Lego Friends Saves The Rainy Day

A storm hit the city and classes have been cancelled.

While our cowboy was taking a nap, I had to keep the princess busy.

After painting, she was about to once again hold the iPad but she and I remembered that there was a box of Lego Friends in the toy cabinet.

It's great for queen-and-princess bonding sessions! :) 

Princess Party by Mommy

It's really more fun to DIY...especially when it's practically your first time.

My daughter recently turned 5 years old and she insisted on throwing an all-girls party.  Since our budget was tight, I told her that we could have a simple celebration.  She agreed as long as we stuck to the theme - pink princess.  She came up with a very short guest list and I did the rest.

The girls on her list were between the ages 4 to 8 years old so I thought that instead of games, we'd have arts and crafts activities plus storytelling.

After eating homemade snacks, I let the girls decorate "cupcakes".  Iinstead of using cupcakes, I just bought Monde Nissin's Special Mamon from the grocery.   The cakes are wider which means more decorating space, it's cheaper, it's yummy and the best part is I didn't need to bake.  For the decorations, I made buttercream frosting and bought food coloring, candies and other cake accesssores that I found in the grocery.

The second activity was dressing up paper dolls. I found adorable princess paper doll print outs at www.activityvillage.co.uk.   I cut them out, gave the kids crayons, glitter, paste and sequins.  Then I gave them illustration boards where they can stick their glamorized paper dolls for take home :)

                                                  Photo from www.activityvillage.co.uk

Since it was supposed to be a princess party, I gathered the kids for a storytelling session using our iPad.   I read The Frog Prince because, well, the story had a princess :)  It was also my preamble to the unveiling of the birthday cake.

The highlight the party would be the cake which I made.  Take note, I said "made" because I didn't bake it.  I bought ready-made chiffon cakes from the local bakery, made pink buttercream icing, got those little candy pearls, borrowed my daughter's Barbie doll then I simply assembled everything.  Here's the finished product....

The little girls' oohs and ahhs assured me that I didn't do a bad job considering it was my first attempt. 

In the end, it was a wonderful party.  The guests had fun.  More importantly, I felt that my daughter was genuinely happy and proud of her party even though it was simple.

I can't wait to DIY for my little cowboy next year!

Random British Bit

Let me open this blog by sharing a random thought:   Mothers should be given a privilege card - like what they give senior citizens - just for simply putting up with their kids.

The other day I discovered that my daughter listens more and responds quickly if I talk to her with a fake British accent. Plus, she replies with a British accent too! 

This is a result of watching too much British cartoon.  My little girl loves Peppa Pig on the internet.  We don't have the show in our country yet but it was introduced to her by her cousins who live in Switzerland. 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Albeit amusing, this British accent phase can also be annoying...especially when you have to force yourself to speak with an accent just to get your daughter's attention.

Cheerio!  Haha!