The Five-Year-Old Princess

 

Oh, hadn't you heard? I thought it had been shouted from the rooftops that Miss Emma turned FIVE last month. It was certainly huge news around the Haven.

 

FIVE years old? Five? FIVE????

I cannot believe how those years have snuck by so quickly. Do we perceive time all that differently when we're older? Or is it just that we're busier?

And I hate falling back on that "busy" excuse -- because everyone is busy. I'm not any different than all of you. And I bet some of you are busier than I am.

 

Emma was counting down to her birthday for at least a couple of months. She was SO very excited. I thought when the day hit that she would float right off the floor.

 

We started her day with our family tradition of "letter pancakes".  She had been avoiding pancakes for breakfast in the last several months, but *apparently* if you form them into letters and other fun shapes, then they taste better. Who knew?

 

 

I can't remember if I've already done a post on letter pancakes, so just in case not ......

 

So, for letter pancakes, you simply make your pancake batter a little thinner and smoother. (My regular batter is slightly lumpy, so I stir this more. I guess if I'd thought this through, I would have posted my fall-back from-scratch pancake recipe. But I confess to being a Krusteaz girl most of the time.) Then I use a funnel to pour the batter into an empty ketchup bottle. And then you can "write" or "draw" right on the griddle. The thing to remember is that some letters (like G, N, R, S etc.) need to be formed in reverse, so that when you flip the pancake, the letter is correct.

 

You can also use the griddle to your advantage as you draw figures:

 

The smiley-face is made by "drawing" the eyes and mouth, then let them cook & brown for a minute first, and then fill in the batter all around to make the remainder of the pancake. The darker features will show up against the lighter background color.

 

The teddy bear is a series of small circles. And the kitty-cat was a small miracle by itself. Usually I can't get that delicate when I make these things.

 

So about a week before her birthday, I took Emma outside one morning, to take some princess pictures of her. She had her heart set on a princess birthday party, especially since a friend had a princess party, just two short weeks before Emma's. So the princess photos were in preparation for the invitations.

 

I have no illusions about my photography. I realize I am no professional. By ANY stretch of the imagination. But I like to think that I am making small strides in improvement, with practice. Please allow me that little dream.  {HA!} Having said that.......

 

I started with her wearing a wig -- shhh, don't tell anyone that it's really a Hannah Montana wig from bygone Halloween days. I couldn't find didn't want to hunt for the actual Rapunzel wig.

 

Then I decided she'd look better without the wig.

 

I let her choose which princess outfit she would wear. This is the part where I admit that we have a small collection of princess outfits. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

 

So, she chose Rapunzel because, "Rapunzel wears bare feets."

Sounds like a pretty good reason to me, too!
And it's how I caught the shot of her looking at her toes.

 

I love this shot of her....

 

... and this sweet smile, too:

 

Those are Todd's eyes. Not mine!

 

So, on her actual birthday, it was a preschool day, and her teacher planned well & had Emma being the Child of The Day.... which she loved. She got to bring cupcake treats, and do the really important things like being the line leader and pointing to the calendar days, and being the letter puppet. At snack time, her teacher pulled out a birthday crown for Emma and put it on her:

 

 

It was a ton of fun for our girl. The family birthday party came later that evening.

 

(I really did have a cute hairstyle on her that day, but by the end of the day, it was barely still there. And I must be getting old, because I didn't flip out and re-do the whole thing just for the party. Slacker mom, here.)

 

She was pretty excited about her Princess Birthday Cake, too:

 

And all her super-fun gifts: 

 

I had a hard time explaining to her why her friends' princess party couldn't be on the same day as her birthday. This girl needs to understand what "weekends" are!

 

She was back as Rapunzel again the next day for the "friends party", and was so excited [again] to have a party. Especially because it involved having friends over, and dressing up.

 

The group....

 

They were so stinkin' adorable!

 

I have to give my "big" girls kudos for being such good sports and helping me out with throwing the party. Alyssa did makeup on the little girls, giving them sparkles and blush. (And a bonus-great-way-to-use-up-those-palettes-of-eye-shadows)
Darcie was the best party-entertainment I could ask for. Seriously, that girl could hire herself out and make some bucks.

 

I'm not including all the little photos, but rest assured that I took plenty, and it was awesome!!

And I sure the heck hope that Miss Emma doesn't expect something that grand to happen every year, because .......... I don't think I'm up to that!