Bianca's Alice in Wonderland Party

Bianca turned 3 about 3 weeks ago.  We had an Alice in Wonderland-themed party.  It was so much fun!  Of course, my camera had crashed by this day, so the pics are not too great.  I didn't manage to get any photos while the party was going on - but don't worry it's all on video.  Probably because over 20 (TWENTY) kids came.  It was a MADHOUSE.  It was also raining cats and dogs, so all 20 kids (and some siblings, and 1 or 2 parents each) were all in my house.  Thankfully, I had rented a bounce house so some kids dispersed into the garage!

If you don't know the story of Alice, then most of this probably won't make much sense so I'll try to describe some things.  

B handed out invitations to all her friends.  The invitation also included a DVD of the movie Alice in Wonderland so everyone could start watching it a couple weeks prior to coming.  You can get DVDs here for about $2 and since I bought in bulk, I got an even sweeter deal.
The invitation:

The signs pointing in the right (or wrong!) direction:

Follow the red arrows to find the rabbit:

Again, missing the camera.  But you can see I had tons of streamers in the vestibule area, followed up with pom pons.  

This is a tea-party-hat making station.  The kids got to design and glue the hats they wanted to wear and take home.  

after:

Don't step on the Mome Raths!  These are little creatures from the movie.  I copied them and hot-glued two pencils together, gave them eyes, and crazy hair.  The kids got to pick their new pet!

Look!!!  A talking flower!!!

You can't see everything, but there are little Nutella/Jelly sandwiches cut out in the shapes of tea cups with a sign that says "Eat Me" on the top.  We had coffee and tea for the parents, juice for the kiddos.  Also "proper" (in my best English accent!) biscuits and jelly, crackers, veggies and dip, and of course.... red rose cupcakes!

The cupcakes were given to each mommy to take home to enjoy.    

And personalized "tea cups" for all the kiddies drinks.  They loved them!

I swear... if I can't get my camera fixed by Vivi's birthday, I'll be so upset!  This blurry pic is all I have to show for the dining area:

The best part of everything: the cake.  It looked AND tasted amazing!  I was so happy!  The fresh flower rose assortments were lovely.

Don't ask: NO.... I did not make the cake.  I'm a momma who likes to put my personal touches on everything at the party EXCEPT the cake.  I did design it, but someone else did the grunt work.  It looks exactly like the picture I gave the bakery to replicate.

The sun room (before) the chaos.

The naughty ever-so-beautiful Alice herself:

I drew this and made the mouth "stickable" so kids could pin the smile while being blindfolded.  

The flower garden.  Kids got to "pull" out a flower.  

The take-home "thank you" bags.  They included an Alice coloring book (CARS for the boys), a halloween candle you can "blow" out, stickers, and all the other treats they got while coming for Bianca's 3rd birthday.  

It really was a great day for Bianca.  She loved having all of her friends to her house.  She had over 20 of her friends, and only 2 of them were American.  It was so cool to have so many different nationalities under our roof at once.  Bianca loved being Alice and having a special day.  So much, in fact, that she wants to wear her Alice dress everyday.

Our Family in China Pics

I am sooooo far behind in my blogging, it's not even funny.  I need to blog about:
1. B's Birthday
2. Halloween
3. My mom's visit
4. Bianca in Ballet
5. Vivi walking
6. Bianca at the dentist & 3 year check up

And that's just this blog.  I can't even begin to list everything I need to catch up on in the China blog.  I honestly can blame most of it on the fact that my computer is not working well, my VPN working only sporadically, and my camera is not working - at all.  The later is the most depressing.  I don't know what is wrong with my dear camera, and what's worse is I don't even have a clue as to where to take it for a "camera doctor" visit.

 So, I will be blogging very soon about more things, but for now, I leave you with some pics of my family in China.  I can do this because my camera was not required!

Nana & Grampy Wrap Up

Well, things are a bit crazy around here, so most of the future posts will be short!  I just want to conclude Nana and Grampy's visit with a couple more pics....

We went to eat "Peking Roast Duck" while they were here.  The New York Times says it's one of the top ten restaurants in the world: Da Dong Duck.  You have to call ahead about 5 days to reserve a table and order a duck.

 We weren't really sure how to eat it.  Below you see Nana eating what we all thought was a piece of bread.  Turns out, it was a hollow biscuit to be filled with duck, cucumber, melon, and whatever you desire.  Oops.

They brought our duck to the table and cut it into over 100 pieces.

The ambiance was very pretty.


I think we all enjoyed it very much!


We had such a great time when they visited.  Bianca loved having Grampy there to be ready to play at 6am when she woke up and go "full speed" until she crashed at night.  Trips to the clubhouse were mandatory.

 They even got a little spa time in!  A surprise birthday treat from us.

They deserved it!

We miss you both so much.  Bianca has her "Grampy Gum" he left almost everyday.  The girls just loved everyday they got to spend with their grandparents.  Thanks again.  We feel so blessed and so special you came to visit us.  Hurry back!