Just This Good: Sofia Turned Four

Sofia LOVES birthday parties. Especially her own. So when her birthday was steadily creeping up and the party planning was not keeping pace, I started to feel guilty. I try to not get absorbed by mommy guilt. It does show up every once in a while and I remind myself being a mom ain't easy and as long as you are doing your best, there's nothing to feel guilty about. But I had a total case of mommy guilt over Sofia's birthday party this year. I just didn't have the time. Plus this is the first time I'll have to plan TWO birthday parties in the same month. It's going to take me a while to get used to that.

I apologized to Sofia over and over again. Every time she would ask about her party, I'd answer her questions and follow them with, "and you know it's not going to be a big party, right?" Her answer was always, "That's okay, Mommy. I don't mind." Melt my heart! Such a sweet girl. And she didn't mind. She had a ton of fun with the very small guest list we had.

Sofia was excited about her party theme: Tinkerbell. She had very minimal coaxing on that. This was the first year she was somewhat involved in the planning. She helped me pick out the favors and assisted with some party crafting. I think her favorite was trying on the wings and ribbon wands and taking them on a test run.

I originally wanted to get a bunch of cheap fairy wings and use them for favors and as decorations, but the only place I could find them was at Dollartree.com and I had to purchase a case of 36. Although I wouldn't have minded having 36 fairy wings to work with, I didn't really want to spend 36 dollars on them. Especially not the dollar store variety. We luckily found some fairy wings on the clearance rack at Walmart that we were able to make a little fancier by adding flowers and ribbon.

Then, thanks to Pinterest, I decided to make ribbon wands for the girls to play with. Who doesn't love ribbon wands?! I had the ribbon, I easily found the dowels, I bought the fishing swivels on Amazon. Except I didn't exactly pay attention to the size of the fishing swivels when I purchased them, so when I got the package - oh - two days before the party, I was a little surprised to see they were soooooooooo tiny. My original plan of sewing the ribbon onto the swivel and attaching the swivel to the dowel was laughable. I had to improvise. So although they turned out nice, I don't think the ribbon wands will be very durable. Whoops.

Each year for Sofia's birthday I've embellished a shirt with her age on it. It always coordinates with her party outfit and although she always enjoys wearing her shirt for the party she never wants to wear it again afterwards. This year I had skipped it. I kept saying I was going to make one, but I ran out of time. She probably wouldn't even notice. I made a green tutu assuming she'd want to wear that for a Tinkerbell party and skipped the shirt. Morning of the party, I run some errands while everyone was still sleeping. As soon as I walk through the door, Sofia comes running out of her room in her number 3 shirt. "Mommy! Where is my 4 shirt?" Oops.

Long story short, I grabbed a shirt from her closet, a scrap of fabric from mine, and whipped up a 4 shirt. Adam said I MacGruber'd that shirt together like a pro. "You. Grab me some purple thread. You. Print out a number four to use as a template. I'll cut out this interfacing." "But there's only 2 hours till the party, MacGruber!" Guess I can't skip on that detail ever again. And did she want to wear the tutu? Of course not!

It was humbling to see Sofia enjoy herself at her tiny party. There were only four other kids in attendance. Two had to leave early for a prior engagement. And one was a boy.... at a Tinkerbell party. (Sorry, Evan!) She couldn't have cared less that it wasn't a fancy pants party with a smorgasbord of food and a ton of presents and lots of people and some major swag (although I think the fairy wings were some major swag personally). She enjoyed herself in the presence of her great friends and loving parents. Everything a birthday party should be.