Annelise's Bday Prep

You may remember what a big deal birthdays are to my kids, and Annelise's 4th is THIS Sunday! Were we not in the middle of a move, we'd have a big princess/knight party with all of her school, dance, & church friends. [Enter monumental mommy guilt.] Since we *are* in the middle of a move, her friends are 13+ hours away, the movers have my castle cake mold packed up, and Daddy can't even come down to be here for her birthday, because it's his last week in his Chicago job, and his $!%@# of a boss won't let him use a vacation day (which he HAS plenty of!) to come back Monday. All things I feel awful about, and all things no one can do anything about.

Soooo, I am bound and determined to make this birthday be as joyous as it would have been! I have been in party planning overdrive; my mom & I did a month's worth of planning, scheduling, and buying yesterday alone! We're going to have a cook out here at my parents' house, but we're also having Mr. Greg from Party Pets come and do an animal presentation! Annelise is really excited, b/c the kids have become so obsessed with nature this last year! (We used our Brookfield Zoo membership to the max last year and hope to get a new membership at our new area zoo, they go nuts over petting zoos, they got to hold an alligator

and ride a giant tortoise

last summer, and their two favorite shows are Wild Recon and Zoboomafoo.)

I broke down and bought goody bag favors for the first time, (I've always made personalized cookies for the kids every year,

but all my special cookie cutters are also packed up with our house.) I got princess activity books and roll-on glitter :-) for the girls and Hotwheels activity books & a car for the boys.

Since my castle cake mold is packed up, we're doing the princess doll cake, (a round cake that looks like the doll's dress w/ a doll stuck in the middle,) and Will got Sissy this Ballerina Ariel today to go in the middle. (BTW - let me recommend this line of princess dolls! It was $5.35 at Walmart - the cheapest Disney or regular Barbie in the store, and the shoes & bodice are molded/painted on, so no lost clothes or shoes!!! Remember, that was Sissy's complaint about her other Ariel Barbie. :-P I am tempted to go buy the others and hide them for Christmas & future bdays! Since the bodice is painted on, that's a lot less icing work to do on the cake.)

I'm not incredibly thrilled with her invitation, but it's still mommy-designed, and I whipped it up in about 15 minutes, so I guess not too shabby:

(I just colored out a few things to post it here, since this blog is public.)
We're inviting my two best friends from growing up & their kids and my parents' neighbors who play with Will & Sis.

So, invitations sent: check. Balloons & favors: check. Entertainment booked: check. Cook-out burgers & hot dogs: check. Ariel/Hotwheels/flower plates & napkins: check. I think we just need to actually bake the cake, and we're set!