Claire's Fourth Birthday

Claire turned four on Sunday, March 13th! We've always had simple parties at home, like her Frozen-themed third birthday party, but with a newborn we decided to splurge and move the location off-site. She had been to a party at our local jumping place before and really enjoyed it. Parties are $400 there on the weekend, but only $120 on weekdays. Since Adam was off on his paternity leave, it worked out perfectly! We figured we had spent about that much on food and decorations for parties at home previously (ordering pizza or Chick-fil-A nugget trays) so we just vowed to keep this party really simple.

I had Claire pick a theme in January and got all the supplies (invitations, decor, and favors) ready before Betsy arrived. She went with Rapunzel and I reminded her of that constantly to make sure she didn't change her mind in the two months before the party! 

The jumping place let you invite sixteen kids, including your own, and provided a party room with paper products, a tablecloth, and balloons in the colors of your choosing.

I ordered the birthday banner on Etsy, along with the cute printable invitations. The Rapunzel figurines and reusable bag are from Amazon. I just found the princess cake plates and yellow polka dot wrapping paper at Target. 

Grocery store cake with figurines on top. Perfectly easy! 

The favors were in the Rapunzel gift bag. I started working on these before Claire had picked a theme, so I went with items that could work for any princess party. The horse and dragon finger puppets are $1 each at Ikea. The princess and knight stickers are from the dollar store. Ring pops were just the most royal treat I could think of. But if I could have gone back in time, I would have bought a pack of watercolors for everyone, since Rapunzel loves to paint.





The party was from 10:00 to 11:30 on Friday morning. My parents arrived on Thursday night and were super helpful during the whole party - carrying things to and from the car, cleaning up, etc. We had the guests play for the first 45 minutes and then rounded everyone up for a snack of goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, applesauce pouches, and water.

We sang happy birthday, had cake, and let the kids loose to play some more. Betsy slept the whole time in the baby carrier! The party went really well and was so easy. I think we'll do it again for Maggie's third birthday in October, although then Adam will have to take a morning off work. Maggie's already talking about her "Sleeping Beauty party at the jumping place right before Halloween."

The girls had dance class on Saturday morning and the rest of our guests arrived in the afternoon - Adam's parents, his younger sister Katie, and my mom's childhood friend, Kelly.

We went to Saturday evening Mass (I didn't want to lose even less sleep due to daylight savings) so we got to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of Trader Joe's cinnamon rolls and open presents. 

We gave her a bike with training wheels! She'd outgrown her tricycle, which will be passed down to Maggie. She also got lots of books, art supplies, and puzzles. 

All the girls, except for Betsy, went to see the Fancy Nancy Mermaid Ballet in the afternoon. Oh, it was so cute seeing all the little girls dressed in their fanciest outfits, like these tutus my mom got in China. The illustrator of the series was there signing books. She actually asked me if I was expecting! Apparently that's the risk you take if you leave your one-month-old at home.



Claire and Maggie really enjoyed the performance. We went home for a dinner of pizza, salad, pink lemonade and chocolate cake. The menu was decided by the birthday girl, who also requested that we invite Mr. Steven (a good friend from college) to join the party. This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe - Claire decided we should use our Ariel Little People set as decoration in honor of the aquatic ballet we attended earlier. We forced everyone to watch her yearly birthday video and then called it a night. Here's a video of her friends singing happy birthday at the party:



And another of her learning how to ride her new bike:



We officially have a little kid. Can you believe it?