Five year old Moo wouldn’t be caught dead in a pirate costume like her four year old self fancifully was. No, five year old Moo thought pirates were for babies and princesses were for big girls…you know, ‘regal’ and all that. Moo’s favourite thing of all time around that age (for years really) was dressing up. She would go all day, every day, in one of her many costumes twisting and twirling like she was in her own private fairytale. So, it was no small wonder when she turned five that she had her heart set on a princess party! And me, with a healthy dose of mum guilt from working all the hours under the sun, went: “yes, light of my life, Mummy will make your wish come true!”.
I joke, but secretly I bloody loved it. My girl is waaaay more girlie than I ever was – or is – but it’s still nice to indulge my girlie side vicariously through her. AND the best bit was at this party I decided to hand over the baton to a professional entertainer (after the shock of prior parties). This was the first year that I actually paid someone to take the heat off me AND it was worth every last penny lol! My daughter has two older sisters who she loves to visit and their favourite Disney princess was Cinderella (to be fair our favourite was always Princess Belle but sisters are always gonna win out against Mum!). So after a google search I landed on what turned out to be the most fabulous party event company and Cinderella was soon confirmed for the Ball (if you are Kent/Brighton/SE London based I would recommend Enchanted Events as they are fantastic).
Having previously thrown two parties my preparation skills had learnt the hard way so off I went with my lists and started ‘project princess party’ with gusto (told you…vicariously!). I don’t know about you but I like to Pinterest the life out of things and imagine what they should look like. The reality, I tend to find, is somewhat different lol. So, like an overoptimistic turkey at Christmas, I decided that making a princess cake would be fiiiiiine!! I mean, how hard can it be?! Plus the lady on You Tube made it look sooo easy! Turns out it was a massive stress especially since I’m no Mary Berry! However, preparation allowed for some mistakes without inducing a heart attack and I eventually produced three layers of cake that I somehow then needed to turn into Cinders.
I genuinely think the Fairy Godmother must have sprinkled some fairy dust at some point because I somehow pulled it off (honestly, if I could pull this cake recipe out the bag so could you; just look on YouTube as there are loads of tutorials to follow). My trick is to only ever decorate with buttercream frosting. I think the recipe I used called for fondant but to me fondant is the reserve of the professional and I like how, with buttercream, you can just keep poking and prodding at it until you somehow manipulate it into looking ok. I then just choose the side of the cake that looks the most ‘together’ and that’s the front lol! Ta da!!
Now, anyone that knows me well knows that I am a fan of a good spread and so I loved planning the food. I went for some beige staples – obvs – as who wants a spread without mini scotch eggs and party sausages plus – guaranteed – you’ll get some kid gingerly poking at the crudités and hummus like it’s poison. I’ve just had a quick peek back at my favourites bar on the internet from when I was planning this party and can see I had saved all sorts of mega-twat recipe ideas such as ‘honey dried pink lady apple crisps’. What the heck was I on lol; thankfully I saw sense and whipped out the beige food or the poor little darlings may not have eaten ;). I bought a cheap sandwich cutter in the shape of a crown and cut the sandwiches to that style, and then faffed around making pink popcorn (way more hassle than the result was worth as you have to melt coloured sugar down, test it’s consistency in water and blah blah, yeah, hassle). One idea that did go down a storm though and used up all the left over candy canes from the tree (the child was born in January, poor little mite) was white chocolate candy cane bark. Again this was any recipe I found on the internet (seriously if the internet was to bugger off back from whence it came I think my functioning adult life would just stop in its tracks!).
I booked the entertainer to arrive fifteen minutes after the arrival of the kiddies and then chose the party package of 1 hour (which kept the cost down as I couldn’t really afford this at the time) which left 45 minutes at the end for them to eat and generally ride those sugar highs all the way to their parents at the door! I made sure I had things to do as well, such as little games, music, and bought them all princess face masks to twat about in. The arrival of the entertainer was magical as it was a surprise for Moo and they all just gathered around her in awe. Deffo one of those warm fuzzy moments!
Cinderella was worth her weight in gold and got the girls ribbon spinning, doing magic, and singing/dancing. Even the big girls got stuck into the ‘wish making’! Cinderella also stuck about for some photo opps at the end (if you can purchase a giant ‘scene’ reflecting the theme of your party – generally pretty cheap on Amazon – do so as it looks pretty cute in the pics). My daughter genuinely thought it was the real Cinders and I don’t think they quite believed she was really (I’m pretty sure one of them even asked to look under her dress to see if she had legs lol).
Throwing a party like this is hard work – and my abilities are not even anywhere close to how amazingly polished some of these parties look on the internet – but I wouldn’t change the memories we’ve made for the world! At the end of this day, Moo literally dropped her costume and fell into bed. TBF that’s pretty much the sign of a good time had in anyone’s book, hey?!
SoM xxx
The Sound of Motherhood 