Marielle turns 4

What’s the best way to look forward to your birthday party?? Well, a countdown!

Those are kingdom flags from the movie Rapunzel. I started asking Marielle what she wanted to do for her birthday party weeks before her birthday and we finally decided on a painting party. Mudpies and Masterpieces is an art studio that you can bring kids, 4 and up, to draw and paint a canvas. More on that later, but she was very excited and thought her party was everyday. I had to come up with something to save me some sanity so I wouldn’t be answering the same questions, “is my party today, mama?”, “is it tomorrow?”, everyday. I found these little flags and tapped them onto a calendar I’d printed out. We tore one off everyday (or a few a day when we’d forget) and she got to review her numbers a bit. She saved each flag as she took them off everyday!

The worst thing about Marielle’s party was that her nanny couldn’t be there Sad smile . She is in a wedding and had to be at a bridal shower. But, she made sure to come by a day early and bring Marielle her present.

I have to admit – I LOVE THEM as much as Marielle does!! Too bad her dad hates them, and he hates them a whole lot, too. But how adorable to have some of her own high heels!!

They day of her party, Jon and I hurried up and put her present together – a new double bed!! She kind of knew about it, but I don’t think she understood the full impact until she saw it.

She’s in love!!

I guess I should clarify and say, THEY love it.

Now, on to the party at Mudpies and Masterpieces. One of the owners is Mrs. Tara Button, she was Marielle’s teacher in her 2 year old class last year. She is a wonderful and very talented artist and we found that out from last years artwork that Marielle brought home from school everyday. She has tons of energy to keep up with these kids and they love her. We went to the studio a few weeks before to look at options to paint and she picked her favorite thing in the world – Rapunzel. So cute!!

They start with a blank canvas and use chalk to draw the lines that will eventually turn into their beautiful Rapunzel.

Marielle started with her name. We had to erase that!!

Cute girls!

10 little girls hard at work!

Aliza decided she wanted to paint “Belle” instead of Rapunzel. Mrs. Tara said that was fine, we’d change her dress and hair color, and make her hair shorter. Then we were looking online at Belle pictures and decided to try and put the rose from Beauty and the Beast next to Belle. Luckily, Grandy was at the party and helped Aliza make all her painting requests come to life!

On the invitation, I told the girls they could dress up as any of the princesses. Most of them did and it was too cute!! There were some fabulous shoes!!

Cake time…

Marielle had to eat Rapunzel’s face. I’m not sure if I should be worried!!

Before gifts there was a wild game of “Ring around the Rosey”.

Aunt Deidre being Aunt Deidre – putting Aliza in a bag!!

After gifts, Mrs. Tara held up all the paintings one by one and the girls said “Ohhhh, Ahhhh” for each one. We all got a kick out of Aliza’s “Ohhhhh” and more her “Ahhhh” face.

The finished products!!

And finally, on Marielle’s real birthday, a Gary family tradition. Breakfast in bed. Another tradition I wanted to start, was cupcakes for breakfast on birthdays. So, Marielle had cupcakes in bed for her big day!!