birthday party #2

Ella really lucked out this year. Our trip to Atlanta was a bit of a last minute decision and we hadn't anticipated celebrating Ella's birthday out of town. I had already promised her a "storybook" birthday party that we've been talking about for several months since she's been enamored with writing her own stories. So, not wanting to go back on my word, last weekend, we had a girly little "storybook birthday."

The invitation that I never found time to mail out. In the end, I turned it into a less-than-stellar evite.

She invited a few of her buddies and they all came dressed to the nines. The don't seem to need an excuse to get gussied up.

We had a spread of delicious and less than nutritious finger foods:

On a side note, in my busyness, I avoided making the cake batter from scratch and ran to the store to pick up some chocolate cake mix. After reading the labels, I couldn't find a single one without partially hydrogenated yuckieness, and, even though I was serving junky food, I just couldn't bear making a cake with that stuff in it. So I grabbed the healthiest option I could find and it happened to be Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free cake mix. YIKES! I threw the batter together at home and the kids wanted to lick the mixers. I obliged and Simon put his down after the first lick. He questioned, "Why does this chocolate taste weird?" Indeed. I was nervous about serving the gluten free goodies, but in the final hour, I didn't have much choice! Fortunately, I made some chocolate cream cheese frosting and that seemed to cover up any mysterious flavor that might have slipped by a discerning palette!

Our storybook party included a craft time where each girl/mommy team got to create their own book with matching bookmark.

Our supplies. Note to self: itty bitty beads are not a great idea with three drooly babies present.

The girls enjoyed choosing pretty papers, stickers and fancy lettering.

Here are a couple of finished books:

Ella had loved the time with her friends, especially after that rough first week of school. I heard lots of little girls crying when their mommies said it was time to leave, so I guess they had a good time too! (Crying is good, right?) Ella has already decided she wants to have a "rock star birthday" next year, whatever that means. I don't know if I can keep up with this pace though! She might just get another gluten free cupcake.