Happy Birthday, Chiara!

Oh my goodness, it is a lot of work to put on a party for a 3-year-old. She was very specific in her directions to me ... cupcakes to decorate, princess plates and cups, princess hats (which we couldn't find, so we got pink sunglasses), watermelon, juice, and bracelets in the little gift bags for her friends. :)

The night before the party we made flower-shaped brownie cupcakes, a heart-shaped cake, and some normal, round cupcakes. Thank goodness for the round ones because the flower-shaped ones didn't turn out very flowery. :) We got all the tubes of frosting ready, we made up all the gift bags, and cleaned the house. She was such a good helper, and SO excited about it all. She did the goody bags all by herself.

I scavenged the clearance Valentine's Day stuff at Walmart and Target to find the bags, the tablecloth, and some other heart-themed decorations. She loved it because she's WAY into the color pink.

I had the girls decorate the cupcakes for the main activity. It was hilarious. One girl immediately started eating hers - my plan was for Chiara to give them away for a service project - and then everyone started eating theirs. Oh well. Go for it, kids! :) Chiara loves sprinkles, so we had lots of those. She's actually been playing with them like maracas for the last week ... even bringing them to bed with her during naps. She calls them her "sparklies."

(Oh, and pardon me for looking so gross ... Noelle decided she was hungry during the half-hour I'd allotted for myself to shower and get ready. Alas, it's all part of the job. I only mention it for posterity years from now ... I don't want them to think I thought this was a rockin' look.)

Next came present opening. I hadn't intended to open her presents at her party - I'd told her friends not to bring presents, so the only ones she was opening were from family - but the other moms said she should totally open her presents while everyone was there. So, Chiara passed out the goody bags she'd made for everyone, then opened her presents. It was a fun, loud, messy 15 minutes ... wrapping paper everywhere and goody bag contents everywhere ... perfect toddler birthday party excitement. :)

Then we got back up to the table so Chiara could "blow out her fire" and everyone could eat fruit salad and cake. My goodness, she was so happy.

Ooh, see the brownie flowers? They were highly attractive. :)

I made the kids all line up on the couch with their sunglasses on because I thought it would be hilarious. It was. One little girl did not want to wear hers, poor thing, but she was a good sport. The first picture we told the kids to say cheese. The second picture the moms all started being silly to make the kids laugh ... Chiara and her friend Jordin imitated the moms and put their arms up in the air. Cutest thing. I think they thought we wanted them to do what we were doing.

(Those are shorts, not panties, by the way. We still need to work on the ladylike sitting.)

It was such a fun morning for Chiara. I was so glad she felt so loved. "I have so many friends!" she yelled as they were eating cake. Perfect. Isn't the the whole point of these parties? To make them feel that their world is full of people who care about them? I think so. And what did Noelle think of all this?

Enough said. :)