A Birthday, A Princess Party & A Few Fireworks

I'm a couple of weeks late on this post but my baby girl turned 6 in November she is my first child and my first daughter and I will never ever forgot that rush of love I felt for her, that fierce "I will walk to the ends of the earth for you" love, that I still feel today for both my daughters. So it was lovely to celebrate another milestone in her life.

My Newborn - 6 years ago

And that milestone was her 6th Birthday. Although Ruby was poorly on her birthday and off school with a fever and cold. I had planned to make Ruby her favourite breakfast Chocolate Chip Pancakes instead she got up rather subdued, opened her presents and then went back to bed. She was very excited about her presents and loved them all.

Ruby loved her presents - Princess Celestia from Auntie Lesley, Tu Tu pyjamas from Uncle Gary and Auntie Lisa and Ava, Lego Friends from us, a great sleeveless jacket from Auntie B and Freya, the best tiara ever from (God) Mummy Mel & (God) Daddy Chris and not forgetting the lovely presents from Jamie and Ally too of which Princess Kitty now accompanies Ruby to bed every night.

In the afternoon Ruby had perked up a enough to start her new Lego Friends kit and take delivery of her present from Grannie & Grandad which arrived in time on her birthday and it was a fabulous bike

Ruby's new bike arrived

And Grandad put it together without the pedals and stabilizers so she could get use to balancing the bike in preparation for when she learns to ride a bike properly,that's if we can pry her away from her scooter. Tilly was super excited too as she got Ruby's old bike bless her.

It didn't take long for Ruby to be over her cold and just in time for her Princess Party.

The day before Ruby's Princess Party and with Ruby at school, Tilly and I made the sugar cookies for cookie decorating at the party - we choose princess themed cookies, we made the party goodie bags, filled with princess goodies and big thanks to Mel for making the party bags a big hit as she'd sent us some tiara's and princess goodies we used for the bags. Grannie & Tilly wrapped the pass the parcel game and Grandad was in charge of making sure the cookies didn't burn in the oven.

Tilly adding the flour - she's my little helper

Castle, Crowns and Shoe cookie to bake

Mr C our resident birthday cake maker got making the cake for Ruby''s Party - she'd requested a Princess Cake (you know the one with the doll sticking out of the top) and Mr C rose to the challenge.

We got most things cooked, baked and prepared the night before, we just had to do a quick tidy up, collect the balloons, thank you Grandad for getting those and Mr C had to finish off icing the cake on the day of the party, so Grannie and I left the men folk to it and we took the girls to have their nails painted at a salon, it was a surprise for Ruby and boy did she love it, they both did.

Ruby picks the colour of her choice for her nails

Two little ducks drying Tilly's nail polish

Ruby's turn at the nail bar.

After our visit to the nail bar, it was time to get dressed for the party and wait for the guests - it was an all girl Princess Party (no boys allowed) and all the girls turned up as their favorite Princess it was so cute. Ruby originally wanted to dress up as Sleeping beauty (her favourite) until she received this gorgeous dress from Mummy Mel - it was just perfect for her party and the tiara Mummy Mel sent too went with it perfectly.

Princess Ruby

Once all the guests had arrived our first activity was decorate your our tiara - I'd bought some pre cut tiara's, stickers, marker pens, glitter and gems for the girls to make their own tiaras it was a great activity and kept them busy for ages.

Busy making Tiaras

Once the tiaras where done, we had a round of pass the parcel with Mr C and Grannie, whilst I set the table for snacks, then it was time for the girls to tuck in. Grannie had made finger sandwiches and I made the pink macaroons and pink popcorn recipes here and here.

Table fit for a Princes

My Pink Popcorn

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After the food feast, it was time for a round of "put Cinderella in the window" basically a princess version of pin the tail on the donkey, we also had another round of pass the parcel and some freeze dancing also known as musical statues again with Mr C, whilst Grannie and I got the table ready for some cookie decorating yeah.....

The Princess version of Pin the tail

Cookie Decorating

Icing, sprinkles, m&m's

And after the cookie decorating and another round of freeze dancing it was time to do the cake - Mr C's moment to shine with the Princess cake he had loving made, baked and decorated all by his own hand, we were all very impressed with it.

The fabulous Princess Cake

Mr C knows he's done a good job again

Ruby ready to blow out the candles

So with Happy birthday sang to Ruby she blew out the candles and we all had a piece, then it was back to more freeze dancing as the girls loved it some much.

Freeze Dancing Mania

The 3 Snow Whites

And with the Princesses all danced out it was time to say goodbye to the Princesses before the clock struck 4pm and they all turned back to little girls.

After a fabulous and rather successful party, I would like to say our evening ended there, but after a quick tidy up, we hit the streets to go into Chicago to watch the grand Tree-Lighting Parade down Michigan Avenue, over 40 floats travelled 1.2 miles down Michigan Ave marshaled by Mickey & Minnie Mouse and it was spectacular although we weren't quite on Michigan Ave but near Trump Tower by the river, we did had a good view plus we got to see some reindeer up close.

The best bit of the evening was the spectacular fireworks show over the river that started when the parade finished and where going off a barge on the river right in front of us it was fantastic.

Tilly and the Reindeer

Spectacular Fireworks over the river

Chicago sure knows how to put on a display

And if that wasn't too much excitement for the night, we ended the evening at a pizza restaurant for dinner - it was a great day everything came together perfectly and we couldn't have done it so good without the help of Grannie & Grandad they were a big huge help thank you.

And to quote Ruby "It was the best party ever Mummy"