Happy Birthday Princess Caden

My sweet little baby is getting big way too fast. Caden turned 4 last week. Her actual birthday was on the 21st, but we had her party this past weekend. I didn't want to totally stiff her the day of her birthday so she opened a few from us and from her aunt Kara. Some of my family also came up from Texas for the weekend so we had a house full for the party.

Ever since Disney World Caden has been more than obsessed with Princesses - mainly Ariel (The Little Mermaid). So we decided to have a Little Mermaid party. There were some boys that she also wanted to invite so I had some pirate things too. As the kids arrived they had a craft. The girls decorated princess crowns and the boys decorated a pirate skull. I also gave the boys a bandanna, eye patch, and an earring to wear. They looked so cute - at least the ones who participated. One boy didn't want to wear the stuff and another boy wouldn't get in the picture. I then had them all stand in front of the REALLY COOL princess palace wall we created.

This thing was huge. I knew it was 8 feet tall, but I didn't realize how LONG it was. I thought it would fit on one wall. NOPE!!! I had to rearrange furniture in the red room to get it on 3 walls. (yes that is what we call it.) It is our 2nd living room but we have always called it that.

We also played the cheesy game of pin the crown on the princess and pin the patch on the pirate. After several kids went I realized I had put them too high on the wall so unless they cheated (which some did) they weren't going to get very close.

We had a little mermaid cake, which somehow is not in my pictures. Chris was video taping and I had the digital camera so I guess I didn't ask anyone to take a picture of it while I had the cake in my hands - oh well. I am sure we will just get a still picture from the video camera.

I also had a little "treasure" box for the kids to dig for a little surprise ( just some random little toys and stickers.) In the picture of Caden and the box you can see the BLING on her finger I gave all the kids to wear. They all loved the HUGE DIAMOND rings - even the boys!!! They wanted them too!

Caden had a lot of fun at her party. A few of her friends couldn't come but we all had a great time. Including some parents we had 27 people there. I think next time I need more than 3 days to plan a party. Everything was so crazy in the last few weeks. We were at Disney, then about 2 weeks later Caleb started school on the 20th which left me NO TIME to plan this. Hopefully it didn't appear like it was thrown together at the last minute.

I am leaving all the Little Mermaid and princess decorations up for one more week! Chris's parents are coming from Arkansas this weekend for a late birthday celebration. So we will get to enjoy all this princess stuff for a little longer.