4th Birthday Party

April is an insane month for us this year! I have plans on almost every weekend. I've been so busy that I haven't even wrapped the rest of CJ's presents. She turns 4 tomorrow so I need to get crackin'!

This last weekend was Chloe Jo's 4th birthday party!

Friday morning, we went to our usual preschool class and had fun exploring the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This was one of my favorite books to read to my preschoolers when I taught for a couple of years way back in 2002 and 2003. Chloe Jo was excited to wear her birthday outfit for the first time!

I had her wear white leggings under her skirt since she has a hard time keeping her panties hidden when she is sitting cross-legged. And, um, what is up with the hand on the hip?

Saturday morning was full of party prep. I love planning parties and doing things like this for others. It's kind of my love language.

G-Jo and Grampy came to help celebrate. Grampy wasn't actually invited to the Princess party, but he didn't want to be left out of a trip to see the grandkids! G-Jo wanted to take Chloe Jo to McD's for breakfast but she refused to go. She thought she would miss the party if she left. HA!

Chloe Jo was so excited about the decorations. I tried not to go crazy. Most of the decorations were from past parties so it was a fairly inexpensive party. It is all worth it to see the joy on CJ's face.

We decided on a Princess Tea Party Theme. We invited 5 little girls (the only little girls we know her age that are from around here) and 3 were able to come. I purposely kept the party small so it wouldn't be crazy.

The tea set I used to decorate the table was new. I packed it up for Chloe Jo to have at a later date. I am wanting to put a shelf in her room for it at some point.

I hung 4 clusters of tulle pom poms. These were reused from previous parties.

I absolutely loved the invitations we sent out! My blog friend (I don't actually know her in real life), April, designed them for us. She did a fantastic job! Check out her blog here and her Etsy shop here.

Chloe Jo's favorite part of the decorations was the balloons across the dining room opening.

The ribbon topiaries are another reused party decoration.

I ordered these tea cup place cards from Oriental Trading.

This banner was a last minute project and I'm so glad I made it. We are going to leave it up for the rest of April.

Fun party gifts. I love the pony wrapping paper!

The first thing the little princesses did when then came in was pick out a skirt to wear. They wore them for the party and then took them home. I bought them on the after Halloween clearance for $.75 each. Can't beat that!

Chloe Jo's skirt was a light pink to go with her shirt. She was ready for her party the second she woke up Saturday morning!

Once the girls started getting here, I had the table set up with foam crowns, letters and princess shapes. They also took their crowns home with them. We had made party favors that were tied up in cups with princesses on them, also, but my sister was the photographer and I forgot to ask her to take a picture of them. I also completely forgot to hang the birthday wreath I made on the front door! I had hung it on CJ's bedroom door so at least it was somewhat visible. I'm such a goob!

 Alyssa (she is from our Friday preschool class)

Cousin Brianna

Birthday Girl

Ashlyn (she is a fellow preacher's kid from the area)

Decorating their crowns

After we finished our crowns, we played Princess Bingo. I found the Bingo game at The Dollar Tree. It came with markers, but the buttons were much more fun.

Once Bingo was over, it was cake time! I always make our birthday cakes and this was the first year Chloe Jo picked her own cake pan out. She was thrilled!

We sang Happy Birthday and then she *very timidly* blew on the cake...sorta. Her blow was lame-o. I ended up blowing the candles out. Silly girl! Maybe next year she will blow her own candles out for the first time.

I let the girls drink out of my glass punch cups and they thought that was fantastic!

The inside of the cake was white with pink and purple marbling.

Time for presents!

I love small parties because Chloe Jo didn't get an overabundance of presents. The girls that were able to come knew CJ well so they all were able to bring something that they knew she would like.

After presents, we played one more Princess Cupcake game. This game was for 4 and up so the girls really had to concentrate and I had to change the rules just a little bit so we could play easily.

Best picture of the day. Look at the concentration!

I love having parties, but I love it when they are over, too.

Tomorrow Chloe Jo will open the rest of her presents from us and then we will probably take her for Cherry Berry ice cream after Bible class.

My baby is 4. Tear.