Ella's Rapunzel Birthday Party

Ella had her 4th birthday party today. She asked for a Rapunzel theme and if Rapunzel could come to her party. I found a company in Raleigh that has princess entertainers and they sent us a wonderful Rapunzel!

I had planned to put more streamers on our porch, but it was so windy I wasn't sure they'd stay put. The birthday banner worked the best.

Note the "floating lanterns", they have little lights in them. There's a picture at the end of this post of them lit up at night.

I found some small frying pans (another prominent item from the movie) and used them on the table to hold cookies.

Lavender frosted cupcakes with little flower and pink pearl candies. Lavender was a challenging color to get right. Under certain lights it looked too grey until I added enough red. The girls loved them, so at least they tasted good. :-)

Lots of pink, lavender, and yellow...

Rapunzel's arrival!!!

Making princess crowns

Even Emma got to participate in the fun. :-)

Make-up!

Showing Daddy her make-up

Emma, looking cute

Getting hand tattoos

Flower hair clips...

and bracelets 

Reading Rapunzel's story

 Talking to Rapunzel about her story

Here are the lanterns with most of our lights off in the house. Ella loves them!

Emma's Little Gym Class

Emma's in the toddler class with me while Ella's in her dance/gym class at the Little Gym in Holly Springs. She loves it! It takes her about 15 minutes to warm up, but then she's all over the gym.

 Emma loves to swing on this bar. She steps off the edge of the block under this bar, hangs from the bar, then steps back onto the block, lets go of the bar, and claps.

I let her step up on the balance beam, but for now I always hold her hand while she walks across it.

Playing with a ball

 Hunting bubbles!

 Emma loves to put away the balls.

This week she got an achievement ribbon for completing three months of classes.

Ella's 4th Birthday!

Yesterday was Ella's 4th Birthday!

We let Ella open one of her gifts the night before her birthday.

She loves her new dog! Cookie barks, turns her head, blinks, and "chews" her toy. Usually these types of animals are hard because they're basically robots, but this one is really soft and cuddly.

Emma got a few small gifts for sister's birthday and opened one the night before too. She loves kitties and this one meows, walks, and kneads.

Opening more gifts on the evening of her birthday

A Snow White dress!!! Ella's been asking for a Snow White dress for the past couple of months and was delighted to find one in her gift bag!

Emma opened a gift from Gramma and Papa.

She loves this Noah's Ark! She takes the animals out, makes roaring sounds, and stuffs them back into the ark. She even took her evening nap with the ark and animals in the crib with her.

Excited to discover the Lalaloopsy Treehouse

 

Emma, holding the Sleeping Beauty doll we got for her

Ella, opening her Mulan doll

I'm so glad Disney made some of the lesser known princesses in "toddler" doll form. Ella's so happy to have Pocahontis and Mulan!

Uncle Nate and Auntie Joy sent Ella the Strawberry Shortcake Market and a Strawberry Shortcake Ballet School book! Ella immediately started "reading" the Ballet School book. :-)

  

Ella loves playing with the Strawberry Shortcake Market! She has better hand-eye coordination at 4, so she does pretty well with all the small pieces. She loves that it has a working register, take-out window, and cake that rises in the oven. :-)

The Princess Zhu Zhu hamster sets assembled

Ella LOVES this Tag reading system! She took it up to bed with her after exploring it downstairs for quite awhile.

Another View From My Kitchen Window

Wildlife!