Just thankful that she got another chance to wear the dress

It's well above freezing here, and our backyard Shangri-La has been reduced to a slushy mess. So there was no sledding for us this past weekend. No matter though... a few weeks ago, Mallory was invited to her friend Meghan's princess-themed 3rd birthday party, which was held on Saturday afternoon. Telling her that she was invited was one thing, but showing her the invitation was quite another. She adored this invitation. She carried it around the house for weeks, even taking it to bed with her.She told me she was going to show Meghan the invitation, perhaps not quite understanding that Meghan was the one who sent the invitations out in the first place. No matter - Meghan was thrilled to receive it. "Look at the princess card Mallory gave me!" she said. I guess it was over both of their heads!The girls were invited to wear their favourite princess dresses to the party. When I made this dress for Mal, I envisioned it being a stunning Halloween costume and then something that would hit the dress-up box afterwards. To be honest, Mallory hasn't worn it once since Halloween, and that's probably due to the fact that since I washed it on November 1st it's been hanging on the rod in the laundry room. Yes, for that long!! It's back there now (since it definitely needed a wash after the party) but this is my public promise to get it into the dress-up box TODAY. I did not put all that time into it for it to sit unused.

Having said that... at least it was still in relatively good shape for the party (a few Halloween night-induced snags in the fabric notwithstanding).The girls kept busy by making magic wands and crowns, and decorating cookies, and eating tea sandwiches and cupcakes. And I hope Meghan doesn't mind doing essentially the exact same thing in 3 months' time when it's Mallory's birthday, because she has already requested a princess party, too! Only she wants a castle-shaped cake instead of cupcakes. (Aside to Megan: can I borrow your pan??)At this party we finally met "the other Mallory". There is another girl Mallory's age who goes to daycare with Meghan, and her name is Malarie. We're both miffed that someone else used our name. Would you believe that her dad's name is Chad, too? She may even wind up at our public school the same year Mal starts. I wouldn't have been surprised if there were multiple Liams in his class (though there aren't), but I never imagined that Mallory would have to go through school being known as Mallory C. No matter. A cupcake makes everything all better. Mallory was so excited to go home and show Liam her loot bag from the party, but she passed out shortly after we got in the car, and her show-and-tell session had to wait until after her nap.