colleen writes: 15 Little Princesses...1 Little Prince

The highlight of the month was Gabrielle's 5th birthday party which was themed after her favorite princess, Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty. After considering all of the birthday party venues around town, we figured it was easiest to have it at our home. (Not really!!) However, it was the only place where we could do whatever we wanted!! Gabrielle had 14 girls on the guest list, and every single one came! I had a feeling we would have 100% attendance! Thinking of 15 girls in our basement was almost enough to throw MOM over the edge, but I stayed strong. The key to a lot of kids is to keep them ultra busy the entire time. We ran out of time for the gifts, which was fine, because 14 little girls would have a hard time sitting through all that madness, so it was nice that parents arrived as Gabrielle started opening her gifts.

Gabrielle wanted all of her friends to wear a princess dress. I wish I got group photo, but I didn't. We bedazzled tiaras, decorated tiara-shaped cookies, got manicures, and colored Aurora coloring pages. They feasted on macaroni and cheese and tiara-shaped jam sandwiches. (Gabrielle's two favorites.) Gabrielle wanted an Aurora cake, so I managed to find one of those too. We also had pink ice cream and pink lemonade! They played pin the tiara on Aurora, musical chairs, hot tiara (think hot potato), and a lovely game of toss-a-marshmallow-into-a-bucket. There were no tears and lots of smiles, so all-in-all it was a great success and Gabrielle felt like a super special 5-year-old!! See the pics below!

Let's see, what else? Carter is continuing to be a charmer. He loves to take Gabrielle to preschool and wreak a little havoc. Gabrielle and her brother give each other a hug and walk down the hall to her room. On the way down, Carter likes to stop in the 3 year old classroom to look at the aquarium, and then he loves to play in the 4 year old room. He likes to look at the "pig" named Walter, who is actually a guinea pig. He also heads to the pretend kitchen and to the little couch. If I left, he wouldn't care whatsoever. I can't believe my 1 year old is ready for preschool!!

Happy Birthday, Gabrielle!