So, we’ve established I like to fancy things up a bit when it comes to my kids’ birthday parties. I do it for my girls but let’s be honest, I do a lot of it for me. I enjoy the madness leading up to it (even when I’m complaining) and when all is said and done, I love the end result. It makes me happy.

And chew on this:

I carried them for 9 months.

I barfed for 9 months (and one time, all over my car’s dashboard…ALL over…and it was lettuce. And I had a retractable screen that sucked it all in when the car went off. TMI? Too bad. I’m making a point, here.)

I felt like I was dying for 9 months (well, only for 4 with my first child which totally feels like the same thing).

I didn’t drink for 9 months.

Or eat sushi.

Or steak the way it should be cooked (which is raw rare).

I pushed 2 watermelons out of a lemon and dammit, these birthday parties are JUST as much for me as they are for them. They get to have fun and I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor. {Short pause while you laugh…}

All that being said, guess what? Once upon a time, my daughter was turning 3 and requested her birthday party be at Pump it Up (an indoor inflatable funfest for kids).

Not exactly a place that caters to us moms who are crazy need new hobbies. But hey, it’s what she wanted and the idea of no clean up, no food prep, no any prep, was actually sounding good this year. I could use a break and I knew she’d have a blast.

And then it happened. She asked for her party to also have a Cinderella theme. Where the heck is my Fairy Godmother when this stuff comes up to smack me over the head with her freaking wand to make me stop. To be normal.

My Happy Princess

But alas, the chubby little fairy failed to show up to stop the madness. So, Avery got her Cinderella cake and her little custom Cinderella birthday dress (another of my abnormal obsessions). Easy enough and no sweat off my back. But what about the invitations? Gasp!

Well, check out what Jenni, from Firefly Invitations, and I came up with to merge this preposterous pairing:

I wanted to include maps (yes, this was a prehistoric age where few people had smartphones or navigation) and look how adorable they turned out.

Impressive. That’s the word I want you to think. But wait. There’s more!

While we chose to not open gifts at the party, we included these little enclosure cards in the invitations for our closer friends and family to join us back at our house.

The only stress I endured for this affair was the invitation wording. And I was so smitten with my cleverness to do this “formal” invitation, I fulfilled the craziness quota to float me right on through to the following year’s mermaid theme…

In all seriousness, I do think this was a fun way to incorporate what I love to do with my daughter’s request for an uncomplicated Cinderella Birthday Party. Fairy tales can come true…