Princess Belle

SURPRISE!

 



Princess Belle came to the party (aka I hired her from a company that does this kind of stuff.)  ;)

 

Samantha's reaction was priceless and worth every penny that darn princess cost us ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

She told stories.

 

And as you can see,

 

every single little eyeball was fixated and listening attentively to her.  All of us parents were thinking it would be awesome to have her come put the kids to bed at night.

 



 

And then.....she sang!  She sang an opera-like version of Beauty and the Beast.  Pretty brave Princess I would say ;)

 

They played Princess games.

 

 

Which won them princess prizes.

 

 

They even played the game Telephone which 5 year-olds don't quite know how to play yet.

 

 

But it was cute seeing them all whisper in each other's ears.

 

Instead of Duck, Duck, Goose, they played Belle, Belle, Beast

 

 

And all sorts of other games.

 

 

Cake time!

 

Belle cut the cake.

 

And then it was time for her to say good-bye and take off in her carriage

 

Which looked like the Walk of Shame on the West Side - sorry Belle, the exit could have been more graceful ;)

 

Presents happily distracted from the abrupt exit of Belle.

 

.

 

This is how she reacted to EVERY SINGLE GIFT.  Five is such a fun (and dramatic) age ;)

 

 

Happy 5th Birthday Samantha! 

 

P.S. The photo above is Sam with her Knight (T.J.) who claimed to be her Knight in "Shiny" Armour ;)

 

Celebrating Samantha

We celebrated Samantha's birthday the weekend after she turned five. 

 



 

My parents came up to Santa Barbara a day early with gifts and as you can see, some for Thatcher too.

 

Samantha got a Nabi Tablet which is basically an iPad for kids.  It is preloaded with all sorts of educational and fun games for her age.  She can also access the Internet but only sites that I preload, her favorite sites so far are this blog as well as all of our friend's blogs too. And I know all kids her age and younger are impressive on phones, iPads and computers now but it still is crazy to me that she can navigate her way through all sorts of apps on this thing without even asking me how to do it.  The other day she was playing Angry Birds and I watched her pass level after level after level.... future gamer?

 

 

 

At night, Samantha and Thatcher will listen to stories, play games or watch videos on it.  It is an easy way to get them to go to sleep.

 

The next morning it was party time!

 

 

 

 

Before the party even started, BOTH kids (Thatcher is one lucky grand kid), were opening presents.  Unfortunately, Dancing Grandma was sick (and I am so SO sorry because I am 100% sure I passed on the pink eye I had to her over Thanksgiving).  Her and Papa Ward were so kind to make the long drive all the way up before guests arrived to drop off gifts and wish Sam happy birthday. 

 

 Samantha was beyond thrilled with her Princess Activity Set. 

 

 

The Princess and Knight were ready for guests to arrive!

 

 

Party favors were all wrapped, Belle necklaces for the girls and Silly Putty for the boys.

 

 

 

Costco cake, a favorite of ours ;)

 

 

Drink station.

 

 

Beauty station.

 

 

Art station.

 

 

Princess movies playing.

Oh and rain..... RAIN RAIN RAIN :(

 

Which meant scrambling last minute for tents.

 

Guests began to arrive.

 

 

 Lots of pizza was consumed.

 Sofia was as always an awesome helper doing nails and tattoos for the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for the birthday girl's surprise!