Ella's Fourth Birthday Party {Lesson in Listening - Part II}

We opted for a low-key birthday lunch for Ella's fourth birthday.  We were going to do a party on a Saturday and invite more of her friends, but she really wanted her party on her birthday (which was a Tuesday).  We had five of her preschool girlfriends over for a birthday party lunch right after preschool.  As usual, things ended up being a bit more elaborate than I had originally planned, but when it comes to party planning, I can't really help myself. 

Following last year's lesson, I asked for a list of requirements from Ella:

• "a Hello Kitty wintery party with springtime flowers and butterflies" (tall order, right?)
  
• a pink and purple cake with white roses and sparkles (she saw the rose cake on pinterest, and chose it over a Hello Kitty cake.  What can I say, she has sophisticated style).
• peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• fizzy Christmas drink {sprite mixed with grenadine flavoring}
• hot chocolate
• balloons
• candy
• treat bags for her friends
• dancing
• coloring

 We checked everything off her little list, and I managed to keep the little gathering pretty low key.   Yes, low key.  I wasn't running around like a crazy person, and I even got to participate in most of the festivities.  I did as much as possible beforehand, and it turned out great.  The coloring activity consisted of each girl getting a Hello Kitty coloring book ($1 from Michael's), and then it got rolled up, tied with baker's twine, and added to their favor bags. Easiest craft ever!

The cake was the hardest part, as I tried a new frosting technique, and I used cream cheese frosting- big mistake. It tasted great, but it was a little sloppier than I would have liked because it clearly doesn't hold its shape as well as butter cream.  And sadly, you can't see it very well in the pictures, but we used edible glitter, and it made it so wintry and glittery.  Ella got to put all the sprinkles on the cupcakes for her classmates, and she was in heaven. She also picked out the golden cupcake liners for her classmates.


One of my favorite parts of the party was helping each of the girls pick out the candy for their favor bags.  They were so particular!  I think the highlights for the girls would have been drinking hot chocolate out of mini mugs, dancing, and eating cake. 


The color scheme was taken from the McDonald's Hello Kitty toys she's been obsessed with since before Christmas, but we brightened up the pastels a bit.  Can you believe she requested a party based on McDonald's toys, and I agreed to it?

Well, it was her birthday. Some of the elements didn't really complement the others, but she didn't even care because it's what she wanted.  She loved it.  And that's all that matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p.s.  the girls actually had two rounds of hot chocolate.  The first was Hello Kitty PINK hot chocolate, the second round was the traditional hot chocolate.  Brown.  The mini hot cocoa mugs were a smash hit!  And great because it meant not too much sugar :)