Lydia's 8th brithday party

Lydia's 8th birthday was magical. 

I did a Nutcracker/Sugar Plum fairy theme and it all worked out perfectly for her December birthday. 

I ordered the invitations and other paperie for the party from Loralee Lewis

This gorgeous puppet set is from SaraJane Studios

This very same set was actually used in Ralph Lauren holiday window displays across the world this Christmas. It was quite the tedious project to cut out all the characters but it's just such a beautiful display and the girls loved playing with it. Each of the guests took home their own set to cut and put together. 

We started the party off by reading a gorgeously done book of the Nutcracker.

The girls ate a lovely luncheon in a snowy candy shoppe:

We were so lucky to be able to have a visit from the Sugar Plum fairy herself! 

She brought the girls ribbon dancers and showed them a few of her incredible skills:

 Then we turned on the Sugar Plum Fairy Suite from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and the girls danced and danced:

I love this picture of my neice, Zoe:

 The party was topped off with a sparkler on the cake:

Lydia was a little nervous about it, Ha!!

What a wonderful day to spoil my dear Lydia. She loves all things girly and really soaked up the opportunity to be the star for a day. 

Many thanks to my sister Gentri for her photography.

My sister Mckenna for her help with the cake.

My mom for her help hanging all those snowflakes. ;)

Do you want to build a snowman?

I finally managed to get my bum in gear and take my kids to the Ice Castles in Midway, Ut. 

I've been meaning to go there for several weeks but it seemed each time I made plans something came up, like Gracie getting the stomach flu. 

My parents tagged along and I was grateful for their help with William and herding the others. 

Lydia was certain Elsa from "Frozen" had something to do with these amazing sculptures. I didn't have the heart to tell her how a group of people spent hundreds of hours forming each icicle and building it from scratch. I prefer to think of it being magically built by a beautiful queen with a beautiful singing voice as well. 

We even brought little Cubby along. He was shaking like a leaf the entire time but I was glad to start introducing him to outings because he'll be going on a lot, especially once Scott gets home. 

Henry wanted to see if his tongue would get stuck to the ice. Luckily, for my sake, it did not. I have the relatively warm temperature that day to thank for that. 

I honestly didn't want to go anywhere yesterday but I'm glad we just forced ourselves to go. It was so nice to get outside and have some fun time exploring and playing together.