J & A and Co.: Birthdays

I turned five a few weeks ago.

My mom threw me a princess party.

You may remember seeing it here on her blog. We had my friend party a few days before my real birthday.

The best part about turning 5 is that I got to share my real birthday with my family.

My mom says traditions are important.

I’m not sure what that means, except I know that because of it; I get to eat my breakfast in bed every year.

This year I had a cake batter waffle.

A lot of people have asked my mom for the recipe. It is super simple:

All you need is:

funfetti cake batter mix

all the ingredients that cake mix calls for

frosting

syrup and powder sugar if you like

This is how you make it:

You follow the instructions on the cake mix for ingredients and mixing.

Heat up your waffle iron and add 1/4 C. of batter to hot waffle iron.

When it’s all cooked, my mom likes to put a scoop of frosting in the middle.

She always drizzles a little syrup, sprinkles a little powdered sugar, and sticks a candle right in the middle.

Yummy Yummy. Lots of sugar in my tummy.

I opened lots of fun gifts on my birthday. My favorite was a book that uses a special Elsa wand to add sound effects.

Another fun gift was from my Aunt JoDean. She lives close to me, so she came and read me the book Chrysanthemum. She gave me the book to keep. It was fun to listen to her read me the story.

I really like that book.

My mom says it’s tradition to have a special birthday dinner.

I get to pick what ever I want to eat.

I picked Raman Noodles.

My mom laughed.

I don’t know why.

She said, “that doesn’t sound like a very special birthday dinner. Are you sure you want Raman noodles?”

I was sure, and the birthday girl always gets what she wants.

I helped my mom make the cupcakes to share with my family.

I like being in the kitchen with her.

Stella helped my mom get the cupcakes all frosted.

Every year on my birthday we decorate Halloween shaped sugar cookies made by my mom.

My mom says, “it’s tradition.”

I love decorating the cookies.

So do my brothers and sisters.

It’s fun to give the cookies away to a few of our friends; that’s tradition too.

Sometimes we take them to our school and give them to our teachers.

The day was so busy with breakfast, presents, Raman, cupcakes, and cookies.

My mom said “wow” It’s already 7:25pm:

That is how we roll on birthdays.

Well really that is how we roll on most days.

We started decorating cookies at 7:30 at night.

My mom says when Jex was 5 he was in bed by 7:30.

I guess I’m one lucky 5 year old because I never go to bed that early.

It is so fun being the baby.

My mom says I’m spoiled.

I think I’m just well-loved.

We made a big mess in my mom’s kitchen by the time we were all done:

My parents gave me some face paint pens for my birthday. Stella tried them out and turned me into a butterfly.

My family always sings “happy birthday.”

…and I made a wish.

I love being five.

I am thankful that we always do the same special things on my birthday.

I think that’s what my mom means by tradition.

see y’all later

love,

Tessa Mae

Right before we went to Disneyland, Tess became obsessed with the princess Belle.

I’m not quite sure why, but I happen to love Belle so I was thrilled.

I was even more thrilled when little miss decided to have a Belle party for her fifth birthday.

I’ve had a lot of fun with this party.

Here is a massive picture overload of all the little details.

The invite:

I designed this and then had them printed in a 5x7 size from Sam’s club.

We put them on fun Yellow paper, and wrote each girls name on it with gold glitter.

I also added some glitter to the front.

I loved delivering these invites and watching the girls just freak out.

Then the day arrived and Tess couldn’t have been more excited.

Ready for more of the party details?

Decorations:

I enjoyed buying lots of pink and yellow banners, tissue paper balls, and fans.

I always pull as many items that I have lying around to make work. Cake plates, chalkboards, house decor, and glass jars that I already own really help to pull off the look. I really wanted to make the table look great for the tea party.

I made sure to have the clock:

candelabra:

the enchanted rose:

and teapot:

It really added to the theme of the party.

I tried to use the rose as the one item that tied it all together. You will see that I used it in a lot of the party details.

Party favors:

I wanted each girl to have a crown.

I found these at $ tree; but knew they wouldn’t do.

Stella and I took off the feathers, and the jewel at the top.

We spray painted them gold.

Then I hot glued the pearls from the ribbon section at Hobby Lobby, and then Rose buttons that I also found at Hobby Lobby.

I used the Rose buttons again and made the girls a necklace.

We used bronze circles with a jump ring in them. I found them in the scrapbook section at Hobby Lobby.

A little hot glue and ribbon and the girls had a necklace.

I really wanted the girls to have a bow. Everywhere I go with Tess people are always commenting on her bows. I thought it would be fun to give the girls a bow similar to what Tess wears and keeping with the colors and theme of the party. This little beauty is what I came up with:

Again, repeating the rose theme; I made the roses out of circles I cut from satin fabric and a candle to burn the edges. Then ribbon, netting, feathers from a boa, and a pretty button; and I put it all together with hot glue and a clip on the back. Remember when you are making a bow, felt on the back helps to hold it all together.

All these fun favors were part of Belle’s beauty bar, and given to each girl in the “beauty” salon.

I also sent the girls home with this fun yellow bag.

Each bag had the girls initial on it… (with help from Stella)

…and was filled with:

All these little goodies were picked up the $store.

It was nice to have the bag because it was filled with lots of goodies by the time they went home.

Another favor that went home with the girls was their tea cup.

I found these adorable glass tea cups at our local thrift store. I ran them through our dishwasher and they were good to go.

The girls drank pink lemonade out of them at our tea party, and then they got to take them home.

We also had Mrs. Potts treat bar: (and every single girl was freaking out about these pink suckers; who knew?)

Each girl got to fill up one of these bags with treats…

…and then we sealed it up with washi tape.

The front of the bag said “thanks for coming.”

We also sent the cup cake home with the girls.

Since we had little tea party snacks, we didn’t need to eat the cupcake during the party. Plus, I hate cupcake mess.

So we sent it home in these cute pink polka dot cups.

While the girls were drinking their pink lemonade tea, Stella and Ivie placed them in the pink party cups and wrapped them up in a clear cellophane bag and tied it up with ribbon. This also went home in their yellow bag.

When I made the cupcake toppers, I kept the rose theme going. I luckily found these beautiful rose stickers in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby.

Party Fun:

We had 3 stations and separated the girls into 3 groups.

Station 1: fingernails

I let Stella stay home from school, and her cousin Ivie came to help.

The girls came to Belle’s Beauty shop and got their fingernails done.

Station 2: hair

I enjoyed braiding each girls hair in a fun braid that we call the princess crown in our house.

This is the station that we added the bow and crown to their hair.

I also put the necklace on each girl.

It was so fun as I listened to each girl ask, “Do we get to take these home?”

“Yep.” (insert massive smiles from girls)

Station 3: mirrors

My two friends whose girls came to the party stayed and helped with this station.(thank you Ashley and Bre)

I cut mirrors out of gold and silver paper before hand.

Each girl put them together and added jewels wherever they liked. Notice Tessa’s are on her mirror. She is going to have a hard time seeing her reflection. I love that children like to make things there own and do it their way.

They also colored a rose to be added to the back.

Once the stations were done, we went to the tea party.

We had small cookies, small crackers, and pink lemonade poured from the teapot in to the girls very own tea cup. A fun straw was also put out just in case they wanted to use it.