A Whole Hand! Lucy's 5th Birthday Party!

After the Dr. Seuss theme last year, I was out of themes for characters that Lucy liked.  I had planned to do an ice cream party, since she loves that stuff, and then she decided to like movies other than Tarzan!  My little girl is growing up! (sniff sniff)

We were settled on a Peter Pan shindig, and then two months before, Lucy changed her mind to Cinderella.  Since she likes the old-school, classic Cinderella movie, but doesn't go for any of the newfangled sequels and prequels and all that jazz, I wanted to stick with decorations that were in line with those illustrations.  Easy, right?

WRONG.  Cinderella, as she exists now, is all tarted up and flashy.  Lucy very much enjoys the old Disney movies period, and I wasn't sure if she'd even reconcile the current Cinderella plastered all over the Party City plastic tablecloths with the one from the movie she's come to love, (her favorite part is the Prince's dad jumping on the bed, trying to slash his Duke, btw) so I decided to make all of her decorations.  Because why not, right?

So I painted, and sewed, and papier-mache-d, and thrifted.  I managed to cobble together some pieces that I felt represented the essence of the original Cinderella, which could also be used in Lucy's soon-to-be-finished downstairs room (which is moving along at the speed of light!)  Brace yourself; pictures are coming.

The party was at Grandma and Grandpa's, 

so she couldn't very well ride in her princess dress.  

She needed a travel outfit.  I obliged, using this technique.

Then she changed when we got there!  I bought the 

Cinderella dress in the toy section at Target, and because

I don't like to do things the easy way, I used leftover rhinestones

from the hair clip I made to embellish the dress.

See?  Plain sequins, and then sequins with glass beads.

And because I liked the leftovers on the top so much, I went

and bought the rest of the beads at half off and finished 

off the whole bodice!  Bling bling!

What's Cinderella without her carriage?  And a fairy godmother?

You think she liked it?

Yeah, I think she liked it.

We also picked up a matching purse and wand at Target.

The wand flipped open with the press of a button.

She dug it.

She also dug the silvery beads that I hung on the chandelier.

Shimmery, crystal-y beads.

BEADS. And I get to reuse these for Christmas.  Thanks St. Vinny's!

And there was this.  A nice big canvas, that I had in our attic, was

turned into Cinderella's view of the castle from her window, as

depicted in the movie (or as best rendered from the blurry screen

shots I managed to find online.)  It took me a few sessions.  I'm more of

an abstract, throw-paint-at-the-canvas type of painter, mostly because I'm 

never satisfied with outcomes when I try to duplicate an already existing image.

Overall, I'm okay with this - plus, artwork for Lucy's room!  Two birds, people!

I always loved the scene where the birds and mice

are making Cinderella's dress, (hey, wildlife, I could use a 

hand with *my* sewing, but whatever) and I saw a version of

it that was based on a pattern I know well, so I added a little

of my own flair :)

Yep, I just draped the string of beads over my

"dress form."  La-zy.  The dress form is a hanger wrapped

in leftover poly quilt batting, and then black fabric, glued

to a broomstick.  Thanks to Grandpa for drilling out the 

round base, and Grandma for the hanger idea!

You can't make a dress without a dress pattern ;)  I got a book from

my beloved thrift store, St. Vinny's, painted the edges gold and sprinkled

them with gold glitter.  Then I traced these original images from the movie stills

online onto some pearlized scrapbooking paper, colored them with Lucy's crayons, 

and slapped those babies in the book with a little hot glue!  

Thread spools and basket also from St. Vinny's.  Love that place!  

It's made in Lucy's size, so she can wear it now :)

I am obsessed with book banners!  It took months of scouring good ole' SV

to come up with two of the same vintage Cinderella books - the ones that sell for $5+shipping each

on eBay, I got for $1.25 - for both!  I used a bowl to trace the rounded bottoms.  

Originally, I planned to use all pages, but that banner ended up being

22' long, so I went with the prettiest illustrations, that captured the 

general storyline.  Clipped them to decorative rope with mini

clothespins, easy-peasy!

Lucy's Aunt Mary knows how to get all the good shots ;)

Cinderella wouldn't have gotten anywhere without her 

pumpkin.  This is where the papier-mache came in.  This pumpkin

came to me as a jack-o-lantern, so I stuffed newspaper in his

toothy grin and papier-mache-d over it, and then spray painted the whole

shebang silver.  A little gold glitter on the top, and voila!  Candleholders

were from our wedding, with a couple Hobby Lobby deep discount 

items added (can't beat 90% off!), and the nice fat one that's holding 

the pumpkin is a thrift store find.

And the buffet was sprinkled with tiny acrylic diamonds, from the

lovely Christmas section at Hobby Lobby.  I'm not sure what 

diamonds have to do with Cinderella, but SPARKLE!

What's a party without balloons?

And beads on the chandelier?

Beads?

BEADS.

Take a breather, Lucy.  Focus.  On something beside the beads.

Like this!  Your glass slipper cake, made by the creative genius

that brought us your Lorax cake last year, the wonderful Josh's Cakes!

Oh, that's pretty!

BUT BEADS.

Adding the candles, while Prince Charming (aka Mateo)

looks on.

Ooh, fire!  Love me some fire!

Still, beads...

Oh, but they're singing happy birthday!  To me!

And she had to clap for the singers :)

She got a little goofy while we were cutting the cake :)  Kind of giggly, kind of eyeroll-y.  She can't eat her cake, but we let her have a little taste of the blueberry filling.  Watch the video in the link above!  And speaking of blueberry filling...

Lucy's glass slipper cake was white cake, vanilla cheesecake, and blueberry filling.

That's right.  Cake.  Cheesecake.

AND BLUEBERRY FILLING.

With a divine buttercream frosting under the fondant.

It was spectacular.

And look at that detail!  The quilting!  The gold tassels cleverly

fashioned from licorice!  Fondant buttons!  The perfect perch for

Lucy's glass slipper.  Thanks again, Josh!

After that crazy delicious cake, Lucy got to open her presents!

Mateo was all "Girl party?  Presents not for me?  This is for

the birds!"  Don't worry; his was the weekend after :)

The only female to get an ironing board for her birthday

and be happy about it.

We also had to get some shots of the price and princess before we wrapped up the party :)

Okay, you got your picture!

Now it's time to check out the BEADS!

Seriously.  She spent a good portion of that party admiring the silvery beads on the chandelier.  She has glitter in her veins - wonder who she got that from? ;)  I wanted to get a pretty light fixture like that for her room, but now I'm rethinking it; I'm pretty sure gazing at it would end up being the only thing she'd want to do!

As per usual, Lucy was up early the morning of her party, so she was pretty worn out by the time her party started.  She's been needing her bipap more in these situations, when she's tired, as opposed to just "wanting" it, when she was a little younger.  She's definitely changed in strength over the last year, so we're accommodating.  Getting used to having her on her bipap sometimes when we're out and about, and knowing when tired is *too* tired, so we can head off any situation that might become more emergent.  You can hear the relieved hoots when she gets her bipap during these worn out times.  Of course, if she would go to sleep and wake up at decent times, and take her naps, we may be able to avoid some of these instances, but try convincing her of that!  At any rate, we're very grateful for the machines that allow her to rest, keep her healthy, and make her happy.

Time to start planning next year's party!  Maybe we'll revisit the Peter Pan idea!  Or the ice cream.  Who knows what she'll like by then?  Whatever she chooses, I'm sure there's a Pinterest post for that ;)