Tutus and Tiaras

Anna's third birthday bash was this past weekend, and although the weather didn't cooperate and we even had to push the party back a day, everything was wonderful. And I know that at the very least (and the most important), the birthday girl had a pink, sparkly blast!

Anna has been really into dress-up and princesses, so I wanted to do a "princess" theme, while avoiding the cliched Disney Princess route. So, I designed these invitations, and pulled those colors throughout the whole party. I had them professionally printed on a beautiful pearl paper, and I put self-adhesive pink gems on each of the little white flourishes for an extra little touch. . .


This is the "Happy Birthday" banner I made with my new cricut, over the main dessert table. The little floral arrangements are pink tulips sitting in a vase with pink & brown m&m's (Anna's favorite!).

I made these really cute cupcake toppers using my cricut, pink & brown cardstock, and lollipop sticks. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the tiaras even have little self-adhesive gems on them.

The cupcakes themselves are from a modified out-of-the-box cake mix, but they're filled with a delicously addictive strawberry whipped filling. Check out the recipe here.

My mom and sister Katie were cake ball-making maniacs, and they made all of these cute & delicious yummies in the pink & brown color scheme. I decorated the cake stand with some pretty ribbon, then topped it off with some tulle & a tiara.

I made a "royal wardrobe" with pink & brown tutus & wands for the girls, and gold prince capes and swords for the boys. My intent was for this to be outside, but it was just too chilly and windy.

The kids were also able to decorate tiaras & crowns using all different sizes and shapes of gems.

My little princess went a little crazy with the gems and put just about as many that would fit. Then started stacking them on top of each other. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? ;)

And for the main attraction. . .royal carriage rides! The beautiful white horse was named "Goliath", and he was very sweet about letting the kids pet him, too.

Anna really loved riding the carriage so much that for a while, I was a bit concerned about whether she would get to enjoy any other part of her party. She stayed on for 3 or 4 rides around the block with her friends before I was able to convince her to get off for a while.


When she finally did get off, it was to get her face painted by Maw Maw. Maw Maw's face painting was a big hit at last year's circus-themed party, so we decided to ask her to do some princess faces this year. She did an amazing job yet again. . .

Another really neat thing that my mom put a lot of work into was turning Anna's playset into a castle! She designed the whole thing, then recruited my dad & sisters to help her finish the painting. The wind kept us from being able to put the top pieces on the tower, but it still looked so cute!

I designed this cute little "Kiss the Frog" game, and had it printed as a 18 x 24 poster. Then, I used my cricut to cut out pink lips so the kids could see who could come the closest to "kissing" the frog prince on the lips. We didn't get to it until a lot of the kiddos had already left, but I have no doubt that they had plenty to keep them busy without the game.

To close the party, we brought everyone outside for the pinata - also custom-made from scratch by my talented mother. . .

And in following with our annual tradition, I had a framed picture of Anna displayed with a pen for everyone to leave her some 3rd birthday wishes on the matte.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and to everyone who shared their time and talents to help make Anna's birthday so special!