Party Time!

Like we did with Samantha's birthday last Fall, we opted to celebrate Sophia's "friend" birthday on Saturday and then celebrate with "family" on Sunday.  It makes for a long weekend of parties (and clean-up), but most of the decorations are left-up between each event ...

 

 

 Posing for a quick picture before her friends arrived:

 

The cupcake table with a Sofia the First banner in the background (the girls were most excited about this as I was hanging it the day before!):

The accessories table, complete with the bingo game cards, prizes and beads for our craft:

The table all set up for the girls when they arrived; each guest was able to take their special Sofia the First cup home with them and I used straws with nametags to designate whose was whose:

A quickly-thrown together sign for the front door, welcoming the guests to the "Royal Prep Academy ..." which is the castle that Sofia lives in:

The guest of honor:

My two princesses:

The girls each got to keep their plastic ring on top of their cupcakes.  The cupcakes were pink lemonade-flavored and were quite the hit:

Picking out their prize from the bingo game -- various flavored Sofia the First chap-sticks.  We played until each person got their bingo (Sophia was the last one!) and they took turns choosing which color/favor chap-stick they wanted out of the large purple bowl.  It worked out so well!

I kept it easy on myself and ordered pizza and breadsticks for the kids and served that with carrots, celery, homemade applesauce and pink lemonade.

After we cleaned up from lunch, we set to work on the one craft project that I designed.  All of the girls got to use various beads and make a special amulet necklace.  In the television show, Sofia has a special amulet that allows her to talk to animals.  It is a focal-point of the show and I knew that the girls would enjoy making one of their very own to take home with them.  Most of the girls wore them for the rest of party ...

Opening presents ...  Sophia let her friends take turns "helping" her open her gifts.  It was adorable!

We ended the party with cupcakes and ice cream -- perfect!

********************

After the guests had left and headed home, I hurried my little ones off to their beds for a nap while I set to work cleaning up the house and prepping food for the next day.  Most importantly, I baked and decorated Sophia's special cake.  I was so pleased with how it turned out that I tiptoed upstairs and woke the girls after bedtime and let them come downstairs to see it!

The birthday girl in her special purple dress:

 

 

More cupcakes and the special Sofia the First cake that I made.  (I baked a dome cake, cut a hole in the middle, wrapped the Sofia doll in saran wrap on her bottom half, frosted purple-tinted frosting around her using different frosting tips and finished off the masterpiece with some edible pink pearls left over from Samantha's birthday cake, thus satisfying Sophia's request for a pink and purple cake!!!):

 



For something different, we served hamburgers on the grill (in February!), pasta salad, beans, chips/dip, veggies/dip and fruit.  And then once everyone was stuffed, we headed into the living room to open gifts.  One of the highlights was this incredibly-soft stuffed rabbit from Aunt Deb:

The birthday girl ready to blow out her candle:

Happy 4th birthday, Sophia!  We had the best time celebrating you!