Frances turns 7!

Well, I did it again! I blinked and the time flew by and now I have a 7 year old!!  Frances was very excited about her birthday this year. Possibly because she was going to have her first "friend party" at our house, or maybe just because she is getting older and mentally capable of anticipating something fun. Who knows!
Anyway, she practically jumped out of bed on her birthday and hurried to get dressed.  She was excited because I had told her that Mommy, Daddy, Henry and Benjamin would all come eat lunch with her at school.  That was fun-especially for Henry!  I made her some cupcakes (from scratch, but only because I had neglected to buy a mix) and sent those to school. She says she has a great day at school and came home to do her homework before we went out to Wood Grill-her favorite restaurant.
We had a nice dinner there and she got the coveted smiley face cookie-although not as nice as the one she had last year.
She was still excited in the days after her birthday because Grandma was coming to visit and she still had two parties to look forward to.  I had, in a moment of temporary insanity, invited 10 little girls over to our house for a Princess Tea Party.  In the end we had 6 girls who came in their fancy dresses to partake of tea and tea sandwiches.
I made sugar cookies and decorated two fir each girl-one with her initial and a heart or butterfly that they could choose. Frances and I had decided ahead of time not to have a cake because cake didn't "fit" into the tea party.

 We had a "Pin the Crown on the Princess" game to play. It also made a great backdrop for the girls to get their pictures taken with.

 Frances' youngest guest was our good friend, Julie's, daughter, Laura who is 18 months old.  She got a Minnie Mouse dress that worked for the party as well as for Halloween later.

 The Queen Mum, AKA Grandma, got all dolled up for the occasion as well.  Actually, I did too, but it's my blog and I don't have to post those kind of pictures if I don't want too!

Ok, I will!

And here's the birthday Princess in all her finery!

 Frances wanted "pickle flowers" which are the little green and white sandwiches you see.  They are so easy to make and so good!  I also made raspberry tea sandwiches, which were delectable.  A simple veggie tray rounded out the menu...except for the tea...and the sugar cubes, but sugar cubes aren't really a food item, are they?? Well they were at this party! I wish you could have seen the amount of sugary syrup left in the bottom of those tea cups!  The girls went through a whole sugar bowl of cubes!! Also, on a funny note-I had forgotten to make some ice before the party (We generally don't have ice on hand.) and so when they tea was too hot to drink, we had to resort to using frozen strawberries in our Wild Berry Zinger tea. Of course the girls loved it!

Frances, Emily, and Lydia enjoyed their tea and goodies.

The Princess and all her royal friends had a wonderful time. And I survived my first "friend party."