Rylee Turns Five : A Royal Tea Party

Our oldest daughter, Rylee, has hit a huge milestone! She's FIVE years old! That's a whole hand of fingers! She's our sweet girl with a vivacious spirit. She challenges me everyday, and that's a good thing! Her strong will teaches me (well inspires...) me to be more patient, and less controlling; her fearlessness teaches me to worry less and let her be, because when I do she never ceases to amaze me; her laughter and goofiness reminds me stop and enjoy these moments, she's a kid, and its ok to just be silly once in a while. She really is a remarkable kid, so full of life and joy. Everyday she inspires me to be a better mom, to love all that she has to offer, and to raise her well to make a beautiful difference in the crazy world.

She being the kind of girl who knows exactly what she wants, decided almost a year ago what her five year old party was going to be! So to celebrate this milestone we threw none other than a tea party for her and her closest friends. It was lovely and actually quite simple to pull off what looks like time intensive details... most of my time went into finding affordable teacups and baking the goodie bag cookies.

Unfortunately I didn't capture of the birthday girl individually, she was dressed up to the nines in a Belle-like princess dress *sidenote: she came minutes before her party from soccer, kicked off her muddy gear and jumped into this dress... I love that she's a tomboy and princess all in one! She had nine friends attend her special event, all of which were amazingly well behaved, and had lots of fun.

We served Shirley temples to kick things off. Candy bracelets doubled as serviette holders. PB&J Sandwiches, ham and cheese croissants, cream puffs, muffins, cookies and fruit were on the menu for their high tea. Each had the choice of hot chocolate or cinnamon apple tea to choose from.

For activities they colored Chip & Mrs. Potts (free printable found HERE). They made their own candy necklaces, which I just cut cord long enough to fit over their head easily with a knot at the end, then got all kinds of candy with holes in it (ring pops, lifesavers, sour keys, etc...), this activity was a hit...maybe not for the parents, but the kids loved doing it! Next up they got to decorate their own cupcake, I set up a few paint trays with a variety of toppings and let their inner cake decorator come out.

To finish up the kids watched excitably as Rylee opened their gifts. And then we got them outside to run off the multitudes of sugar they consumed, and then that was it! We sent them home with homemade "tea bag" shortbread cookies, which Rylee had helped make (recipe and idea found HERE).

Dream Big Little One

Way back to when I was pregnant with Adelyne I was drawn to the saying "Dream big little one", it was actually one of the first things I set up when making a space for her in the kids room (check it out here). This little phrase was the whole inspiration behind her little bohemian themed party we had yesterday to celebrate her upcoming first birthday!

The day couldn't have been more perfect, the weather was beautiful, there was space for us at the park, and the kids had their naps prior to it all making for a good + happy time for all!

I have to say I wish all my kids birthdays were in the summer, outdoor parties are way easier! I had very minimal decorations (and even less because I forgot one at home... duh!) and had a playground and beach to keep the kids entertained, add in some lawn chairs and some yardzee and badda bing badda boom adults are happily entertained too.

Biggest priority was making sure there was plenty of yummy food! On the menu was Apple Blackberry Crumble, chocolate haystacks, strawberry pink lemonade, watermelon, veggies + dip, a little something we call "bonuts".... a donut recipe gone wonderfully wrong haha, what should have been donuts turned out to be yummy biscuit-like cookies. And most importantly Adelyne's very first birthday cake (A pink velvet cake, inspiration and recipe found here) that is quite honestly my pride and joy of the whole party (apart from Adelyne of course haha).

DIY : Princess Party

We celebrated Rylee's fourth birthday just the other day. A sparkly pink princess party is one I never in a million years thought I'd be planning, but alas, my girl is one of the most girly girls there can be!

Everything I tried to do myself, my husband calls me insane, but honestly I have a lot of fun doing these themed parties. Its my creative outlet in my world of chaos. To another mom or parent it may seem crazy, and thats ok, but this is my niche, its something I'm happy doing... do what you love and love what you do, right!?

As our guests entered princess Rylee's kingdom we had swords for our little princes, made out of cardboard and felt. And for the little princesses there were crown headbands (dollarstore headbands, homemade fabric stiffener, lace ribbon, and gold paint),  and sparkly wands (felt, sequins, polyfill, and bamboo skewers).

In our party room our only decorations was a canopy overhead made of three dollarstore tablecloths cut in quarters and six balloons. I was so pleased with how it turned out and I can say I will probably never use streamers again... ever, this looks SO much better! 

And the hardest thing I created from scratch was this cupcake masterpiece. I am not a baker, it is not my forte and totally stresses me out. But, Rylee and I did a trial run a few weeks ago so I felt somewhat comfortable that I could make this happen, and although its not perfect, it far surpasses anything I have ever baked. I used this recipe for the cupcakes, and this recipe for the icing and used a 4B Wilton decorating tip. I finished it off with Wilton candy pearls and some dollarstore trinkets to make it look more like a princess dress. Everyone seemed to enjoy so I think I can say it was a success... a stressful, messy success!

For eats we kept it simple since it was an afternoon party. There were fruit wands, skewers of grapes and pineapples cut into star shapes; Cinderellas pumpkin patch, mandarin oranges with celery; and Cinderella's coach, chips with soardough loaf filled with artichoke dip (bread wheels attached with toothpicks) 

And last but not least our party favour, snow whites poisoned apples (minus the poison of course). Another first for me, candy apples and to add to the learning curve doing it without a candy thermometer... key phrase for that experience is "be patient, don't panic!" I'm not sure how they actually taste, haha, but it was more for the novelty!

Not pictured is our craft activity for the kids. We had some mosaic crowns the girls could decorate with jewel stickers. For the boys I cut shields out of foam and got felt pens, sparkly star and dragon stickers for them to decorate with. And additional entertainment was provided by queen Gramma Jamma who read the classic and my personal fave childhood story, "The Paperbag Princess" by Robert Munsch.