Princess P's 4th Cinderella Birthday

March is a crazy month of birthdays for my family.  In addition to all 3 kids, it's my father's birthday too.  So every weekend of March is booked with a celebration.  Lil P's was the last one to be celebrated, but certainly not to be forgotten.  As middle child myself, I understand the plight of the middle child and try to be conscious of her potentially feeling overlooked. 
  
Lil P loves princesses, so it was easy to pick a theme for her birthday.  Her favorite princess is Cinderella, but pink is her favorite color so I decided to do a pink, blue and white color theme. 

I made Cinderella slippers using a template for shoes I found here.  After lightening up the lines and removing the words (I preferred it not be visible on the finished product even if it's on the inside), I printed it on card stock, folded it up and embellished it with a rhinestone.  I filled the shoe with white sixlets.

Cinderella's slippers

Ombre cakes  have been quite trendy in the cake world, and I figured I would take a stab at it.  I also decided to try my hand at fondant ruffles--I don't know what says girly more than pink and ruffles.  Hopefully this was a cake worthy of a princess, at least worthy of my princess P. 

I also made Cinderella cupcakes using Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe (see here).  I printed images of Cinderella on card stock and cut them out just below her waste so that when inserted into the cupcake, the frosting looked like her dress.  I haven't been doing much piping since having delved into the world of fondant and modeling chocolate, so my hand got quite a bit of exercise piping each dot.

Cinderella cupcakes

For favors I made princess wands.  Here is a tutorial on making the wands and curling ribbon. 

Princess wands

Finally, I invited Cinderella from Bella Princess to come and entertain the kids. She was a huge hit.  She brought gowns and crowns for each girl and knight shirts and medallions for the boys.  She also did some minor face painting and led the kids in songs and activities (teaching the girls how to wave, curtsy, twirl and the boys how to bow and charge), preparing them for the coronation for Princess P.  After gathering the kids to sing Happy Birthday to Princess P, she made her graceful exit.

Dear Lil P,
You are one bright, sharp, passionate, and spunky little girl.  You love to be the center of attention except when it's unsolicited, then you shrink like a little flower.  You know all the words to "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen and love to belt it out with hand gestures and motions, using the stairs as your stage.  I don't know where you got your sense of theatrics, but perhaps one day it will land you in the entertainment field.  You are confident and independent and strong willed.  You will insist to the point of arguing what ever you believe to be true.  I hope and pray you will always stand this firmly by your convictions and beliefs.  While you love princesses, unicorns, and all things girly, you have no trouble keeping up with boys.  You have the loudest "ke-yah's" in TKD which always earn you many stripes in class.  And anything that your big bro does, you're just one step behind trying to do likewise.  At the same time, you love to look at yourself in the mirror while you twirl at dance class.  In addition to dancing, you love to sing, read, draw rainbows and flowers, and snuggle up next to me first thing in the morning.  You love baby T and shower him with hugs and kisses all day and like a caring big sister, will just sit with him and keep him company even without being asked.  Lil P, you bring so much joy to our family and we love watching you grow and develop as a little lady each day!
Love,
Mom