Miriam's Birthday Party

For Miriam's 7th birthday she had a

Party.

The first one I've ever thrown for one of my children.

I wasn't looking forward to it.

I thought of it as work.

That's why I hired Lindsay Ann to help me. She loves work.

But--!!It was so much fun!!!!!!

The theme was "Fancy Tea Party," because we all know how much Miriam loves to be fancy. I looked on a bunch of websites for ideas and the things moms did were . . . unbelievably ridiculous. Invitations that would take hours to create, for example. I was not impressed. But then, I had this brilliant moment of insight. I don't like to do crafty things. Miriam LOVES to do crafty things. All the things those moms did for their daughters, Miriam would rather do herself. And I would rather let her. That way, the entertainment was creating the party and I didn't have to do much.

The idea worked beautifully--even better than I expected.

Here the girls are decorating "fancy" banana cupcakes. You'll notice the guest list included a lot of familiar faces--Emeline, Kiersten, Cassidy, Hailey, Lynnaea, and Miriam's neighbor friend MM.

After making the dessert, the girls made fancy sandwiches using my Mom's cookie cutters and toppings like nutella and banana. There were some odd sandwich combos--like nutella and jam and bananas--but they all got eaten.

Ignore the crusts (they were thrown out and the presentation made slightly more fancy) and notice all the great shapes.

You can't have a fancy tea party with plain dishes!!! So, the girls decorated their plates, cups, and napkins. (Seeing the color of their lemonade by the time it had mixed with the decorative markers was pretty . . . unappetizing.)

The most useful idea I found in the internet was to make fans. Super easy. We took a doily and glued it to a colored paper. The girls decorated it, then we folded it in a fan shape and attached it to their wrists with "fancy" pink ribbon. I was blown away by the cuteness of seeing them lounging on the couch downstairs waving their fans and being "fancy."

The girls also decorated the tablecloth. I thought it turned out fantastically fancy.

When the tea party was ready, Lindsay Ann and I took the girls downstairs to "get ready." They changed into fancy clothes (Miriam ended up in a wizard costume--go figure, and Lynnaea was a vampire--but they were both definitely out of the ordinary!) and then we put real make-up on them. They were in heaven. When everyone was ready, we told them their table was ready and we brought them upstairs one at a time for Lindsay Ann to take a few pictures of each girl at the top.

The fan, the fan--it kills me. Just looking at that picture with Emeline's "fancy face" and the fan. Seriously, if you have a girl, throw one of these parties just to make the fans and then watch the girls parade around fanning themselves. It is AWESOME.

I don't know if that face is "fancy" but it is certainly a Cassidy face!!

Our lovely vampire.

Don't you just love her dress!

Lindsay Ann and I acted as waitresses. We carried serving platters around and made sure to say things like, "Would you care for more of the cheese, madam?" with fancy accents.

The girls totally got into it. I have never heard so much quiet with that many cousins in the same room. I've never heard so many "pleases" and "thank yous" either. We heard a lot of, "Excuse me, I would care for another grape, please."

Hilarious. Sweet. Charming. Loved every single second of it.

Along with the sandwiches and cupcakes, we served grapes and also cheese and lil smokies on fancy toothpicks. If you ever want small children to feel that they have hit the high end of fancy, buy some toothpicks with flags on the end. The girls were enraptured. It was also great because everything was finger food, yet still "fancy."

Miriam was so cute opening her presents. She's never comfortable being the center of attention, and you could tell she wasn't sure exactly how she was supposed to act. She would open a present, gasp with delight, get this big smile on her face, then turn solemn and gravely thank the giver.

That's such a Miriam face/pose. The girl lives for the dramatic.

The party was a huge success. Lindsay Ann was an excellent hired hand (she even accepted cream cheese icing as payment), and the girls were all super well-behaved and fun to be around. I truly enjoyed every minute of the party. It almost--ALMOST--makes me think Miriam can have another party some day. Maybe for her 18th birthday.