank goodness it's over... haha) we had an awesome, drama free, fun day and i am so glad to those who came to celebrate with us and those who helped make it a success.

 i decided quite some time ago to run with a pink and gold theme after spying this amazing dress on pre-sale at tutu irresistible boutique via facebook. a friend had tagged me in the picture saying it was something she could see madeline in. well, she was right. we snapped it up and started planning away. 

dominique took miss madeline across the road to the oval to take some pictures before we got started and got some gorgeous shots. i swear i need to make some money off my kids and put them in for child modelling, it's like they were born to be in front of the camera... (when they want to be of course.)

(shoes from cotton on kids - gold glitter no longer available,
but same minus glitter here

necklace from cotton on kids

glitter clip from a random facebook handmade store - similar here

and her amazing leather crown from hubble and duke here in perth!!)

we had everything all set up and ready to go when they came back... and madeline was absolutely thrilled. she came running through the front door, straight out the back to inspect everything. when she was done, back inside she came, stopping in front of the table - clasping her hands together and twirling on the spot before blurting out "thank you for making my party!!" what a sweetheart. she was so happy, which of course, made everything all worth it.

(table, chairs and covers hired from party promises)

finished goodie bags - you can see contents in details here

the food was all, good, tasty and kids party worthy

chocolate crackles, caramel popcorn, corn fritters, brownie recipes (as pictured) can be found by clicking on each word. iced cookies by my amazing best friend and savoury muffins by her mama.

  

maddie is no exception to the rule of children loving to open presents. she was given some lovely gifts by her little friends (and her big friends aka my friends) and it was so nice to see her not only excited and so grateful to receive them. i have to admit my favourite was the dumbo onesie from peter alexander and matching mother daughter scarves from my friend hayley. thats probably because part of the gift was for me as well... well played.

the crown making kits were a big hit and the girls got stuck into them, making them quickly... loving having their own crown to wear. little girls are so lovely - it was adorable to see the looks of utter concentration on their faces as they put them together.

joseph chilled with daddy while i ran around with the girls. he was so well behaved and barely even grizzled as we passed him from person to person. what a trooper. 

we of course had to have the token kids party games, including my version of pin the tail on the donkey "pin the crown on the princess" easiest way to do it outdoors... i had my arty sister in law draw a  simple princess on the brick wall in chalk, then gave each of the girls a cardboard crown (cut out of gold card) with blu tack on the back... blindfold, spin spin spin... and stick it on the wall. 

super fun and super easy - and to get it off the wall,
just spray it with the hose.

miss madeline, a bit unsure, but eager to taker her turn.

the after shot - and yes someone did manage to get the crown exactly on the princesses head. i am so convinced she could see haha, but you don't really accuse kids of that unless it's your own!

we also played pass the parcel, which was the slowest game of. all. time. i am desperately hoping that as kids get older and understand a bit more that they start to pass it a little faster!! i am keeping in mind that they are all between 3-5 right now.

finally it was time for cake - and for me to tell you all about this amazing cake. my best friend jen and her husband arrived about 10:30am and started to assemble this masterpiece with every single cake decorating accessory you have ever seen in your life. it was incredible to watch. i am so very grateful to have had a cake supplied each year for madeline's birthday and think that she is so very very clever. what a lucky girl i am, to have such a great (and generous) best friend.

madeline loved the castle cake and kept dragging everyone to look at it. she was so proud... "come and look at my cake! my cake! it's a castle. like the princesses has." haha. i am glad she liked it so much (and she would want to after that much effort!)

everyone's favourite part of a birthday, blowing out the candles and cutting the cake up - although the top layer was more than enough for all the guests - so the bottom part is now sectioned in our freezer and we shall be enjoying it greatly in the months to come. 

she was a little rockstar, posing happily for photos and smiling her big happy grin at the camera. what a sweet little girl.

me - very happy at the end of the day... and the verdict? the princess party was a raging success, all went perfectly according to plan, the birthday girl was thrilled, the guests had a good time - and now we wait - to do it all again in a years time. so... it's back to the drawing board.

good night! x

party prep

today i got to work prepping things for miss madeline's princess party this saturday. twelve little girls have been invited, so i am a little nervous that i won't be able to keep them entertained and that they'll run riot, for this reason i am trying to be ultra prepared and have everything sorted wayyyyyy ahead of time.

 the pass the parcel has already been wrapped, with some fabulous prizes (for the inbetween layers and the middle!) care of my beautiful friend keryn from bella blooms who also made the custom hairclips for the goodie bags. you can see some more of her goodies here!

i decided upon visiting spotlight last week and seeing their amazing gold glitter paper that the little ladies needed a placecard each at their table, so i then spent the next hour tracing off my laptop screen onto baking paper to get the letters i wanted (you then press the other side of the baking paper with the pencil to transfer your (back to front letter) on to the back of the paper you're cutting from.) super easy and the letters looked awesome! even cooler once they were stuck down on the pink card. (side note, the font if you are wondering is cooper std black at size 150)

i am so in love with this glitter paper, i just want to use it for everything!

placecards all ready to go

i also had to prep the "crown making kits". i am always so proud of myself when i manage to think of a good idea myself and haven't stolen it from pinterest... so this one i am showcasing for sure. i had this idea to get gold paper crowns (i was totally going to cut them from card, but then we found them precut in a pack of 10 from riot art and craft) winner. they also had the stickers i wanted, so we got some cool felt, shiny, glow in the dark and crystals in different shapes and sizes, then divided them up between the bags. we'll let them decorate and then pop a few staples in the back to secure them.

the only issue was, the crowns weren't gold, so i then had to make them so. a can of spraypaint later - easy done, dried in the garage over night. and they looked much better gold too. good choice. i am really hoping that making a crown keeps the kids entertained for more than 5 minutes.

pale pink goodie bags from the discount store at the local shopping centre... with a gold sparkly crown i bought from an etsy store here in the u.s. i could not find them anywhere else, but let's be honest - there was no way i was cutting each one of those out and staying sane, so it was worth the postage to get them here.

and the contents, because lets be honest, everyone's favourite part of a party is the goodie bag...

a mini stamper pen (discount store - came in a packet of 10)

stick on earrings and plastic ring (as above, packet of 7)

2 gold balloons (big w - they were nice gold metallic ones)

princess stickers (reject shop, 12 pages to a sticker book)

custom hair clips (bella blooms)

turkish delight (totally matched the pink and gold theme)

metal and crystal ring (best ebay purchase! i bought them here and thought meh, they'll be okay for the goodie bags, but they were such good quality and i was shocked more than i can explain as the pictures made them look so cheap and tacky and they were actually pretty decent quality, $6 including delivery for 20! storing that away for future reference...)