How cool would it be to have a poster printed of her & her friends, maybe even a collage, to add to her collection? At Digital Room, you can upload your favorite photos to create poster prints. If I can find an awesome photo or come up with a good design, this will be her “something you need” gift under the tree. With the free one I’m receiving for sharing this review, it’s yet another way to lower our Christmas budget. If you could use a poster-sized holiday gift, maybe I can lower your holiday budget a bit too!

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Happy Wordless Wednesday!

The Food

We had rice crispy treats (my first gluten free attempt—yum!), marshmallow roasting and a chocolate fountain (for dipping the marshmallows, among other things). We also had bowls of pretty, fruit-flavored marshmallows. That becomes important later.

The Cake

I was clueless about how to do a cake, all the way up until last week. At first, I thought about just frosting a giant rice crispy treat. It certainly would have been cheaper than a gluten free cake, but I just couldn’t let go of the cake idea. I toyed with the idea of putting a roasting marshmallow on a sheet cake. I considered ways to make the cake look like a marshmallow—white frosting isn’t that hard! In the end, I went with an idea given to me by a pastry-chef friend. I frosted a 2-layer round and added marshmallows to look like a polka-dot cake. Well, I hope that’s what it looked like anyway. Polka dots or alien space ship? You decide!

The Gifts

Now that we use the present poem, buying gifts for holiday and birthday is pretty easy. Fitting our “traditional” bike for a 4-year-old into something you need was a bit of a stretch, I’ll admit. She did open the helmet, though, and that’s a definite necessity! She opened most of her gifts on her actual birthday, but I purchased wrapping paper to match her theme anyway. I found pastel polka dot paper (say that 3 times fast!) in the baby shower section. The colors almost exactly matched the fruity marshmallows!

The Decorations

How do you decorate with marshmallows? Again, I sprung off the idea of marshmallow polka dots. We picked paper goods and balloons in matching colors, but that was about it. If I’d had an unlimited budget, I could have covered much of the house with gossamer or fluffy cotton. I decided pink tablecloths were good enough. Besides, we had a chocolate fountain! What more did I really need?

The Marshmallow Princess

No birthday party is complete in our household without a costume. The tradition began in the age of princess parties—Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Jasmine have all celebrated their birthdays in our home. We have reused Halloween outfits, bridal gowns and recital costumes. This year was no exception. Lorelai’s Halloween butterfly costume became a Marshmallow Princess outfit by simply removing the wings and adding a crown—decked out with marshmallows, of course.

The next morning, Lorelai told me “Lasterday was my best party ever!” The princess has spoken. Best. Party. Ever.

I think Stacia was our earliest (and best) talker, but I always chalked that up to spending 5 years of her life almost exclusively around grownups. Of course, maybe that’s the crux of it all—children who hear only adults speaking, who are talked to frequently and who get more attention may grow up with an advantage.

I don’t know, but it probably won’t stop me from letting my siblings know that I’m the smartest. It was in the New York Times! Check out the article through Juicebox widget on my sidebar, and let me know what you think!

How did that happen?

Planning birthday parties is kind of my thing. I’ll just have to get a bit more creative this time around.

I was taken back to the night several years ago when my oldest declared that she was not a baby and did not need to be tucked in. She marched up to bed all on her own. I curled up on my own bed with tears welling in my eyes. My little baby didn’t need me anymore. Gone were the days of cuddles and kisses, Goodnight Moon and the insistence that it wasn’t bedtime until Mommy pulled the covers over her body.

The tears were ready to flow when I heard a tiny voice call out, “Mommy? Can you come tuck me in?” We both went to bed a little more peaceful that night, me knowing my little girl still needed me (just a little bit) and her knowing I would always be there when she did. For her, that will always be true, but isn’t the point of parenting to raise your children so they won’t need you anymore? One day, all three of my girls will grow up and away – needing me less and less as the years go on. My heart will hurt, but it will mean I was successful.

I don’t think it will happen all at once. Slowly they’ll just need me less and less. One by one, they’ll begin to lean on one another or friends. Or a spouse. Until suddenly I’m not the one they think of first when they struggle, and they have to pencil in “call mom” on the calendar. They’ll probably still think of me when they want to cook their childhood favorites and I’m the one with the recipe in her head. I hope I’m first on the list when they want a night away from their own children.

Most of all, though, I hope they always know that even when they no longer need me daily, I’ll always be here when they do.