Lizzie's Birthday party/the final celebration

For Lizzie's 7th birthday we had a small "Princess & the Pea Faux Slumber Party." She wanted a real sleep-over, but, as I explained to her, we don't allow those (obvious exceptions for hospital stays) and most families we know don't allow them either, hence the "faux." The girls came in their jammies and stayed past bedtime (till 9 p.m.).I tried to add some color to our otherwise super bland apartment with flowers (real & tissue) and scrapbooking paper. Also, my mother made Lizzie a cute tablecloth that looked like stacked mattresses. When the girls arrived I gave them each a glittery crown and started them off decorating throw pillows with fabric markers.

While the girls colored we took turns taking pictures on our "stack of mattresses."

This was pretty much my first at-home party where I had to plan games and activities. It was fun, but things didn't always go according to plan. Some activities took less time than I thought they would and then there were the activities that the girls came up with on their own, some which I had to stop like pillow fights and table dancing (next pic).

Our little group of princesses:

What are they laughing at?They're laughing at Drew in his pink glitter crown. I was so glad when he arrived. He had called me from work days earlier and said, "Please tell me Lizzie's party is on Saturday." Um, no. Turns out he had an early-evening presentation that he couldn't get out of. He was actually finished minutes before the party started, but thanks to the commute he missed the first hour. After pillow decorating and pizza we moved on to the games. First the girls found little plastic castles in a couple jars of split peas. I rewarded them with magic wands (glow sticks) and sent them into Lizzie's room to dance in the dark.

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Then, we watched a Princess and the Pea movie (sadly, only 2 1/2 minutes long) and tested the girls to see if they were "real princesses." They took turns either hiding a ball under stacks of pillows or finding the ball. Afterwards, each girl got her very own "pea" (bouncy ball) to take home.

And, pretty much whenever we were between games the girls turned to unsanctioned pillow fights. I guess I can't blame them though since pretty much the first thing I did is provide them with their very own pillow/weapon.

Our final game was musical pillows. A couple girls, Lizzie included, didn't want to play because they were still nursing pillow fight injuries so I had them work the music. First they made sure that everyone got a prize (jewel rings) even if they didn't play. Later, while Andrew and I were prepping something else, the girls slipped into Lizzie's room again for what they called a "musical pillow fight."The party was starting to wrap up, so we broke out our "pea" cupcakes.

We sang happy birthday to Liz (you can't tell from the picture but those candles burned different colors).I made the girls pose for yet another group shot (and they laughed at Drew, again).

Liz opened presents. For family night earlier in the week, we had practiced graciously accepting gifts. I wrapped up random household objects and when Liz opened them she had to stay thank you and say something nice about each object. Turns out the politeness prep wasn't necessary this time around because she absolutely LOVED everything her friends brought and naturally gave good reactions.

We ended up with about 15 minutes to spare, and Liz had just received a Barbie DVD, so we let the girls spread out on our other "bed" and watch the movie until their parents came for them.

In all I'm happy with how things went and I look forward to planning more at-home parties. Plus, since Nana made us that super cute tablecloth (and on short notice too), we will definitely have a princess and the pea party for one or both of the younger girls.