We'll supply the pixie dust...

(**Warning...this post is specifically for my parents who were not at the party and actually might be interested in seeing this many pictures of it)

Self-applied lip gloss

I was not planning on a three-year-old party for Natalie. But I think she has been planning on it since Andrew's party last March. She repeatedly reminded me that she was going to invite her friends to her "pahty." Her blue train party...just like Andrew's. She was so excited that I finally decided that I wanted to have a party too. I just redirected the theme, and we were good. And I don't regret it one bit...I mean, look at her face. She was in heaven.

Natalie's party was last Saturday. Tinkerbell seemed to be a fitting theme. Natalie reminds me of a pixie/fairy anyway. So we sent out the invitations...

I bought a package of invitations and then inserted our own words (in a different font) and some glitter (pixie dust)...

Think of the happiest things
It's the same as having wings.

Tinkerbell invites her Fairy friends to come in their
Fairy attire to Natalie's 3rd Birthday Party!

All you need is faith and trust
And we'll supply the Pixie dust.

Fly second star to the right to the Garner Home on
January 24th at 10:00am.

If you believe in Fairies say I do, I do and RSVP to...

We dressed Natalie in her 18 month old Halloween costume from 2 years ago...it was rather short and tight at the snaps, but she didn't care or notice.

Natalie was in heaven with all her fairy friends.

We started with a make-up station: lip gloss, nail polish and flowers to go on your finger nails, tattoos, glitter...

We tried to play pin the star on the wand, follow the fairy (whoever was wearing the wings), and a hot potato version of pass the wand. Most of the guests were interested in the first game, not so much the second, and nobody wanted to pass the wand on the third game, they wanted to keep it. Luckily that was the point of the game so we had plenty of wands available. Andrew wanted to play them all.

Olivia doing a victory dance after placing her star

Andrew as the leader...not too many followers

We then moved to the table where the girls decorated a book I had put together. They covered them with stickers and I added each of their pictures, a picture of Natalie and a picture of all of them. Below is what the cover looked like (with a different font and print size and no square around the picture) and then the inside was a story about the fairies attending Natalie's party. Very simple, but the girls loved it. They sat there in silence putting sticker after sticker in their books.

A Fairy Merry

Birthday

And then it was cake time. I love making special birthday cakes. It is as much for me as for the child ;-) This year I got very lucky. My friend Marci's mom decorates cakes. I called Marci to see if she had some tips I could use for the frosting and she suggested that her mom come over and "help." All I had to do was bake the cake and whip up some frosting. She did a BEAUTIFUL job and Natalie was just thrilled with her Tinkerbell cake. In fact, all the girls wanted a closer look at the cake.

After cake and ice cream, it was time to open presents. One of our little fairy guests cried and cried when Natalie opened the gift she had brought. So after Natalie had opened it, I gave her what was inside, thinking that was what she wanted. It took me another minute to realize she just wanted the bag..."her present." So I handed her the bag and she was fine.

Before we opened the presents, I gave each of the girls her party bag---a green purse I found at the dollar store. Inside was candy, a pinwheel, a lipgloss ring, glitter, and Tinkerbell stickers.

Natalie was so excited that Grandma and Grandpa Garner were able to come to the party!

I got the directions for these flowers from my friend Erin...I just LOVED them. They are sitting in my room waiting to be hung from Natalie's ceiling.

I TRIED to keep the decorations simple...cardstock signs and banners...a grove of mini pine trees...balloons

The banner I made for above the front door.

It was a great morning. Granted, of course there was the par for the course stressful few moments right before the party started and the balloons weren't there yet, but Natalie thought it was just wonderful, and that is all I wanted out of this party. Well, that and a few new Tinkerbell toys. Check.