The Tot....

So, my Bitty Bean...my Taylor Tot...she just insists on growing up.

My terrific, tom-boy, third-girl, tone-deaf Taylor Tot will be FOUR on June 7th.

Where in the world did time go???

Just a second ago, we were on our way to the hospital to meet her.

Apparently my abdomen had run out of room, so she decided to move out 4 weeks early.

Which meant I was actually in pre-labor during her baby shower.

Oh, Macaroni Grill, thank goodness for your massive portions and loaves of bread. I have never felt so well-fueled for labor as I did for meeting #3.

My sweet little Bitty Bean is about cute as they come.

(Even the nurses in the NICU thought so....but I'm pretty sure they say that to everyone)

And that cuteness has just kept coming.

Which is why, after 7 years of being "Mama"....I just threw my first FOR REAL birthday party.

Yep, you read that right. I've never thrown a full-on shindig for a kid birthday before.

I am not a good pinterest mama.

At all.

BUT, when that little Bean looked up at me with her huge brown eyes and said (ever so sweetly), "Mommy, can I have a tea party for my birthday? A fancy one? Like Fancy Nancy? With all my favorite friends?"

I knew I had to throw a party.

(I haven't had the brain space, the energy, creativity, or the time to party-it-up prior to now. I have no intention of doing 4 parties a year from now until the end of time, but I can see them happening every now and again. Which is pretty exciting for all parties involved.)

So a Fancy Nancy Tea Party was born.

My friend, Heidi Rew, has an AMAZING blog called Parties for Pennies, and she was kind enough to help me by coming up with a spring board of ideas. She is really quite fantastic - in real life and in blogland. Between whimsical baby showers,  fun, themed grown-up parties, and gorgeous wedding receptions - there is no end to her creative side.  She was my RA back in college, which means she is an excellent listener, functions exceptionally well on minimal sleep, has patience like no other, and owns stock in tissues. (I was a bit high maintenance in college. Who am I kidding? I'm a bit high maintenance now!)

Back to my party....

If I was a good blogger person I would have taken pictures of the totally-amazing-if-I-do-say-so-myself invitations I MADE. Yep. I crafted them of paper and glue. And I felt AWESOME. I made little tea cups that invited you to come "Par-tea" (get it???) with Bitty Bean for her 4th birthday.

But I'm not a good blogger person. Because I was so excited about how cute they looked, I couldn't wait to pop 'em in an envelope and hand them out. Not until AFTER I handed every single invite out did I realize I forgot a picture. Oh well. That's just how it goes sometimes.

I actually contemplated making another one just to take a picture to show you....but I decided I have better things to do. Like watch The Voice. ;) 

Basically, I traced half of a bowl on a folded piece of paper and cut it out. Then I cut a heart out of another pattern of paper, trimmed the inside out, glued the edges inside the "cup", and then wrote the party stats. Didn't take forever....only about 3 episodes of Arrested Development.  It was a good night. (If you are dying to see one, I will try to make one up)

Bitty Bean has this gang of buddies that are super tight.  Most of them have been in the same Sunday School class and Cubbies class for the past year, and they all get to hang out at Mom's morning out every week.  They are a great bunch of girls and I was thrilled that she thought of all of them.

However, I had to break a birthday rule in this house for the party to happen. We normally (as in, always before now) only allow the birthday kid to invite as many friends as they are turning old. Hence, 4 friends would have only been allowed. The problem is, this girl-gang? It is a gang of EIGHT.

Rule broken.

I am quite certain that will be brought up from now until the end of time with the older 2 girls whenever they want to invite more friends...."But Moooooommmmm! You let Bitty Bean have SEVEN friends when she was only FOUR!"

I think we'll make it a case by case basis from now on. ;)

These fantastic poms were made by a friend for a baby shower...I borrowed them to make our party extra awesome. I don't know how she had time to make those - Ain't nobody got time for that!

Anyway, back to the party prep....

I decided to make twirly skirts for all the girls to take home from the party....which was a great idea in theory.

I mean, I had read blogs of amazing women who bake and clean and shower and get dressed and sew fantastic items for their children and always greet their husbands with a smile and take amazing pictures of everything.....and these stupid lying crazed talented women suckered me in to believing that I too could easily whip up TWELVE skirts. And the house would not cave in on itself in the process.

Well, I made the skirts.

AND THEY LOOKED AWESOME.

(clearly, this post is full of fodder for why my children are lacking in the humility department)

If you would like to jump in the crazy wagon along with me, feel free to click the tutorial by Dana Willard from Made on how to make the circle skirt 

(aka - the easiest skirt ever but it will make you look awesome).

 

The pink material is a bed sheet I bought at the thrift store for $0.50. 

That's right. 

Take that, Pinterest moms.

AND

 The ruffly skirt? 

Especially made for Bitty Bean?

 I made that pattern up. IN MY HEAD.

Seriously, I don't even know myself anymore.

I've never ruffled anything before last week.

Well, not fabric.

I've managed to ruffle lots and lots of feathers over the course of my life.

After the girls arrived, there was an impromptu dance party to Disney Princess songs while we were pulling all the food out.

For our lunch....

We had Pink Lemonade in tea cups

 PB&J, and Turkey and cheese sandwiches cut into stars with cookie cutters

 Chips and pretzels

and

Fruit - brought and prepped by my sister...it was really the last thing in the world I wanted to be doing!

none of which was photographed. 

But it was all eaten!

 There were a lot of pinkies in the air....quite a bit of clinking of glasses...and plenty of girl talk.

After opening presents, everybody changed into their swimsuits.

Between Me, My Love, and My Sis, we had quite the sunblock assembly line going. 

Everyone thought the pool was a splendid idea and loved getting sprayed with the hose....

almost.

Poor Boy Bean was a little tired and ready for some of the women to leave his domain. 

His cousin was not bothered by the hordes of woman around, and played happily for the duration.

Mid-way through pool time, we brought out the brownie (Bitty Bean always requests a brownie instead of cake!), sang happy birthday, and ate excessive chocolate.

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty grand success. 

Even though I had planned a craft and a story, we didn't end up doing either one. Which everyone seemed fine with - they just wanted to play together anyway.

At the end of the day, I just wanted my little munchkin to feel loved and special. 

I'm pretty sure that was achieved, because when I told her what food we were eating she looked at me in all seriousness and said, "Mama! You remembered!"

I may not always call her the right name, or remember how much she weighed at birth off the top of my head, but I will always remember how much I love her.

All the way to the moon and back.

~Whitney Copyright 2013