Princess Birthday Party!

My baby turned 3 last week. After I finished crying about the fact that my BABY was going to be 3, I went to work planning her Princess Party. She had been asking for a castle cake for 7 months, so I assumed she was serious. I wanted it to be fun and whimsical and not too character focused. It came together exactly as I  had hoped!

The dessert table was centered around the gorgeous cake my sister in-law's bakery, Treats on Washington, made. They amaze me every time with their gorgeous, detailed work!

I re-purposed a frame from Goodwill and prettied it up with some spray paint, fabric and added Princess Arielle's initial to it. The best part is, it is now hanging in her room! I covered some cardboard hat boxes from Jo-Ann craft store in scrapbook paper and topped them with a fun dress form jewelry holder.

The wands were part of the girls' party favors and were hand made by me and my good friend Liz. She saved me with some last minute crafting help!

The other part of the favors were the felt crowns. I had so much fun making these. The girls seemed to love them too. Apparently my little one wasn't the only one who went to sleep in theirs that night !

The activities included decorating their own cookies,

picking out and showing off their royal jewels,

getting the tiniest princess press-on nails I have ever seen (which stayed on a total of 6.2 seconds) and coloring princess pictures. All the while, music from Disney princess movies was playing in the background. I admit to singing along and dancing like it was my own royal ball!

As I watched my sweet 3 year old girl blow out her candles, I had to smile and wipe my eyes. She might not be a baby any more, but she will always be MY baby.

 

Quick run down of the who's, what's and where's:
Invitation: Made by me with princess clip art from Pretty Grafik on Etsy
Pom pom garland: Martha Stewart bought from Amazon.com
Dress form, crafting supplies and princess coloring pages: Jo-Ann craft store
AMAZING Cake: Treats on Washington in Boston, MA
Felt wand inspiration: Make things for Kids
Felt Crown inspiration: Curly Birds
Arielle's Princess dress: Amazon
Rock Candy and candy pearls: Sweet Indulgence
Sweet little blue bird: Middleburg Folk Art Studio (it is actually something I bought for her room when she was a baby) 

Unreal Candy

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting an UNREAL Candy party. I work full time and am the co-lead of my site's Parents Club, so I decided to introduce some of the lovely ladies at my work to these yummy treats! 

A little back story of why I was so interested in testing out this candy: My son was having some behavioral issues. We were concerned and decided to have him for possible ADD or ADHD. The appointment was scheduled a month away, but I was not happy just to sit idle and not do something to help him. I researched natural ways to help behavioral issues and stumbled across a lot of information on elimination diets. These diets remove things like processed foods and dyes from their diets and often times behavior improved. It was worth a shot. I emptied our cupboards of any unnatural foods and in a matter of a couple of weeks I could see a difference in him.  The hard thing was finding treats he could have that wouldn't send him into a behavioral frenzy. Enter Unreal Candy. I love the fact that their products have no preservatives, no artificial dyes, no GMO ingredients and no high fructose corn syrup. I was a little hesitant at first that something so "unjunked" could taste as good as their chemical laden competitors, but I was happy to discover that I actually like some of their products better.

We decided to have a pizza party and taste testing of the candy. I cut them up into pieces so we could try them all without getting sweets overload! The consensus was that we all loved the peanut butter cups and thought they tasted better than an unnamed famous brand. :)We liked that the natural peanut butter flavor is center stage. My favorite was the chocolate, peanut, caramel nougat bars. I could eat those every day! At only 200 calories a piece, they rival my favorite granola bars in nutritional value.

Most of the women I work with are also moms. We want our kids to enjoy sweet treats without worrying we are pumping them full of chemicals. Everyone was pleasantly surprised with the quality and taste of our candy.

We all got treat bags with all 5 varieties of candy in them. I know, ahem, mine didn't last all that long! So give them a try. I promise, real tastes good!

Disclosure:. I received product for my guests, and was compensated for my participation in this campaign. All opinions, as always, are my own.