And so the decorating begins...
Jess comes over to help me be creative and paint a beautiful castle...
The silliness begins...
Mommy Marci's Queen bestest buds who helped prepare for the Royal Ball:)hehe (aka Keli & Susan)...
Katelyn with her Nana & Grandma Marcia
Katelyn starting the party...
And the bestest part...
Belle with some of the kiddos
Katelyn doing magic with Belle
Playing "Pass the Pillow"
WOOHOO! And Katelyn wins!
A Game of Cat and Mouse:)
Katelyn volunteering for another game...
Song time with Belle...
And face painting too!
Oooooh, simply beauteous!
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PINATA TIME!
Cute personalized princess/hero bags we made for the kiddos (The girls were reversible with a cute princess logo)
WACKING THE PRINCESSES! WOOHOOOOO!
SOME candy spilling out...the boys hold the kids back for the grand slam...
JACKPOT!:)
Katelyn & some of her girlfriends...
WOOHOO! We did it!
(And now the parents shall bounce in the bouncy cause the Princess and her brother are asleep from their fun long day!)
The story of Princess Katelyn's Royal Ball...
Katelyn woke up as chipper as can be and helped us prepare everything! Zack went across the street to our friends' house to play with his buddy Nathan so he wasn't underfoot and was entertained. Katelyn had a blast spreading out the princess confetti, preparing the food, hanging up balloons...you name it, she did it!:) She was a GREAT help! Then she got dressed, let me curl her hair and all...and well she then pronounced me as "Queen Mommy" and gave me a crown to wear.:) So sweet... I took some pictures of her in front of the castle my friend Jessica and I painted for her (it was one of those huge cardboard ones you can buy and put together for kids to color, but we used it as a prop instead for where Belle entertained them). Everything was truly picture perfect, even the weather! My weather luck is definitely not good, so that was a shock...I even wore capris and wasn't even hot! (It was in the low 80's...gotta love my new area!). All of the kids arrived, dressed sooooo cute...17 in all!!! Belle arrived and I was able to give her a few moments of special time with Katelyn before all of the other kids realized she was there:) Katelyn literally said, "Hi Belle, I am 4, did you know?!" and she just cracked up... It was pretty cute!!! She instantly loved her and Belle was soooo in love with her as well...she really looked like a mini-version of her:) I took some pics of them and then everyone came over to the castle where she did magic tricks with her wand, a pass the pillow game, song time, face painting, parachute games...you name it she did it! Katelyn was totally amazed and thrilled:) She serenaded Katelyn with a beautiful Happy Birthday song and well...what can I say, she was awesome! The kids had lunch, then did some crafts that I had laid out for them, then bounced in the bounce castle, then hit the pinata (I made cutesy appliques for the bags for the kids to collect the goods from the pinata with that had the kids names and characters on them which was a huge hit!). And then cake time... Oh the cake was GORGEOUS!:) A castle... Katelyn's eyes lit up:)and so did her friends'. She mouthed her wish which we easily interpretted to mean "I wish to go to Disneyland" (of course).
After cake everyone slowly made their way out...and Katelyn of course was anxious to open gifts...so we did that with all of the grandparents:) She scored! BEAUTIFUL clothes, barbies (2 even completing her set of the Disney barbie dolls which she was ecstatic about), a horse-drawn carriage with a prince was also a highlight. She got dress-up stuff, a wedding gown even (HA!), books, a Disney laptop, a Disney art kit, some computer games, a pretty night gown, "The Wizard of Oz" on dvd... She was so gracious and excited about each gift, it was great:)
And to top it off, we went to 2 of her other friends' parties after hers! NO MELTDOWNS FROM EITHER CHILD! WOOHOO!!! The kids were zonked after the 2nd party so we came home and went to bed, well...the kids did. Will and I bounced in the bouncy!:)hehe The kids woke up at 9am today (yep, almost 13 hours later)...and played all day with their new toys (The grandparents bought Zack some toys too so he wouldn't feel left out). Seriously, could this have been a better weekend?! I am grinning from ear to ear... Ah, but the mess, ohhhhhh the mess, ooooooooooooooooooooh the mess...I have been cleaning up all day, but...it was all worth it:) So there you have it, our birthday extravaganza in its entirety!
Until next year...:)