Sofia the First – Mamma wears Prada

What, 4 already?!?! How’s that possible?

Time really flies and yes, my darling Bee turned 4 last week! We obviously threw a big theme party to celebrate it!

At the beginning it was a bit of a struggle deciding which theme choose for her birthday party as she kept changing her mind…one day was Peppa Pig, the next was Belle, then Snowhite, at some point she even mentioned Shrek (oh dear!). At the end I decided to stick to her favourite cartoon of the moment which is the Princess Sofia the First.

To get some inspiration I obviously spent incredible amounts of time on Pinterest and at then end I created a 3 tier vanilla sponge cake filled with strawberry jam, creme patissiere and ganache! The top cake was covered in fondant frills, the second layer had a geometrical decoration and white edible pearl, the bottom tier had oval fondant decorations to recreate Sofia the First skirt. It didn’t take me long to make the cake so overall I have to say this time I was almost stress free!

Browsing online, I found many Sofia the First free printables which I used to decorate the glass bottles, the sandwiches and the yoghurt pots. Regarding the yoghurt pots, I came very close to divorce my husband when I found out that, after all my efforts to have every single detail personalised “Sofia the First”, HE FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE CHILDREN’S TABLE! AAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!

I was so mad!

In fact, a part from the small dessert table, there was a lovely table set for the children and each girl had a Sofia the First balloon filled with helium attached to the little chair. Plates, cups, napkins and yoghurt pots were Sofia the First. The children’s table was sprinkled with Sofia the First confetti and attached to the throne where my daughter sat, there was a giant ballon Sofia the first size (the picture below was taken in our house and I posted it just to show you how huge the balloon was :)).

So I DON’T have a picture of that table! My husband only took few random pictures of the children’s table and they are not even worth it to post here as the light is awful booooo!!

These cupcakes were topped with silver tiaras I made out of sugar and then painted with some silver lustre dust to make them sparkle. For these cupcakes I was glad to finally have found a recipe for the perfect frosting. The result was a very light, not too sweet frosting made with soft cream cheese, icing sugar and whipped cream YUUUM!

As a party venue we chose “Tigerlilys” Cafe which is an amazing jungle theme play centre in Edinburgh which has just recently opened. The place has 2 big soft play areas where children can play with many colourful soft toys while parents can relax on the comfortable sofas in the Cafe area. The toddlers room where all Bee’s friends spent one hour playing, only opened the week before the party so it was such an amazing discover for all the children invited to the birthday!

The room where we had the food was created to look like a strawberry (ceiling is red) hence the green backdrop which wasn’t ideal to match my purple party but we made it work 🙂

Ham and cheese Sofia the first sandwiches wrapped in Sofia the First paper.

These popcorn boxes were so easy to assemble, I found the free printable online here.

Vanilla cupcakes baked in my favourite paper cases!

Vanilla butter cookies covered in fondant.

The children had so much fun playing in the big soft play area and then enjoying the food in the “Berry Sweet” room. Before leaving each girl received a goody bag full of treats, a cupcake and a balloon. The party was a success!

BUON COMPLEANNO PICCOLA MIA!

PS – Please note the photobomb in this pic…lol!

If I knew it was THAT easy I’d have done it ages ago! I read a lot about it, Super nanny uses it (so I should have really tried it before) but somehow I never thought it would have had such a quick, effective and positive impact on my daugher!

REWARD CHART!

For some reason Bee has been kind of a nightmare for the last 3 days so today I finally decided to put the finishing touches to the purple poster which was put up months ago, actually it’s been on the wall since my son was only few months old which equaled to Bee starting to misbehave.

To make a pretty reward chart we cut out many pink hearts and a picture of Sofia the First castle (Sofia is her obsession at the moment). Then we created 2 big paper flowers using napkings and we glued pictures of Sofia on them.

More glue and sellotape and the reward chart was ready to be used!

All day long she was so excited to be helpful and being nice. She kept repeating she could not wait for Sofia to reach the castle so every time I was asking her to do something she was just DOING IT!

Oh my.. I could not believe it.. then I thought, well the real test would be bedtime. For the last 3 nights we had huuuuuge dramas not only to switch off the tv after having watch another episode of Sofia obviously, but to brush her teeth, put pjs on, usual stuff that she’s always been fine doing.

So I waited…

6.30 I told her it’d be better to get ready for bed before watching a bit of tv so she rushed to the bathroom and brushed her teeth, then put pjs on and run back upstairs and she started jumping and pointing at the reward chart “Can I go up, can I go up?”

WOW

7 o’clock we watched a 20 minutes episode of Sofia the First and then when it ended, I asked her to switch the tv off and give us a kiss before going to bed.

She DID IT…She didn’t even try to ask if she could watch a bit more, or go fussy about going to bed… the only thing she asked for was to put her Sofia badge 2 further steps up (one for brushing her teeth and one for going to bed without a tantrum). She was so excited that Sofia was half way to the castle (Once Sofia reaches the castle Bee gets the big Sofia badge while usually I need to bribe her with chocolate or little treats!!).