A Frozen Themed Birthday Party

I'm going to apologize in advance for how many images are going to be in this post.  

But. 

1. My niece turned four. 
2. It was a 'Frozen' Themed party and my sister worked super-hard to get all the details right (and they were SO cute.)
3. We had our very own Elsa. (Thanks to my niece Amber who is a professional party princess and cos-player and who will be working at Disneyland as of August 2015 *sqeeeee*)
4. I served up gluten-free, dairy-free and grain-free food. 
5. It was my first event where Mr. Charming let me take the full reigns on being the photographer.

Yep, I photographed my first event with a big girl camera! Haha. My sister hosted this years party at her place and kept it small. My niece usually has a huge blow-out, invite all 60 members of family and friends and play in the park until the kids are exhausted kind of party, but little P wanted something small for her party this year and just simply requested it be Frozen themed. 

And so Frozen-themed is what she got. 

My sister worked so hard to get so many details in and the place looked amazing. Braided streamers, life size posters of Ana and Elsa to pose with and Frozen Ice Blue punch were among some of the best little additions. We even played Pin The Carrot Nose on Olaf and the four year old beat us all.  Ok, so, she may have peeked, but it was her birthday, she is four, and was totally allowed to be a Princess for the day, so who are we, her subjects, to say anything to her? ;) 

Words cannot describe how much I adore this child's personality and spirit. She has so much love and vibrancy packed into her tiny little self that it amazes me to just watch her talk and play and imagine. We played Barbies, since that was her primary gift request this year, and it was like being transported back to the 90's when my sister and I would play. She is a spitting image of my sister at that age and sometimes it's a little trippy to think she's my sisters little mini me.  And just how very fast time flies. Sometimes I just want to grasp these little pockets of time, these fleeting little memories and moments and hold on to them a little longer than they really last. 

For lunch I had cooked up some homemade BBQ pulled pork in my crock pot using my favorite BBQ sauce in the whole wide world, and covered toasty gluten-free and grain-free Mikey Muffins in the mixture and they were stuff-your-face AMAZING.  I served them with grapes, apple slices and fresh slices of avocado. All kid-friendly little finger foods, making for a perfect party menu. My sister rocked it out with the fruit platter appetizer and gluten-free chips and salsa. 

When Elsa arrived little P was a little shy at first, but once they started playing with accessories and the new Barbie's, Elsa became her best friend. My niece performed 4 songs for us all, (I think we all may have enjoyed that more than P, she can sing her face off), and was so wonderful with her, playing and helping her open all of her new toys and posing for photos.

It took P a while to open up to let Elsa get too close, but once they bonded there was no letting go and some of the photos I was able to capture, captured my heart as well. Below is my favorite shot from the whole day. Princess P crowning Queen Elsa.

Heart. Melting. Overload. Happy Birthday little one. Love you more than words.