We recently celebrated (gasp!) Cate's 8th birthday. How did that happen? Can somebody please tell me how my baby has already made it to 8 years old? Time has flown! In our house, we have developed a plan to alternate between giant, festive blowout parties and quieter at home parties with a select group of friends. This year was a quiet, small party at home -- although if you asked me that I night, I'm not sure those would have been the adjectives used to characterize the evening.

Nonetheless, my little girl selected a "Tangled" theme birthday party. I have to admit that while I'm not always a fan of the Disney Princesses, there was a smidgen of myself that was pleased that she still wants a Disney Princess party. I recognize that the days of Disney Princesses in our lives are becoming increasingly small - I'll take it over the Justin Beiber themed parties (and such) that may come in my not so distant future.

The party included a craft of making paper lanterns. Paper lanterns are lit and launched every year to mark the birthday of the lost princess in the movie, so it seemed like a craft in keeping with the theme. The kids then played a pretty long (and enormously fun) game of team hide-and-go seek before settling in for pizza and the movie. Afterwards, we ate these cute cupcakes (made to look like a chameleon character in the movie) and opened presents.

Did I mention that Greg was out of town on this occasion? It's a bummer that he missed it. And it's a bummer that dear old mommy got to do all of this fun alone (can you hear my sarcasm?). It was a great success, but by the end I was rejoicing in my foresight to NOT make this into a sleepover party. Mommy was pooped!

By the way -- that picture of the blue stuff in cups? Another attempt at bringing out my inner Martha Stewart for this shindig. Boats play an important role in the movie (one of the most visually stunning scenes has the princess and her beau enjoying a romantic boating moment). These are made of blue jello for the water, orange slices for the boats, and a toothpick and paper sails for the rest. Kind of cute, no?