Spring Has Sprung

With the lime green blanket that has covered the foothills in Northern California, the excitement of Spring is in the air.  I love this time of year.  We escape the gloom of winter and get to enjoy warmer weather and the new green, the lime green of freshly budding leaves and new grass.  When the trees start to pop with buds and blossoms and the daffodils and irises sprout up everywhere, I can understand why the term spring fever was coined.  

 My family was enjoying the beautiful weather and the first day of spring break today.  The little ones gave me with best gift, a huge basket of wildflowers!  

 We filled multiple vases with these unusual beauties.  While some would consider these weeds, my children saw the beauty in these unusual plants.

  Grouped together, the spiral white flowers are so interesting, they remind me of an exotic plant.

 I am so grateful for my kind generous children who amaze me everyday!  Thank you for the happiness in a vase.

What is your favorite thing about spring?

Princess Party

For my little girl's fourth birthday, she requested a princess party.  So I planned a princess party -country style- outside in the dirt lay a little fancy princess oasis.  It was fantastic day and suited my daughter just perfect.  The mixture of little girls dressed in princess costumes and running around in the dry grass represents the complexity of my girl's personality.  I love her so much!!!

I used the Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut Cartridge for the invitation.  The idea for the layout was actually found in the handbook as a princess box craft idea, but I thought it would make a super cute invitation.  The invitations were relatively simple to make and using my Gypsy to get the scale correct made it a snap mass produce.

I cut various crown and wand shapes out for decorations using a glitter card stock.  The main colors for the party were purple, raspberry (my little girl's favorite) with accents yellow.  These decorations were attached to ribbon and hung from the trees. 

I recycled decorations from last year's fairy party.  The tissue paper flowers were bunched together to create a faux pomander.  These were hung in princess tent (where the girls eat and do crafts).  The bright colors of the tissue paper always make me smile.

As accents on the food table I used some free printables from the Green Apple Paperie.  The colors worked perfect.  The tented food cards even had the purple and raspberry flags.  Similar flags were made from satin and ribbon and strung among the trees. 

My little girl requested a "Belle" cake from Beauty and Beast.  This was as close as I could get since the doll part of the cake looked nothing like Belle.

And we always need a second cake...

After much work, the day turned out nicely.  My little girl started out with a beautiful princess dress on but ran inside after the dress interfered with her running and playing ability.  At least she wore the crown.  You know it is a fun party when you forget to take a ton of pictures. 

The princess theme could not have been more perfect for this little one's 4th birthday.  What is your favorite type of party for 4 year old little girl?