The Twelve Singing Princesses

What is the best way to ring in the new year?

By having a princess party, of course!Sophie and Syrena spent three weeks planning and scheming about this party and today they pulled it off. Here is how it went:

First everyone arrived in their gowns and had tea. (Amazingly, there were 12 girls in all, which I think is great because my all time favorite fairytale is the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Coincidence? I think not.)They each had a chance to wear a "real" crown to introduce themselves and tell us what their favorite present was for Christmas.

After tea, the princesses gathered for the activity. Since I'm in the business of raising girls with depth, these princesses had to prove to me that they were worthy enough to receive their own crown. They had three tasks to complete. Each task was associated with a value, and after they completed each task they would be given a jewel for their crown.

The first value was HONESTY.

The princesses were told that an Evil Sorcerer had stolen my gold coins from my treasure box and scattered them upstairs. I needed someone to find all of my coins. But who could I trust? Of couse the princesses heartily volunteered. But could they find ALL 21 coins and put them back in my box without eating them? Could they be HONEST?

Well, of course they can. They did a fantastic job and found all 21 gold coins. On to the next task.

For the second task they had to prove to me that they were PROBLEM SOLVERS. They were each given a small bag, and in each bag there was one puzzle piece. Their task was to assemble the puzzle together. But they could only use their own puzzle piece, and they couldn't trade or take anyone else's puzzle piece. The catch: they were not allowed to speak.

I should have made them assemble a smaller puzzle because they finished it so fast I didn't have any time to snap a photo. Those smarties. From this task I learned that they were not only PROBLEM SOLVERS, but that they could use TEAMWORK, and that they were CLEVER. All very important things to know if you are going to run a kingdom, of course.

The third and final task. This one was the most terrifying. If they could accomplish this task it would prove to me that they were BRAVE.

The above mentioned Evil Sorceror had secretly kidnapped 12 of my girls' stuffed animals and taken them to a high, dark, damp, spooky place [several girls started visibly trembling at this point]. This place was the.....

......Treehouse!

The stuffed animals were all tied up in the treehouse and the princesses had to rescue them.

The girls went up in groups of three and each brought back one rescued animal.

See the happy animals? Thank you, princesses!

For each completed task the princesses received jewels for their crown. They kept the jewels in their little bags:

Now they proved to me they were worthy to wear their crowns.

We passed out the crowns and the glue,

and everyone went to work.

In the middle of the craft someone started singing, "On the First Day of Christmas..." and they all joined in and sang the whole song. This only happens at princess parties, folks.

We had lots of sparkles,

lots of dimples,

and tons of fun.

Here they are with their finished crowns.

Afterwards they watched the movie Mulan.

(Now she's got some depth.)

Thanks, parents for letting me have so much fun with your lovely girls.

They are beautiful on the inside as well as on the out.

They were kind and gracious and sweet to each other the entire time.

What wonderful girls who will some day be wonderful women.