Princess Whitney turns 4!

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the cutest of them all?

And the most precocious, the most headstrong and the one most likely to stand her ground? That would be my daughter, Whitney, who just turned 4 this week. She first wanted to have her party at the sprinkler park near our house, so I reserved the ramada well in advance. One month later, she insisted she have her party at McDonald's. Have you seen the McDonald's play lands around here during the hot summer? They're just like overcrowded amusement parks, only 100 times smaller, so I guided her into having a party at our house. It turned out pretty fun, too, especially as I made it as simple as possible and had lots of help from my friends. We had the same menu as last year: gourmet macaroni and cheese and grapes with the addition of those yummy frozen PB & Js and watermelon and olives. I baked a sheet cake the night before and froze it overnight. Whitney frosted it the next morning, stuck on a few cute princesses we found at Target and then went to town with the pink sprinkles. When the kids arrived, we got them going with sprinklers, water guns and a fish pond and then later they headed in the back for the wading pool, sprinkler hopscotch and water balloon target practice. Two hours was just enough time to play, eat lunch, open presents and have cake and ice cream. The water soakers we found at the Dollar Tree were awesome and have kept my kids entertained for two entire days!