A Fashion Fairytale

We've come a long way from Nemo, Thomas and Lightning McQueen. This year Sadie requested a "fashion show" birthday party. Whenever she has friends over, she likes to turn on music so they can get dressed up and walk down the runway (hallway) in our house. It seemed only fitting that this would be the theme this year to celebrate 5 years of life with Sadie Elizabeth Cannon.
Upon Sadie's request...NO BOYS ALLOWED!! This turned out to be a pretty exclusive party especially when it came to a pair of twins whose male half wasn't invited. I reassured the mom that even if he came (which he was more than welcome to do) it probably wouldn't be very much fun for him anyway. It was all about pink, make-up, dressing up, jewels, feather boas, high heels and giggles. ALL GIRL!!

The party actually didn't cost me a lot of money, just a lot of time. I spent a few days drawing up plans for the actual runway, and figuring out ways to actually execute them. I made a zillion little paper napkin flowers, baked a delicious cake (and even put some paper napkin flowers on there as well), hung more paper napkin flower balls from the trees, set up the little tables, and the makeup/accessory tables. It was such a fun little set up. I have Dana to thank for the paper flowers idea. They turned out really cute.

Making the runway was actually pretty easy once I figured out how I was going to do it. I borrowed nursery tables from the church, covered them with a red runway I borrowed from Christine, and built the stage out of PVC piping(borrowed from Melissa). White curtains, a stapler, and lots of paper flowers and voila! We have a runway!! I was just glad it held up the length of the birthday party. The girls LOVED it!!
When the models first arrived we got everyone into "hair and make-up." Cute Easton Webster (Sadie's favorite babysitter) came over to help me with crowd control. 9 crazy dressed up models can be a lot to handle. She did their make-up while I picked out shoes and accessories for them.
Look at all our cute little runway models. I was a little disappointed with the light at the party. It was 80 degrees so I wasn't about to have the whole thing in the scorching sun, so we had to deal with shadows under the big oak tree and equally dealt with squinty eyes and over exposure when they were in the sun. I was pleased as punch that the weather man was wrong. He forecasted a 94 degree day. We totally lucked out!!
Now, to the main event.....the Runway!! Sadie got up there first and showed the girls how to "walk" the runway. She was so sassy and informative all at the same time. All that was required was a walk to the end, a turn and a pose. Most of the girls did a curtsy which I thought was pretty cute. Linley (girl in the yellow) definitely had the most "model-esque" attitude, and Emma Johnson hands down had the best walk. It was hilarious!! We were all cracking up watching these girls strut their stuff and take their "jobs" so seriously.

Let them eat cake!! I wasn't about to make a cake from scratch seeing that all the kids really eat is the frosting. So I made the frosting from scratch and Pillsbury helped me with the cake. I remember my mom and I going to a cake decorating relief society activity and I absolutely LOVED it!! I have since forgotten how to make flowers out of frosting so I used Dana's paper flowers idea and made them miniature to put on the cake. It's the closest I could get to resembling a Backers cake on South Temple and even then it's a gross impersonation. Like I predicted, the cake was left on all the plates and zero frosting. I should just forget the cake and give them a dollop of frosting next year.
Sadie's only request (other than NO BOYS, mom building her a runway and throwing a ridiculously time consuming party) was a game of musical chairs. The girls who lost their seat sat by Easton or headed back to the runway to "practice" some more.

This is the first year I have let Sadie open her gifts in front of friends. I attended a party once in Virginia where this was allowed with a bunch of three years olds and it was so chaotic I vowed to never repeat such an offense. I like the birthday girl to be able to open each gift while everyone watches so she can properly thank her guests individually. I thought a game of "heavy heavy hang over thy poor head" would be fun but still had the small worry that being hit on the head with a gift was a little above their maturity level. I was wrong. The girls were so gentle and loved giving Sadie disguised voices and giggles so she could find out who they were. Sadie loved being the center of attention and opening the gifts most of all.

Sadie's other request (she had too many) was that she wanted to "fish" for a prize like we did at her Lightning McQueen birthday party. Chase had the great idea to have the runway models "fish for a compliment." It was a great way to give them their party favor and also focus more on the inside appearance than the outside.
After the feast of jewels, make-up, and pretty dresses, I thought the compliments should boost the self esteem rather than the self image. "You're smart, you're a good friend, and you make your friends happy" were some of the compliments given. I don't think the kids really cared what their compliment said, but of course I tried to make a point that what really matters is what's on the inside. That's when they ran off and jumped up on the runway again so they could strut, turn and pose one last time. Can't say I didn't try.
After everyone went home we just couldn't put the runway away with out having a fashion show of our own. Jack slept through Sadie's entire party (thank goodness) but loved showing his moves on the runway with bed head and all.

Happy birthday my little five year old...yes, you will always be "little" to me.