World’s Coolest Aunt or Biggest Goober?

This past weekend my first niece celebrated her 4th birthday with a fairy princess themed party.

Niece 1 all dressed up for her fairy princess party!

Recognize the tutu? I can’t believe how much mileage she is getting from that thing! She is wearing it over the skirt of her store-brought fairy dress.

My sister went all out, making decorations and planning fun crafts & games for 6 little girls. (She even ordered fairy wings for all of them!) And I had promised to bake and decorate the cake.

Almost everything my sister used for decorations, crafts, and favors came from the dollar store!

The night before the party, I made the cake. It was an orange-flavored cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.

My house smelled like an orange dreamsicle for about 24 hours – yum!

Cake-making is sort of my hobby, but I’ve never really taken the time to learn the fine art of decorating them bakery-style or sculpting something amazing. I suppose that most of my cakes are simply pretty yet obviously homemade. And most are a bit of an experiment using trial and error as I go. But they always TASTE great even if they are ugly and a bit of a cakewreck.

I think this birthday cake was closer to “wreck” than most of my previous creations (partly because I was lazy and it was late at night, so I didn’t want to pull out all the fancy piping tools I have). And it’s kind of hard not to make a toadstool look suggestive when you don’t use fondant.

My sister made an adorable clothespin fairy topper!
I think it redeemed my lazy decorating a little.

Niece 1 is still young enough to appreciate anything colorful and sweet, so she loved it. =)

The invitation I received said “Have your little girls put on their “fairy” best and help us celebrate her 4th birthday with cake and ice cream, crafts, and games. Fairy wings will be provided.”

I may not be a little girl anymore, but I am a costumer and I couldn’t resist the chance to dress up! So while the cake was cooling the night before the party, I went digging through my random costume pieces for a fun outfit to wear.

I pulled out a lime green skirt I had purchased from a wardrobe sale at the end of a film shoot I worked on, and paired it will a fluffy white petticoat (to which my husband said “ohh, nooo.” with a groan).

I even had a matching lime green t-shirt! And a scrap of matching sparkly lime green tulle! – which I used to tie bows to my shoes and to my ponytail. Not bad for a last minute costume!

The Pixie Chicks.
Can you tell what my favorite color is?

I didn’t have any wings but Niece 1 had an extra pair left from an old Halloween costume that she let me borrow for the party. (She told me I looked like Tinkerbell.)

You can’t really see it in the photo, but I have on matching green eyeshadow.

Here’s a close-up of my shoes:

The holes in Crocs make it so easy to decorate them!

Once the guests arrived, they got their wings and flower crowns,

Three little pixies playing piano.

They made a craft (toadstool houses!),

Plastic bowl, Styrofoam cup, and stickers.

Played a couple of games,

Toss the Froggie beanbag onto a lilypad

Girls playing Xbox Kinect and the view of them “planting flowers” on the screen.

And of course, opened presents and ate cake & ice cream.  It was a fun party.

Later that night, my sister called to tell me that Niece 1 had proclaimed that “Aunt Brooke is the coolest aunt EVER!” after everyone had gone home. So in the eyes of a 4-year-old, at least, I’m not a big goober. =)

Maybe I’m just the coolest goober…

Related posts:

Tutu for a Toddler

Trampoline Ballet – Toddler Tutu Part Two

Trampoline Ballet – Toddler Tutu Part Two

Well, it’s been 9 months, and my niece is still enjoying her tutu. (In case you missed it, here’s the previous post about it.) Her newest penchant is ballet on the trampoline, as she demonstrated for me last time I visited:

She’s such a goofball in front of a camera!

I am really shocked at how well the tutu has faired a 3-year-old’s abuse – it’s still holding itself straight out! I’m so glad I used the elastic waistband because she has no problem putting it on by herself. Now that she has a leotard and ballet shoes, it’s her favorite outfit.

I think she puts it on every time someone comes to visit.  😀

Tutu for a Toddler

I am going to share a personal project about what I gave my 2½ year-old niece for Christmas – a tutu!  It was one of the cutest little things I think I have ever made!  In order to make it easy for her to put on by herself, I decided to gather the ruffles onto an elastic waistband.  And (because I simply can’t do anything the easy way, gosh darn it!) I made it the way tutus are made for professional ballerinas – which means it was a pain in the neck to do, but it stood straight out to the sides – with no drooping!  =)   

It was adorable on my baby dressform:

         

That’s 15 yards of tulle ruffle on an 18 inch waistband!

Here it is in front of a darker wall were the light pink underlayers show up a little better:

And here she is a few days after Christmas wearing her tutu:

I think she likes it.  =)

Update:  See Part 2 of the toddler tutu.