Baby B turn FOUR!

B has been booking forward to this day since about mid-March of last year.  She loved her Mickey Mouse birthday party last year, but ever since then has been saying "At my next party, I'm having a Jake party."  The girl goes through phases like you wouldn't believe.  Just in the last year, she's had seasons obsessed with Sleeping Beauty.  Then Peter Pan.  Then Sophia the First.  Then Rapunzel.  Then Doc McStuffins.  Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians).  Bruno Mars.  Elsa.  Jake and the Neverland pirates fit in there somewhere, but I kept expecting her to change her mind and suddenly declare that she wanted a princess party or a Michael Jackson party.  But, without fail, everytime. . . "Jake".  I felt the pressure to make it good!  

 Ok, YES I realize I cater to her alot.  If I can make her happy, I will.  So when I [kinda made the mistake and] asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she very specifically told me, "I want the cake to have sand.  And a ship.  And I want it to have Jake, and Cubby, and Izzy, and Captain Hook."  She went on to tell me the specific POSTURES she wanted the characters to be in, which included Cubby standing with his hands on the ground, one leg in the air, balancing on one foot.  I DID draw the line there.  I had designed one cake that was the typical layered cake with a "shipish" bottom, red and white striped middle, and "island" topper.  But as I talked to her more, I realized she really just wanted a SHIP ship.  So. . . grudgingly I searching pinterest and made it.  A good 4 hours later. . . I had my masterpiece.  Lee comes home and says, "Holy crap, is that a CAKE?!  You realize we are just doing to EAT IT, right?"  Yes. . . thank you, dear.

 I really don't care for party favors.  Because, let's be honest, they're pretty expensive and are probably going to get tossed in a matter on minutes, days at most.  But we went to the party store and there along with the plates and napkins (what we really were going in for) were magnifying glasses.  As a mommy fail, a magnifying glass was one of the things she kept asking for at Christmas but didn't get. :(  Her main request was binoculars -- and she got those -- but apparently still wanted a magnifing glass.  So for $0.39 each, I had to get them.  And then I can't put JUST that in a bag, so I got some pixie sticks (PIXIE sticks. . . get it?  Pixie. . . Tinker Bell. . . ) and gold doubloons.  Brown paper bags from WalMart -- 50 for $1.00, Photoshopped some pictures of characters and had themprinted at Walgreens for $1.00 (5-4x6's at $0.20 each). . . and there ya go.

 . . . and then that glorious f***ing ship.  Since I built it 5 days before the party, my girls were over it by the time the party started. . . but I think the other kids enjoyed it.  Or I assume they did, since it was completely destroyed by the end of the night!

 Isabelle's yearly books on display

 Strung up Disney pics (Jake and the Neverland pirates is Disney, incase you weren't already aware!)

 That's my favorite -- with Snow White.  <3

 B dressed up as "Izzy" from the show -- I dressed up as Wendy (although B explained Wendy actually is never in JakeNLP) -- Sopha was supposed to be Tinker Bell but of course the costume was M.I.A, and Lee put on 1/6 of his "Jake" costume.  And then Landon tried on her Elsa wig :)

 We ran the party 3-6 to try and miss lunch and dinner -- usually we serve a "meal", but it's so hard to find something everyone likes and so expensive!  So we did appetizers -- pasta salad, vegetable pizza, popcorn, taco dip, BBQ cocktail weenies, cheese ball, and chips.

 I made popcorn cones with old scrapbook paper, the brown paper bags I had from the party favors, and extra pictures I had left over from the favors, as well.

 Play time!

 Birthday girl, ready to blow out her candles!

 Hello Kitty from Great Uncle Steve

 New Tutu!!

 We love this hat!!

B's cousin, Truly

Overall, it was a great success.  Because any big event in my children's life always seems to involve some sort of major snow/ice/hail/rain/illness, some of our family didn't make it because of the weather.  Either literally or by being under it -- as in under the weather.   But regardless, B had a great time, things turned out great, and we are truly, truly TRULY ^^ blessed :)