It’s taken me a little over a week to get over the awesomeness that was Annabelle’s 3rd birthday princess party and only now am I able to gather my thoughts and put it down in a blog post to share with you.
Ok truthfully, I’ve just been folding an unreal amount of laundry, and cleaning, and plant watering, and whatever else sucks up all my free time that I haven’t been able to sit down and blog about it until now, one week later. I know, hot off the presses.
So, as I blogged about a couple weeks ago when I shared my anxiousness over the party planning process, Annabelle lives for all things princesses, so it was a given that her party theme would be just that. I mentioned that I was going to rent a Disney princess to come and pay Annabelle a visit, and I did just that. You have no idea how excited about this moment I’ve been. To say I live vicariously through my daughter is an accurate statement. For a girly girl like me who loved dolls and playing house as a kid, a chance to relive it all over again through the eyes of my child is too much fun. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I may have snuck Barbie play sessions in until I was about 15 years old! I just couldn’t quit them. So I could easily jump right back in and start pushing around the Barbie Jeep and changing their outfits and giving them haircuts, no problem. But bring on the princesses for now, I’m all in. Barbie can wait.
Cinderella is here!
When the moment arrived for Cinderella to ring the doorbell at our house, I had Annabelle dressed head to toe in her blue organza Cinderella costume. I made sure to tell her that Cinderella was coming to see her so she didn’t keel over from shock and fear from an unexpected surprise, but she probably didn’t really get it. I hoped that telling her in advance would make her super excited, and although it did, nothing could cure her extreme bashfulness when she laid eyes on Cinderella.
In the most princess-y sounding voice, Cinderella said; “Hello, Princess Annabelle. Happy Birthday” and she leaned down and placed a super sparkly tiara on Annie’s head.
Aaaaannnnd Princess Annabelle is now ridiculously starstruck, paralyzed, and cannot speak at all.
I lead Cinderella down the stairs to our basement where all the kids were anxiously awaiting her arrival. She immediately sat down and told her story of being a mistreated step daughter and recounted the whimsical evening when she met her prince and they married. She sang songs from the movie and had a wonderful singing voice. The best part is that she stayed in character the whole time, even when talking to adults. I feared that she was going to be snaggle toothed and cray cray looking, but she was actually a very believable princess. Thank God, my husband would’ve never let me hear the end of it if she was toe up.
Annabelle continued to be painfully bashful during Cinderella’s visit, and was too afraid to dance with her or respond to anything she said. I had to act as her translator the entire time, which was annoying fine. Well, Annabelle did manage to blurt out one super random thing to Cinderella, which, no joke, was “E.T. phone home.” Shes a big E.T. fan, I have no other way to explain that. But anyway, I guess I just wanted her to be all BFFs with her favorite princess, but I get it, she’s a shy little 3 year old.
After her song and dance routine, Cinderella had her sidekicks begin making the most amazing balloon art. This is the part the boys could really get into. I think we had a Star Wars lightsabor balloon in every color. Cinderella sang Happy Birthday to Annie, cut the cake and served it to her and her guests, serenaded her, and then she was off. Of course in the final 5 minutes Annabelle finally started to warm up to Cinderella, letting her hold her and she must’ve hugged her like 15 times! It melted my heart to watch!
And to top it off, Cinderella sent Annabelle a thank you letter in the mail this week with a Cinderella charm necklace included! How cool is that? If you live in the Indianapolis area and you’re thinking about a princess rental, I’d highly recommend Happily Ever Productions. They do a great job!
After Cinderella, we busted out the bounce house, had a water table for the kids to splash around in, and opened presents. I felt so warm and fuzzy inside knowing how much fun Annabelle was having. There’s nothing like seeing your kid so euphorically happy like that. But next year we’re just going to a nail salon for kiddie manis and pedis. Way cheaper.
PSA: Please turn off your cell phones during a baptism
As if Annabelle’s super fun princess party wasn’t enough specialness for one weekend, we also had our 9 month old son Leo baptized last Sunday. During the ceremony our little man was getting pretty fussy so my mom gave him her phone to play with. No big deal, I do it all the time with my iPhone. Well, right in the middle of professing our desire to baptize our baby to the priest, Leo hits the iPod icon and some loud ass Tao Cruz dance song starts playing!
OMG this isn’t happening right now. My mom bends down between the pews and makes a failed attempt to turn the music off, but she’s so mortified and flustered that she cannot figure the damn thing out. I know, it’s totally her phone but she doesn’t have a clue how to use it. I was willing her fingers to hit the right button to turn the music off, but instead, her fingers hit the volume button and turned it WAY UP!!!
OMG, I’m dying.
My brother grabs the phone and literally has to run it out of the church because he can’t figure out how to turn it off either. Would you believe the music actually got louder the further away he got? He said he had to take it outside before he finally turned it off, and he considered throwing it on the ground and stomping on it. LOL! Freaking Samsung phones! Everyone should use iPhones so we have universal phone knowledge and can work other people’s phone in a crisis like this.
Later, my brother-in-law says to me; “Hey Courtney, did you hear that lady playing rap music at Leo’s baptism?!” Ha!
Don’t worry mom, at least it made the ceremony as memorable as Annabelle’s princess party! *wink*