A Princess Birthday Tea Party

We celebrated Ellie's birthday a couple weeks ago. The party was supposed to go one way, with my wonderful men (hubby and sons) serving a sweet dinner tea party for the girls. Then, the guys fell -- one by one -- to a horrible little sickness. Ben started it all the day before the party -- thankfully, just a 12 hour affair. Party day, he cleaned and disinfected the whole house as texts came from his brother and dad that they, too, were sick. Hubby and son were banished to their beds for the day while I took on Rob's role of chief baker. And decorated the house, too!

YAY for me!!! The cupcakes turned out great. Pink as could be. And my buttercream, though made with much more mess than Rob's, was delicious. All in all, a huge success.

The girls arrived, one by one, in their best party dresses with their favorite dolls dressed up too. They served tea to their dolls at the coffee table.

I served a "gourmet" dinner of heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches, apple straws and fruit. The sweetest thing happened... They ALL wanted to pray the blessing for dinner. So, we had three special prayers for dinner and Ellie before dinner. Then two more before cupcakes. She's definitely chosen great friends!

After dinner, I thought the girls would play with their dolls more... but alas, you can dress a girl in all the bows in the world, and she's still going to want to play "puppies and bears!" Yes, they ran, screamed and hollered all over the family room. One was the bear, one was the mommy dog, and the other four were puppies. Hilarious!











When all was said and done, Ellie's celebration was perfectly Ellie: a mix of sweet and tomboy! I'm bummed that her dad missed out on it (though he still talks about the noise), but at least it got done! :)

Happy birthday, Princess Ellie. We love you!