What Might Have Been: Fancy Nancy Birthday Party

My beautiful niece is celebrating her fourth birthday this month.  And, technically, she’s celebrating a birthday for the first time.  My brother and sister-in-law adopted her from Ethiopia where she was orphaned without any identifying information.  When the government drafted her birth certificate with her new parents it simply chose a date of birth at random.

I know ya’ll cringe when I say that I want to make her birthday extra special.  I know, I know.  I do too. It’s not fair to the other nieces and nephews that I love oh-so much.  But it is her first birthday ever.  It will probably be the first day anyone has celebrated her existence.  (Except for the day when she arrived in Salt Lake City.  But the poor girl had big-time jet lag and was obviously thinking: “Why are all these strangers standing at the bottom of an escalator waving at me?”)

Having never thrown a big, fancy, girlie-girl party, you could color me happy when the first mention was a Fancy Nancy theme.  Have you heard of this Fancy Nancy? Neither had I.  Fancy Nancy is a character in childrens’ books that likes everything fancy, i.e., her favorite color is fuchsia because it’s a fancy way to say purple.  She enjoys parfaits because it’s a fancy way to say ice cream.  You get the idea.

I envisioned tea parties, top hats, fuchsia flowers, and dainty tea cups.  An ice cream buffet perhaps? Yes, please!  I created this decor board:

Images here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

My apologies for misplacing the location of the napkins and cupcakes.

While I was still doing the happy dance the birthday girl changed her mind.  Said niece has developed an infatuation with Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Specifically, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.  My first instinct? This must be a joke.  Surely there isn’t a word spelled the “Squeakquel.”

I started to think about bribing her to churn my creative juices. It is after all her first and fourth birthday and if she wants Alvin we’ll give her the biggest Alvin birthday party ever! I’ve made progress with the Chipmunk-themed plans – which I’ll disclose soon enough.  But, be forewarned, Alvin doesn’t really spark much of my fire.

Wish me luck.

Oy vey.

Update: The Alvin and the Chipmunks party was a big success!  See it in all its glory here.

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