A Little Princess, A Sigh of Relief, & Lots of Smiles

It's been a whirlwind of a week, beginning on a plane home from a blissful visit to Maui for a fabulous backyard wedding, and ending in our flat overflowing with pink, and primed for a mob of kids who had endured a rained-out week and were ready to party.

All for our little princess, one year older, sassier, more opinionated, even more insightful.  So many blessings!

I wanted to keep it simple and have Addi's "Princess & Prince Party" at home with family and a few close friends, some pink decorations (by royal command), and a simple menu. 

"Simple," the way Martha Stewart makes a 27-step tiered chocolate ganache wedding cake decorated perfectly with flowers from her own garden. 

Only because the longer I ponder or gather inspiration, the more ideas I get and want to execute.  Eventually I have 15 simple ideas otherwise known as a long list of tasks that need to get done on a ridiculous deadline.  And that is how you end up in the ER the morning before the big day.

"You almost sliced the entire tip of your thumb off, didn't you?" the ER doc said to me with a smile.  "Don't worry, we can save this one." 

In retrospect, I would've loved to see my face when he said that.  He ended up taking excellent care of me, and the three hours spent in the hospital gave me a bunch of time to not only finish my overdue library book, but think about how I needed to pare down and enlist more help to get through the party prep if I wanted to keep the rest of my fingers intact, as I still had a ton of veggie chopping to do.

So three hours behind in my preparations, I took a few items off the menu, stopped tweaking the decor, delegated family with some of the baking and cooking, secured a few extra hands the morning of the party, and made sure grandma and grandpa could babysit the kids the morning before the party.

So here it is--a kid and adult friendly, dairy, egg, and nut free party with vegan options, dressed in pink, with a few simple yet satisfying dessert additions for my littlest one with the world's biggest sweet tooth.  Enjoy!

Photo credit: Sarabeth Leong

Photo credit: Sarabeth Leong

Addi was delighted by her pink cookie wand!

I baked a few batches of our vegan shortbread cookies about 1/2 to 5/8" thick, added pink sprinkles, and baked them at 300 F for 45 minutes with cake pop sticks.  They added a nice splash of pink.

Our princes were equally excited by the royal affair!

With the extra cake pop sticks, I skewered marshmallows, dipped them in melted dairy-free TJ's semisweet chocolate chips mixed with shortening, added sprinkles, and set them in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

The kids gobbled them up.

Irene had to cut off Callan after his third!

Chocolate Wacky Cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting were the birthday girl's wish!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

We had quite a spread, thanks to all of our helping hands!

Offering soy milk creamer and soy milk box drinks instead of dairy is one way to help keep the dairy allergic children at your party safer.  (See my new K cup coffee maker in the background?  Perfect for any party!)

Cinderella swept in on our party, presented a story, sang, performed magic, and painted happy little faces.

The luckiest girl in the world: Cinderella crowned Addi an honorary princess and sang Happy Birthday to her before she left for the Royal Palace

There are still more dishes to put away, gifts to open, and thank you cards to write, but I'm not stressing--I love how the memories of the day linger on.

Happy Birthday little one!  May you always remember the magic of your third birthday!