I know I have been a bad blogger. The last month has been so incredibly full of stuff that I haven't had a chance to document it! While we have had a great time, I am sooooo looking forward to our "normal" schedule and a routine.
Before you say anything, I am very aware that I get a little out of control when it comes to parties. I'm fully aware that I'm a little crazy, but if I'm going to throw a party I am one of the "go big or go home" types of people. That means, I also want to make everything myself, which makes me a little insane.
The hardest thing about this party was coming up with an invite list. Our new ward has about 20 kids Brianna's age, most of which are girls! She also has all of her friends from our old ward and from preschool, etc. so narrowing the list down was difficult. I knew there would be hurt feelings, but I couldn't throw a party with over 30 kids in my home (especially since I was making everything). The easiest thing was to keep it to kids from our ward, but even then I couldn't invite everyone. We had a list of 16 girls coming (including my own 2) and I had to cut it off there. Sooooo, if you didn't get invited please don't feel bad. I felt bad enough, but I didn't know what else to do!
We decided to do a fairy themed party and I knew we would be out of town the full week before the party so I started early on making party favors/decor etc. I ordered the wings online for just over a dollar a piece!!! Woo hoo! I was going to make them, but the thought of making 16 pairs of wings made me exhausted...and you can't beat the price I found!
I wanted all "fairy-like" food. We made "snail sandwiches" which were tortillas with cream cheese and jelly. (It wasn't as well liked as I thought it would be). I served little "toadstools" which was string cheese with half a tomato on the top. I knew most girls wouldn't eat the tomato, but I couldn't resist! 
I had a party favor table which had different candies that fit the color theme (however they do not taste well mixed together, so when they took a bag home of it all mixed I felt bad! :) Lemon drops don't go well with big mints and whoppers! 
The eating table had cups with flower straws in them. I didn't get a close up, but I was inpired by some cupcake liner flower straws on Martha Stewart.
The cupcakes were nothing special this year. I knew I wouldn't have time to make a fancy cake, or fancy cupcakes. I was going to make them look like pink toadstools, but I figured people wouldn't know what they were. Then I found these little flower petal liners at Michaels and wasn't sure how they would bake. They were ok, but nothing exciting. 
I was in such a hurry I didn't get the canopy of streamers hung over the eating table, but I did have some hanging butterflies (no close up, sorry).
The most popular food items were the "fairy berries."
Butterfly bread was a close second. I simply used a cookie cutter, some light butter and sprinkles.
I personally was the most excited over the apple lady bugs, but I was so rushed they look off. They were tasty though! A little melted chocolate with apples!!! You can't go wrong with that!
I made each girl a bottle of "fairy dust" but after buying cheap glitter to fill all 16 containers, I realized it looked like sugar and I could've gotten away with that instead!
Each girl also got a hand made rolled rosette bracelet, wings, and a hand made head dress. There were 3 large flower balls on the eating table that were also hand made (they were my favorite thing)
As each girl arrived we sent them out back to decorate a "fairy house." My good husband cut the doors larger from bird houses and painted them all for me. I had little items for the girls to glue to the houses.
Each girl needed to earn their wings so we did a sort of cake walk for them. I made flowers, butterflies, etc. out of cardstock and laid them in a circle. The girls danced around to music and when the music stopped they each ran to a shape. If my husband pulled out a matching shape they came and got their wings. I set up a little photo booth so after each girl got her wings, I took her picture. I will be using these photos for their thank you cards. The toadstools in the picture were also hand made. 
The best part about any little girl party is just dancing. They had a blast twirling, prancing, running in circles together! After earning their wings we sat down to eat because we had some hungry fairies to feed. The girls then each got to decorate a butterfly shaped sugar cookie on a wand to take home. We stopped for cupcakes and presents then played a few few fairy games like "fairy freeze tag" and "fairy, fairy, pixie!" (like duck, duck, goose). We had an absolute blast, but I was so thrilled when it was over!!! 
I could not have done this party with all of my "helpers." I had a few young tweens come to help and our friend Christy was also there! We had a great time, and Brianna is still talking about her fairy party. Be assured, she will not have a big friend party every year......so I can breathe awhile til the next one!
Miranda is full of life! She is our little fire cracker! She is constantly full of energy! I have the hardest time keeping up with her outside of our home! Ihave so much to say about her since this is her "2 year old" post, but it's late so I'll have to wait to do that another time. And I have about a million other posts to blog as well!!
Our sweet Bri turned 4 today and she is thrilled about it. However, this morning after taking a bath she said, "I've been 4 for like 6 hours mom! When am I going to get bigger?" She cracks me up and literally believed she would magically get bigger this morning because she was turning 4! She kept saying, "I just love being 4!" all day long! I did a quick photoshoot of her, and still have more pictures I want to do, but here's a little sneak peek. More pictures, and bigger versions, will be on my photography blog 
And yes, I'm aware that she kind of looks like she's a boy going to the bathroom here, but I liked the shot anyway! I had a hard time getting her to cooperate with this photoshoot, she was beyond silly and distracted most of the time! Then suddenly she started posing like this!
Due to work, Daddy couldn't be around for Brianna's birthday, so we gave Brianna her bike on Saturday so Daddy could see her enjoy it! She obviously loves her bike! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa L for contributing to it! 
Here's her cake! She is allergic to this one, so it was just for the guests! The Panda is made with Rice Krispy treats and covered with fondant that I made with marshmallows and powdered sugar. It didn't quite turn out how I imagined, but it's done! 
She loved her "cake" that was free of all her allergens. It had a very different texture to both the cake and the frosting!
See the texture of that frosting! It was like working with glue and was very difficult to spread on a cupcake free of gluten and eggs that would normally help hold it together! She seemed to like it though!
We bought this zebra toy from a friend at a garage sale! Can you tell she liked it? Unfortunately she isn't tall enough to touch the bottom yet!
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