Juliana's 5! Party Edition

We celebrated Juliana's birthday on the actual day since it fell on a Saturday this year (I love it when that happens!) Her two good friends, Ava and Anna were invited to join us for another Princess party. Juliana decided she wanted another castle cake and proceeded to draw many drafts of the castle she wanted me to make. One such drawing actually extended onto a second sheet of paper requiring tape to secure her creation (just three pieces, pleeeeeease!) [Sidebar: Juliana goes a little tape-crazy sometimes so I have to limit her consumption.]

I embraced the repeat theme because I really enjoyed making her cake last year and the princesses were too cute. I just knew that with experience and two cake classes under my belt, I'd be able to improve my design and dazzle my little princess.

We began the party by decorating tiaras, which everyone embraced and did an excellent job. I actually managed to get a couple great shots of the birthday girl smiling for real; a major feat when dealing with a five-year-old subject:

Can you believe how adorable she looks? Yeah, me either. Okay, so I'm slightly biased, but look at that face. I mean, come on.

Even Kathryn got into the whole princess thing at least for the tiara portion of the festivities. She chose blue (shocking) and was pleased with her "symmetrical" design, while I was pleased with her vocabulary. To her credit, she refrained from complaining about the girlie nature of the party and managed to enjoy herself for the most part. For the record, she respectfully declined my offer to paint her nails rainbow colors.

We encouraged the girls to dress like princesses, which, during any normal play date they'd be all over without any prompting, but for whatever reason, were not interested in on this particular day at a princess party. Whatever. I painted Juliana's and Ava's finger and toe nails in all different colors. Both were particular about the one color they specifically did not want and each child excluded a specific color depending on the particular appendages I was painting. Good times.

We then began a rousing game of Freeze Dance to tunes from Dog Train, specifically (Don't Give me That) Broccoli and Tantrum. There was much jumping, spinning and no lack of gymnastics moves. I was spinning the turntable kid's CD player so didn't get any pictures of the dancing portion of the event.

To keep things moving, we launched into presents and I am going to test your powers of observation and see if you can guess what Juliana likes more than anything else in the world. Here are your clues:

Exhibit A: Webkinz Chihuahua from Anna (immediately named "Goldie")

Exhibit B: Fur Real Yorkie with designer bag from Ava (immediately named "Brownie")

Exhibit C: Lil' Kinz Bulldog from Ama and Ampa (immediately named "Cutie")

Exhibit D: Juliana and Ama with her Webkinz collection (Goldie, Mustard, Cutie and Sunny - under Ama's hand, much to Juliana's chagrin upon viewing the picture)

I'll give you three guesses.

After Juliana opened her presents, it was time for cake. Now, I'm not much of one for self-congratulation, but folks, this was one awesome castle cake and I am saying so myself. I started this mother 3 days before the party and worked on it until 4 AM the morning of the party, only to get up and get back at it for another hour before the guests arrived. I probably could have spent another 2 hours on it so it was good that I ran out of time. (Yes, I'm just that much of a maniac perfectionist.) I am so proud of this cake and am pleased as punch that Juliana loved it. Without further ado, I give you Princess Juliana's Castle 2008:



Eh? What did I tell you? (By the way, I tend to be much more modest in person, but I firmly believe this cake deserves my unbridled enthusiasm.) The moat went all the way around the castle with grass and pink, purple and yellow flowers sprinkled throughout. The horse and carriage were part of a Sleeping Beauty play set we gave JJ for her birthday and the princesses were on loan from Ava's private collection.

See why I was excited to get a *real* smile out of the birthday girl earlier? Fake, fake, fake and fake. But, as I may have already mentioned, the cake looks great and was very photogenic...and it tasted good, too. :)

Ava, Juliana, Kathryn and Anna

And so concludes another birthday extravaganza. All in all, it was a good time. I must admit that I'm hoping Juliana will choose a slightly less elaborate cake design next year. I've seen some very lovely rectangles...Ha! With my luck, she'll want a ferris wheel. Eeep! Don't tell her I said that!

Special thanks to Ama for coming to town for the big event. Juliana was so happy to have you here and I always appreciate the extra help. You're wonderful, as always, and we love you lots!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl. We love you very much!

ETA: While I would have loved to post pictures of Alexander joining in all the princess fun (he surely would have dressed up), I cannot considering he slept through the whole party. I just wanted to note this so I have an answer when he's looking through this when he's older wondering why the heck he isn't in even one picture.