Camped Out On Mt. Never-Rest: Did I set my own bar too high??

The little cutie above turned 6 last month. Unlike every other child in our family, Dani's birthday is completely isolated from everyone else's. ALL of our other children have at least one sibling whose birthday falls within two weeks of their own, but Danica is out there all by her little lonesome in October. Her birthday usually falls right in the middle of crazy-season for us--right as we are getting prepared for the holidays, and finally back in full swing for school. For the two years prior to this, it was in the middle of MAJOR family events; Derrick and Kelsey were married in late October of 2010, Jon and Meagan were married in August of 2011 ... plus for the last two years, her dad has been away on business for her birthday. The poor kid has middle-child, left-out issues. I was determined this year to remedy that by somehow pulling off a NICE birthday party for her. Granted, the last *real* birthday party (one that was actually a party for KIDS, not adults) I did was for Kelsey's 10th birthday. Umm ... it's been a few years. So nevermind I was seriously out of practice, but we also had a family friend visiting for the weekend! It was crazy, but I wasn't going to cop out. Dani wanted a Rapunzel party, and I was gonna DO it.

Pinterest to the rescue! I found all sorts of ideas for cakes, decorations, party games and favors. YAY! Problem was ... every single cake I found was either a huge carved, elaborate monstrosity of pastry and frosting (which I was seriously NOT going to do), or involved a tower constructed of stacked cupcakes. Also not going to happen. Bad things happen when I attempt anything cupcake-y. I decided I was going to have the base only, a mound of green frosting "grass", be cake. I'd be all artsy-craftsy and construct my own tower using a Pringles can. Sure! It'll work! But what did I do? I waited until the night before the party to even try figuring it out!!! What was I, NUTS?

I'll answer that one for you. YES, I was nuts. That tower, which, OF COURSE, had to at least come close to looking like the tower in the movie Tangled, was a bear. Weird angles, strange coloring, and some kooky ivy-looking thing climbing up it?? It didn't take me long to question my own judgment. I will admit, though, that it turned out really, really well! I didn't think it would when it was at this stage, though ...

Yes, that's a Pringles can. The weird angle from the tower up to the ... uh, ... "house" (??) portion was an upturned plastic cup. Same cups I had used to make the jello "boats", which you'll see in a minute. There's another plastic cup on top, forming the base above the house (a frosting can, by the way) for the cone-shaped cereal-box-cardboard roof to hold onto. I used hot glue to hold everything together; I wasn't crazy enough to think I was going to sit around waiting for anything to dry, and I *knew* I was going to need some seriously strong glue! A little scrapbook paper, some paint, Sharpie-outlined "timbering", and green frosting ivy/grass later, plus a tiny little Rapunzel doll, some candy flowers and pink pearls, and here's what I ended up with:

Not too bad, if I do say so myself!

It's not super-fancy, and it certainly won't win any design contests, but it made a certain 6-year-old and her sisters giggle and squeal when they laid eyes on it! That's all I cared about. :)

Here's the spread we had set out in the dining room. The dip for the pretzels and veggies, plus the veggies themselves, were served in cast iron skillets. Oh, and yes, that cake "plate" was actually a cast iron griddle pan. The punch (which was a 64-oz. bottle of red grape juice combined with a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale ... YUMMY!!) was served in one of my stock pots! My older girls thought that was a hilarious touch. And of course, we had Dani's stuffed chameleon representing Pascal on the table guarding the food. :)

This was one of the ideas I found on Pinterest that I absolutely had to re-create. Blue jell-o "water, with orange wedge "boats" and a little paper sail. The kiddos loved it!

Of course, since it was a Rapunzel party, we had to have a braid somewhere! What I decided was to have part of the guests' party favors be a headband with a braid attached (hot glue again), and prizes for the games would be little hair clips to attach to their braids. Dani's headband had a purple tiara hot-glued on as well. Hey, the birthday girl has to be something special! Kudos for this project go to my master braiders, Morgan and Jamie. This would never have gotten done if I had been the one to braid all that yarn.

Yep, we had to play "pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider". Had to. Wasn't even an option!

This game, inspired by apple-loving horse Maxwell from the movie Tangled, was without a doubt one of the most hilarious games I have seen in a long time. The apples were tied to different lengths of yarn hanging from our clothesline. The object was to get a bite taken out of the apple without using your hands!!!

It proved to be VERY difficult for the girls to bite, they were laughing too hard!!

Believe it or not, the one REQUIREMENT Danica had for her party was to have a pinata. Sorry, I was just too lazy to make one. Target had a good price ($15), so that's what we did. Thankfully at the end of October there is plenty of candy in bulk bags available in stores!