We celebrated Skyler’s birthday yesterday—she’s turning five tomorrow! Her request for a princess party held fairly steady—there was a bit of Nutcracker-esque ballerina and alicorn-theme temptation along the way—but once she decided that she wanted to wear her Elsa dress from Halloween to the party, that was it. (Funny enough, she wore her Unicorn halloween costume for her 4th birthday party, so I guess we should be paying attention to her choice in October this year.)
We invited a few of her best preschool pals to come over for pizza, cake, and playtime—along with a special guest: the real Elsa. It was such a sweet little group for a Sunday morning celebration…
Even though Frozen was the inspiration, I decided to stick with lesser-known princess decor—Hudson and Skyler helped set up some tissue flowers and garlands, and we blew up a few balloons.
We rolled up the carpets and moved out some of the furniture, and then set up a rented child-size table and chairs for after story-time.
Skyler was pretty fixed on the idea that it was to be a drop-off party (she’d gone to her first one not too long ago and it made a big impression as to what big kids do), but not all four-and-five-year-olds are quite ready, and so we set out some snacks for our friends, too.
Including Hudson, there were 12 party-goers, and they pretty much occupied themselves in Skyler and Hudson’s rooms (later it turned out he was a bit unhappy about so many “little kids” in his stuff) without our saying a word until it was time for Elsa to arrive. They all got on so well!
When the doorbell rang, Skyler ran to answer it—so excited to bring in her special guest and play host. I expected that she’d sit on the floor with the other kids, but she pulled up a chair next to Elsa and inched it closer and closer to her while helping with a retelling of the Frozen fairytale. Every now and then she’d interrupt to add something, like—”I have a dog named Sawyer,” or “these are my special sparkly new shoes.”
At one point, Elsa demonstrated how she uses magic to turn water into ice and snow. Later that evening, when a friend at a Superbowl get-together asked Skyler how Elsa did it, our friend reported that Skyler looked at her—a little surprised by the question—and answered “she’s the real Elsa.”
I was impressed by the guest’s staying in character when I went over to ask if she needed anything, using her real name, and she pretended not to hear me until I caught myself and called her Elsa.
After storytime, she gave each child a number on his or her hand, telling them they could come up for face painting when their number came up. We set up the chairs and gave out slices of pizza in the meantime.
For the cake, Skyler asked for “chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and strawberry roses on top.” In the middle of the roses, she’d wanted a princess, a unicorn, an alicorn, and a kitty. Her favorite things. (We ended up ordering a cake from a bakery and embellishing it a bit.)
We sent everyone home with some bubbles, stickers, and a unicorn rubber-ducky when it was time to say goodbye.
I can hardly believe that my baby is turning five! And yet I recognize what an incredible little girl she is growing up to be—so kind and imaginative. We’re so lucky to be her parents and get to celebrate it all.
P.S. Previous birthday parties: Rainbows and sparkles at four; Cake and music at three; Gymnastics and Pull-toys at two; and All the stars at one.
Sources: Invitation; Princess Garland, Paper Flowers, Unicorn Garland, Foil Balloon, Pink Star Balloons (similar), Princess Plates, Giant Doilies, Princess bubbles, Unicorn Duckies.
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