3 going on 13

Our "Baby G" is 3!  Crazy how times flies.
Kid's birthdays are so funny too because you really could get away with not celebrating or acknowledging it at all, and they wouldn't even know.  No, I didn't do that!  But I kept wondering if there are parents out there who do...
Ever since her brother's bday in March she has been asking when it's going to be her turn, but I did hype up the day, kept talking about it, and even helped her make a paper chain "countdown" (D's idea).  The morning of her birthday I was all extra about it, and kept reminding her throughout the day.  We did get to do a couple special things: She sang her ABCs in front of an audience at the mall and got a gift, a friend's mom made cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to her after lunch and gave her their gifts, and we went out for dinner (ChickFilA), got ice cream and opened her new VTech tablet!  Sunday was the party though, and all day Friday she kept asking "Can we go to my party now?"  LOL.  Kids.
G is a super girly-girl, even though she wrestles like a 10-year-old boy (thanks to her cousin).  She wants to wear her pink tutu about 80% of the time, loves lipgloss, nail polish, and twirling (no, I haven't let her watch RHWofATL).  So naturally, she wants a pink, Princess party.  We decided to host it this year at a Bounce House, but to upgrade their paper products to "princess" was about $40... since she's not going to care if her plate has a princess face on it or not when there's cake on it, I decided that was not worth the money and I would pour my energy into her outfit and cake.
G is quite the opinionated lil girl and can love something one day and hate it the next (i.e. clothes), so I didn't get very far with the outfit.  I bought her a tiara/sash set, which she wore for one pic but refused to wear on her bday, or at her party.  Luckily she does have this one princess dress that she's been wearing for 2 days that I'm sure will stay in rotation (or lack there of) for a little while, so I'm sure that will be the winner.
The cake: I found some inspiration photos and got a little creative.  While I was looking at cakes, G saw the Barbie-dress cakes and liked that idea.  I didn't plan on doing that, but then I found these cupcakes and thought of the little princesses she has from Target whose dresses come off and thought I could pull this off.  I tried it.. and success!

(my cupcake pic here)

My next dilemna was then did I try and make a bunch more in my time crunch and have those be the take-home gifts, or go ahead with my plan for a castle cake?  And if I did do the princess cupcakes, what would the boys take home? Since G is still young, the party list actually included more boys than girls.  In the end, I decided to use this cake as my first inspiration and combine it with the simplicity of this style.  Another one I liked a lot was this purple one, but I only really used the 3-tier idea and the same candles from this pic.

(final cake pics)

The party was an overall success and we are now bombarded with all things pink and Disney princess at our house.