A Very Sweet Birthday Party

My Anna Jane had her sixth birthday party yesterday. This was the first time we have celebrated a birthday somewhere other than our own house with anyone other than family members and family friends.

Our first "friends" party. It was very exciting. It was also all girls. She wanted to have a fancy little tea party so we decided that the boys in her class just wouldn't have any fun. We did have one tag-along little brother that insisted that he didn't want to go, but then refused to leave every time Dave tried to take him home.

And we had another guest...



Anna Jane and her little girlfriends tried as hard as they could to figure out how Dave's mom got Cinderella's phone number to invite her to the party. She met us at Sweetie's, a fancy candy shop with a birthday party room in the back of the shop, just perfect for a tea party.



Anna Jane's one demand request for the party was that she have real tea cups to drink her punch out of. My plan was to shop a couple of thrift stores and have a tea cup for each little girl. Cut to 1.5 hours before the party and I remembered my promise of real tea cups. The obvious solution with no time to shop was to use my own china tea cups. While I would share my china with no hesitation, my pattern would not have had the right look for 10 fancy little girls. So I used my little glass cups and embellished them with a silk flower.



And instead of sitting down at my sewing machine for the few moments I had left before the party, I scratched my plan of stitching up a new party frock and decided to make a pretty hair accessory for her instead.



After Cinderella captured each little girls' attention for a good 10 minutes with a story, she showed off her beautiful crown. And since the crown is only worn on special occasions, she allowed Anna Jane to wear it on her party day.



I love Anna Jane's look of awe in that picture!

My favorite detail of the party was Anna Jane's tea party cake:





There was a little tea cup cupcake for each little girl and then a teapot cake that we took home to share as a family. While Sweetie's would have provided cupcakes for Anna Jane and her friends, we decided to go with our "cake girl." Allison Green has become a very important part of our celebrations around here. She is so artistic and talented and sweet to work with. She made the dragon cake for Wilson and Henry's party this year:



We found her through my friend, Elizabeth, who had this cake made for her sweet Jamey's birthday party:



I cannot recommend Allison enough. Anna Jane's cupcakes were so yummy and had a strawberry buttercream icing that really set it apart from other too-sweet cakes we have tried before.

Custom cakes, Cinderella, a candy shop, sweet girl friends and a few brand new Barbies were all Anna Jane needed to feel like a special six year old girl.

Well, that and a goofy little brother to put everything into perspective: