Fancy Elena's Birthday Party

The theme was Fancy Nancy. Nancy has curly hair, so Elena sat still for me the night before while we put her hair into 10 braids so that it would be extra fancy in the morning. I didn't get any close ups of her on Saturday, but it did look really cute.
Elena was allowed to invite 5 friends over for her party. She invited: Laurel, Lynnea, Sobe (isn't that the cutest nickname for Isobel?), Chloe, and Sydney. Aunt Bethany was formally invited as a guest too, so she crafted and ate lunch right along with the girls.
Once everyone was here, we began with a craft. They decorated their cups with sequins and then made door signs for their bedrooms with their names and foam shapes. Then we had a snack of these ladybug cookies which were so fun to assemble. They are Nilla Wafers with red frosting, mini chocolate chips, and Junior Mints. I added a little extra edible glitter from the cake (further below) just for fun.
Next it was manicure time and the girls voted for rainbow nails (10 colors - one on each nail). It actually worked out really well. Bethany did the right hand and I did the left and they just all sat around talking about each color as we bounced from girl to girl painting one color at a time. Then we had them pose for pictures. Elena and Sydney both had dogs named Frenchy with them, just like Fancy Nancy. Next we ate our "fancy" lunch of heart shaped sandwiches and different kinds of fruit. My mom hung white Christmas lights and check out the flowers that my dad bought her for the party. :) This picture is apparently of snack time, but you get the idea.
The sandwiches were originally put together, but apparently Elena wanted hers pulled apart.
Here's the cake. Don't look too closely. The picture on top was printed out by a local cake decorating shop. They'll print out anything that you bring to them for $13. I was so glad because I did not now how I was going to manage to make a Fancy Nancy cake otherwise. I frosted it and then put the picture on top. The swirls are so sloppy, but I'm learning. My mom bought edible glitter to put on top, so that really made it look cool as far as 5 year olds are concerned.
I didn't get a picture of the pinata (it was a pink cupcake) and that was the last thing that we did. Elena was so sad that the party was over she started to cry when it was time to walk people out and say goodbye. She wants us to plan play dates with all her friends soon. They're all such sweet girls!

Dan and Kevin had a father-son outing during the party. And he couldn't resist buying Kevin a new toy. Even though Christmas was less than a month ago. But I digress. Kevin loves his new race track, he shares it with his sister well, and Dan had fun putting it together and playing with them. I got some pretty cute of videos of Kevin saying stuff like, "Gentlemen and ladies, start your engines!"