Audrey is 6

I have said before that when she turned 6 she might as well be turning 13. All in all I think I was pretty on target with that. Kindergarten has taught her new attitudes, but on the other hand, is teaching her how to listen better.

On her birthday we had both sets of grandparents over for supper (a pasta bar) and cake . We started this a few years ago and have really liked making her actual birthday extra special. She wanted a slumber party for her birthday with her friends. We compromised with a mini slumber party from 5pm-9pm on a Friday night. On Saturday afternoon family came to celebrate with us. Indeed we are so very grateful for our healthy 6 year old and not a day goes by that we aren't reminded how fortunate we are.

Audrey's theme was princess, more specifically, "Sofia the First,"the newest princess on Disney Junior.  She wanted a princess castle cake, the 32 piece one. That's what I get for letting her look at Pinterest with me! So, I took on this challenge and learned a lot in the process and renewed by knowledge about cake decorating a little. Her cake was gluten free, so since I didn't want to go broke on GF cake mixes and since I wasn't feeding 60 people, I made 4 batches of GF rice krispie treats and used those on the bottom and top layers and made a 10" yellow cake in the middle, stacked on top of the 10" rice krispie treats.  My plan was to assemble and decorate this cake on Friday. I was also scheduled to volunteer in Audrey's classroom this day (oh of all days). Turns out her teacher had changed their schedule around but forgot to tell me, so I had a sitter lined up and ran to the school only to be relived to come back home and work on this cake. It did not take the 10 hours that I read it took some, although I could have easily spent that much time on it. Thank goodness for Grandma S., who stayed well beyond what I'd asked her to that day. There are so many little things that go into decorating a cake, and if I could have ordered this cake from a gluten free bakery, by golly I would have. But, there's a little sense of accomplishment from actually creating it yourself. And apparently I didn't think my life was challenging enough...

We cut the cake from the back so we could display it the next day. The girls loved it and kept coming back for more. We served the same cake recipe (King Arthur GF yellow cake mix) as cupcakes the next day. Icing on the cake was a classic buttercream tinted light purple and the cupcakes were cream cheese buttercream. YUM!

During their free play time I found them once in Audrey's room, jumping on the bed and singing and dancing to Mamma Mia music. The girls had a great time.

The girls made Sofia the First amulet necklaces with gum balls and got their own blank princess book . This was a a journal/art book/scrapbook for a 6 year old. The girls really enjoyed making these, using the colored tape and stickers, drawing and signing each of their names on the "friends" page.

At the end of the night they got on their PJ's and watched the Sofia movie and ate popcorn. I greatly underestimated their liking of popcorn. We ran out. 

The next day we hosted family in the afternoon for presents and cupcakes. 

Audrey is so full of energy. And so full of conversation. She is very eager to learn, is getting better at reading everyday, writes constantly and has a strong opinion about most everything. At her friend party I found it amusing that she was the one giving direction and running the show, instead of me.

Those purple candies are Sixlets. Fitting since she was turning 6. And I will give my brother credit for putting that together. I bought them because they were purple and gluten free! Turrets were covered in Cake Mate purple icing and Cake Mate gold glitter. 

Paper place-mats from Hobby Lobby. I wrote their names in purple glitter glue from Michaels. The tiaras are also from Hobby Lobby. GF Gum balls from Party City. 

We used Schar gluten free pizza crust, made the sauce homemade and let them putt on whatever toppings they wanted. We had them design their pizza on parchment paper and write their name and baked it on the parchment paper on pizza stones so we made sure each pizza got to their owner. 

It was too windy to put this on the door outside. Sign by 733blog.com

making the forks fancy. Little gemstones from Michaels. 

cupcake toppers, sign, flags, water bottle labels all designed by Hostess with the Mostess. 

I think Audrey has had a princess party since she turned one year. But, knowing and thinking that she will soon be "too old" for princesses and dress-up, I humored her with yet another princess birthday party.






Sarah