Princess Party

Even though we have three girls, I had honestly hoped we would just skip over the princess stage and get straight to some others.  No such luck.  Abby Jane is just genuinely delighted by all things princess, so in an effort to embrace an interest of our child, we threw a princess birthday bash for our family last weekend.  

Surprise, she got her own princess dress.  Sweet thing had told me she was planning on stacking four tutus up.  Nothing makes you want to give to your child like them not expecting it.

We alternate friend birthday party years with family birthday party years, and as this was a family year, the adults had some slack to pick up in lieu of 10 little four year old girls being in attendance.  In hindsight, we probably should have handed out awards for best dressed adult, which Mom in a late-80's bridesmaid's dress, would have won handily.

 Aunt Jodi came in a close second with a late 90's bridesmaids dress.

 Every one who did not come with a crown made one!

I love my mother-in-law and my Aunt Boo, and I love this moment.  I keep wanting to put various captions with my imagined exchange that resulted in such expressions- I love this moment.

And then there was Joy.  She's not angry in this picture.  She's just decided to start crossing her arms sometimes when she's just standing around.

Jake wins every award in the book.  He's the manliest man I know, and because of that, he'll throw on a tux and wear a foam crown with pride to celebrate his oldest daughter!

 When no one was looking, except their Uncle Chris, who took the pictures, all these two and unders sneaked into the dining room and de-chocolated the pretzels and left beaver teeth marks in the lemon cookie icing. Did Uncle Chris stop them? That would be a no.

My Uncle Wayne gave my favorite gift of all. He has researched our family tree back to the 700's.  It turns out that Abby Jane actually is a princess!  They gave us an official book of our family registry, and they made a cute framed version that shows Abby Jane's lineage leading right up to four kings at the bottom, including Robert the Bruce of Scotland.  I would include a clearer picture of it here, but it's already hanging in my sleeping child's room.

 The whole crew of well-dressed party guests! One of the greatest blessings of all is having people love on your child and make them feel special.

 We feel very blessed indeed!