Let the planning begin...

Maddie's birthday comes in about a month, which means of course it's time to start planning! We all know how much I love to plan a good birthday party... Yay to decorative cakes that take 4 hours to ice! Yay to matchy-match plates and cups and napkins and invitations! Triple Yay to themes!!!

So this year (if indeed we do have a party, as her birthday always falls on Thanksgiving weekend, so we always have to send out an informal save the date email to gauge potential attendees before actually planning the party) the party will be a Princess Dress-Up theme.

Sidebar: I'd like to totally give props to my brilliantly crafty friend Vone, who I am completely stealing this idea from.


And now that Maddie is OBSESSED with dressing up (current fave? a ballerina-firefighter-with-glass-slippers), it's an ideal time to have the party.

Since it's a birthday party anyways, and everyone is (likely) bringing gifts, the invites will encourage people in lieu of gifts, to instead bring dress up items to fill her dress up trunk... This is a great way to build up a wardrobe of fun dress up items for your child, and at the same time - have fun things for all the kids to play with during the party.

We've got our eye on a set of 4 Disney princess dresses from Toys R Us (yes, totally taking the easy way out) - but I'm also pairing that with a custom-built dress up box for our little miss. It's essentially an open box with a garment rod at the top (inspired by this post I saw on another blog ages ago), this will be perfect for her closet and a great way to keep all dress up items in one spot, nice and organized! Love it...

And since we LURVE Disney Princesses at our house right now, the cake will be made using again by renting a cake pan from Bulk Barn (love this service!)... iced within an inch of it's life and hopefully looking like Cinderella...

Will post pics of the party when we finally have it!

xxoo.S