When Princess L was born, we realized that it would be way out of our budget to afford birthday parties for each princess every year. Princesses E and S had birthday parties each year up through 2005 when Princess L was born. That was their last. We said that each princess would get a party at 5, 10 and 15. (Princess E is trying to tell me it makes more sense to do 16 rather than 15 because she will have more to celebrate. I think she assumes she will get her license then.) So this party has been in the planning for three years. The theme has been changed several times - finally ending up as a popstar slumber party. There were nine girls invited and eight in attendance. The first thing we did was eat pizza. There was pepperoni, sausage and just cheese. It was such a nice night, they all ate out on our deck.
Next, Princess E really wanted to do a craft. (So typically 10-year-old girl!) She decided on these wooden bag shaped boxes at Dollar Tree. We squirted paint onto paper plates and they all got to mix paint to their hearts' content. They were each given three pencils for their painted pencil boxes. Next, we had a bonfire (one of Princess E's favorite activities) and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. The girls came up with some games to play, including one which had them telling brain teaser stories. When they started getting a little rowdy, DH suggested they go inside and open gifts.
This got a little crazy. They started grabbing gifts from each other and shoving them at Princess E. She wasn't totally sure which gift was from which girl. (We think we got it right when she was writing out her thank you cards.) But she got some really neat presents. (It's very hard to buy stuff for a 10 year old girl.)
Then we put in a movie. Princess E picked out "Princess Protection Program" even though she had already seen it. They got popcorn during the movie. After the movie we had the birthday cake. It was a homemade strawberry cheesecake. No - I didn't make it. When asked what kind of cake she wanted, she asked for one of Mr. Lang's cheesecakes. We have a talented man in our church who is a chef and he makes THE BEST cheesecakes. So I arranged for a strawberry cheesecake (made with neufchatel cheese and less sugar)with a crushed oreo crust. It was sooooo good!
After settling in their sleeping bags, they spent about an hour and a half goofing off. When DH got up to leave for his weekend paper route at 1:15am, he quieted them down one last time. I finally went to bed at 1:45 am. Princess S was spending the night with a friend, and Princess L was spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's. So I only had Princess M to worry about. Sure as shootin' she woke up at 6:00am. So I got up and tried to keep her quiet. One of the guests, the sister of the friend Princess S was staying with, had to leave for a trip up to her grandparents at 7:30. As quiet as we tried to be, everyone else ended up awake by 7:30. After they had all gotten dressed and rolled up their sleeping bags, I served cinnamon rolls and orange juice. They watched "Enchanted" and then it was time to leave at 10:00am. Needless to say, the princesses were so exhausted, they all took a nap later that afternoon without any complaint! Here is a slideshow of the event.
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