Planning a party for my little princess without over taxing the commoners...

It's that time of year again.   Being a true procrastinator, I am doing everything "just in time".  My lovely little Princess (yes, she is sometimes a royal pain) is turning five.  She is having a princess party at a local pool.  (There are not available private pools on our tropical island, alas!)    

I spent a large portion of the last two days sewing velvet drawstring goodie bags from fabric I have been "holding onto" in that borderline OCD way -even though it was slightly discolored in sections and had a stain.  I realized that if I cut it into rectangles the discoloration was no longer detectable.  I just threw out the small section that was stained.  At this very moment I am dying old fitted sheets (the one that the girls got a bit of nail polish on right before cat tore a small hole in it, and another that fit our old queen sized bed, yet I never threw out) to trim and sew into pretty pink table cloths.  Of course, this reaffirms the sometimes unhealthy attitude I have fostered of keeping things because they just may come in handy.  Someday.   (You never know.)   In this case, these items are, indeed, exactly what I needed.  In fact, even the dye was something I bought ages ago thinking that I needed it, but not sure why, and here it is, exactly what I needed to make the pink cloth table cloths I could not find anywhere.  Of course, I am terribly proud of myself... Let's hope everything else falls into place without as much ingenuity, and with less effort than those two things...  

I considered making her tiered "princess cake" [actually, that's what she calls wedding cakes, which, once she saw one on television, became a minor preoccupation of hers that she must have one, "for my birthday"] but once I looked into buying all the necessary supplies I decided that it would be more economical (partly in terms of time and effort) to shell out the big bucks for a store bought cake, and thus save myself some sanity for the event itself.  It will be fairly simple, compared with the cake that inspired it, but with a four dollar disney topper, and a few minor embellishments, I think my princess will be pleased with it.

The princess theme is pretty much limited to the decorations, as we will be at the pool.  I am going to bring sidewalk chalk and bubble accessories to keep the kids who opt not to spend all their time in the pool something to do besides pig out.  Our birthday girl also wants an ice cream station, where kids can add their own sprinkles and sauce to their ice cream.  We'll see.  Wish us luck.